Insert send/recieve with patchbays - see diagram

[mncheetah]

Which of the following(if either) is the correct method of hooking up channel insert sends/recieves through a patchbay(s)?


In diagram 1, there is more cabling. Is this the way it has to be done?
In diagram 2, how would the normalling to the bottom jack on back work? What should it be connected to?

Should these be connected to the same patchbay or 2 different ones as in the pic?

I am probably way off here, if so, please explain the correct wayto hook this up.

Thanks in advance.

 

[regebro]

In diagram 1, there is more cabling. Is this the way it has to be done?

Yup. Can't see any other way with standard patchbays.

In diagram 2, how would the normalling to the bottom jack on back work?

Not at all.

Unless you get special a special patchbay that connected the two lines of the balances/stereo cable when not used. If you then put in something else than a insert jack there, this would short-curcuit it, with a great risk of burning something up.

And, besides, in your diagram two, you can't connect that compressor to anything but insert-jacks. Doesn't seem very flexible to me.

 

[flatcat]

Mine is rigged up like illustration 1, for two reasons:

1. I have the flexibility to send the insert to whatever I want in whatever order I want.

2. I can use the compressor for other things besides the insert - say, for example, you want to hear what basic compression on a mix might be - you're free to route the main inserts to the compressor channel from the front of the patchbay. Or if while you're tracking you are using an external preamp, you can use the L compressor channel.

More cable = more flexibility. Also = more expensive.

Worth it, though, IMO.

 

[mncheetah]

So diagram 1 is 100% correct? 2 patchbays, set up in this exact manner, with the Y cable and all. Is this how most people do this?

 

[regebro]

You don't have to use two patchbays. Otehrwise it' s completely corrcet, yes.

 

[jake-owa]

Right, you only need to have the compressor and inserts on different jacks in the same bay. Two Pbays are not needed. Diagram one is the only way to do it.

 

[Velvet Elvis]

Hang on a second.... using a non-normalled TRS patch bay, that should indeed work (figure one)...

It would simply be extending the insert point of the board to the patch bay... likewise it would extending the in/out of the compressor to the patch bay.

If you wanted, you could even normal the connections if certain channels always used compressors (drum channels etc)... though I would NOT recommend doing this.

If you wanted to use the compressor in line with something else in the patchbay, you'd just have to use an insert cable instead of a standard patch cable at the bay.

Flexibility is still there... it just depends on what your 'standard' mode of operation will be and whether you'd rather spend money and take up space with patch bays etc.

You'd just have to make sure that your careful in what you connect in and out of the jacks (as indicated in above posts)... because if you connected the wrong type (maybe a TS connection) into the TRS in/out of the channel, you could short something... causing at best a headache and at worst equipment damage.


Velvet Elvis

 

[regebro]

Hang on a second.... using a non-normalled TRS patch bay, that should indeed work (figure one)...

Yes. Figure 1 works. Figure 2 doesn't.

If you ment to say that figure 2 works, which I think you ment, you are wrong, it doesn't, because no sound would appear when nothing was plugged in, since the insert is plugged in in the mixer, but not connected to anything.

I explained it all in my post above.

1 works. 2 doesn't.

 

[Velvet Elvis]

Yeah...

I didn't think about the fact that the board's inserts would not produce sound without something at the patch bay... I was just thinking from a wiring point of view... my bad... you are correct

So... to correctly wire... you need to have the insert send and the insert return from the board normal at the patch bay... you could STILL use a single patch bay point for the compressor itself, but you'd have to use an insert cable everytime you patch (in reverse) and that would suck.

Velvet Elvis

 

[Jblount]

I thought that was what a patchbay was for, flexibility, and that you dont have to show your plumbers crack to clients while climbing behind mixers and the adat machine! It may require more cabling, but illistration1 is the most logical.