HOME STUDIO SET-UP/PATCHBAY ADVICE REQUEST (I really NEED to get going here - HELP!!)

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gentlejohn

gentlejohn

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Balanced? Un-balanced? 1/4"? XLR? 8 inputs? 48 inputs? I'm talking PATCHBAYS!!! Help me out folks. As you know I'm (still!) planning my home studio and I'm thinking things might be easier in the long run if I got hold of a patchbay but what sort?? Having never used one I'm unclear as to how to make one work to my best advantage.

My main studio brain as it were is a TASCAM 388 (8 channels each with XLR & 1/4" inputs).

And here's the external gear I've managed to scrape together which I plan to hook up to it:

- Two-track reel-to-reel mixdown machine. (Well, I don't actually have one of these yet - please see my other recent post.)
- Two-channel (mono/stereo) RNC compressor
- WEM Copicat
- Alesis Quadraverb
- Alesis MidiVerb III
- Alesis M EQ230 EQ unit

I'll be working in isolation just building tracks up one at a time via 'the magic of multi-tracking' (did I really just write that?!!). I currently have three mics at my disposal (but sadly I will need to give one back so it's down to one almighty vocal session toss-up/shoot-out between a passive ShinyBox 46 ribbon & a RODE NTK Tube mic as to which one gets the thumbs up as my one and only vocal mic). The other mic I have (which I plan on keeping hold of) is my battered ol' AKG 451e from years back which I use for recording my acoustic guitar and double bass. That's all the mic-based XLR input stuff that I can think of covered.

As for 1/4" input stuff I'll be using a couple of electric guitars (namely my tempermental old Jag and my trusty Tele!) plus a Ricky bass & a MicroKorg keyboard. As for rhythm, along with mic'd percussion (ie: bongos; maraccas; handclaps; etc.) , I'll be aimlessly banging away (pots'n'pans stylee!) on a Roland TD6 e-kit (either as mono input or bounced down to stereo tracks - it just depends on the song really).

ANY advice as to the best way to hook this little lot up utilising the 8 channels available to me (although I'll no doubt be bounce sub-mixing - again, it all depends on the given song) would be MUCH appreciated as I've hit a bit of a wall. I THINK I need a patchbay but I don't know what sort and I don't know how to utilise one or how to make the most of one hooked up with the gear available to me (hence my detailed post here!) Any of you clued-up technical folks wish to chip in to help advise this old dog exactly how would be the best way(s)to pull all this disparate music gear together to form a working home studio? To be honest I'm 'a tryer' but I'm still pretty hopeless when it comes to the whole technical/setting up side of things. Once I (somehow!) get passed this bit and finally get back to making music I'll be plain sailing (that's the plan anyway!) Any takers? Free downloads of my future songs to the folks with the best workaround solutions here He! He! (Well you gotta give something back!) PS: I LOVE this forum - you folks RAWKKKKK!!!!!
 
Unless I'm much mistaken you can just consider a balanced 1/4" patchbay to be a stereo TRS patchbay. I would definitely avoid a mono 1/4" patchbay if there is such a thing.
Mine is a Neutrik patchbay that has 48 sockets and can be reconfigured to do various things. I'm only actually using it in a basic 8-in-8-out configuration at the moment.

It's an NYS-SPP-L and they seem to be about £50.
 
Yeah....balanced is going to be a TRS kind of plug (1/4" or TT/Bantam)....but I wouldn't really refer to it as "stereo"....since it's technically still mono connections, just balanced VS unbalanced.

For a balanced TRS bay to have a stereo connection, you would use up two TRS points of the bay, one for the balanced Left signal and the other for the balanced Right signal.

To the OP:
There is no single "best way" to hook up patchbay. It's all about the gear and how you wish to lay it out in the patchbay....but at it's simplest, it's only a bunch of Inputs and Outputs of all your connected gear. Generally, the outputs go on the top row and the inputs on the bottom row.
Now, if you want to take it a step further, you can add normalled and half-normalled options to the setup. Some patchbays give you a third middle row for this, which you usually find on the pro TT/Bantam patchbays, but many of the popular home rec 1/4" bay have switches or ways of easily configuring and reconfiguring that, so once you set up your basic Inputs and Outputs, you just flip switches or make some easy change that adds or removes the normalling.

Normalling is just another "split" off the main I/O....that way you can have some gear permanently connected to other gear (like say, the outputs of your multi-track tape deck to your mixer's inputs)....but when needed, you can "break" that normal signal route and send it elsewhere, or in a half-normalled setup, you get a basic "Y" split, so you still stay connected from the tape deck to the mixer, but you can take one channel and also send it to something else.

There are all kinds of ways to set up a patchbay, and it's mostly about what you prefer and your way of working.
Once you set one up and work with it awhile, you may find that you need to change some of it around, but eventually you will find the right setup for YOUR needs.

There is plenty of info on the net already about the more technical side of patchbays (though it's nothing all that technical)...so do some Googling and you'll see all the different options.

From the list of gear you mentioned, I think you can cover everything with a single 48-point bay....that's basically 24 Outputs and 24 Inputs.
 
gentlejohn said:
(I really NEED to get going here - HELP!!)
Click to expand...

I would not even worry about a patchbay at this point. If you don't know what type you need and how to use it, having one is not the most pressing issue. If I were you I would get better acquainted with the 388 first. It was designed to be an all-in-one and minimize patching outside the unit. Not that a patchbay may not come in handy sooner or later, but I would not call this a priority.

Anyway, there is a school of thought that one should avoid patchbays if possible. It just brings more cable and connecters into the mix. That translates to degraded signal, especially at -10 dB nominal line levels.

Keep your 388 far enough away from a wall for a while and work behind it for now. Even though you have more effects devices than effects sends and returns you'll likely find you don't repatch all that much once you have things where you want them.

What you need more than a patchbay at this point is a line mixer (submixer) for all your stereo effects returns. The Tascam M1-B is a great choice.
 
Again, thanks for all your informed comments. That's some great advice! Thanks a lot folks.
 
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