Neutrik Patchbay .. Neutral?

[promesis]

Currently I run from the Direct Outs straight into the Inputs of a HD24. Now that I have gotten some Mic Pres .. I want to go direct from them into the recorder. If I add a Neutrik Patchbay and patch all 24 Recorder Inputs into the rear of the Patchbay and all Direct Outs from the Board into the rear (Half Normaled I believe ..) so that all the DOuts still Load into each track unless I plug a cable into the front of the Patchbay ("Normaling" the connection - cutting the signal between the Board and the Recorder) to route the Mic Pres directly into the recorder... will I just be adding too much signal path? Is the Neutrik "neutral" enough? Or should I patch the pre directly into the recorder? The patchbay (though a little expensive with all the added cabling) would certainly make the connections easier... since I'll be "repurposing" the Mic Pres on overdubs etc. .. but I don't want to negate the benefits of bypassing the board by adding more "poop" into the signal chain. So here are my questions?

Is this Patchbay scheme recommended?

If so, then should all of my patch cables from the Neutrik be TRS Balanced into the HD24 even though some Mic Pres and the Board's DOuts are TS Unbalanced.. or all cables should be TS .. or no matter??

-as usual .. thanks for your patience!

 

[SonicAlbert]

A patchbay should be the same as a longer piece of wire, like it's simply an extension of the wire. So no, it should not color the sound in any way or add tonal changes.

As far as TS to TRS, I'm probably not the right person to ask about that. The reason being I try to make all my cables so that the ends are properly terminated. So gear with TS connectors on one end and TRS connectors on the other will get cables that match that.

Some gear can accept either TS or TRS, so you should check and see if the HD24 can do that. If so, then you could indeed just wire everything unbalanced.