patch bay and preamps

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jordya

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I am having problems sending my audio signal through my patchbay and then into my preamp. My setup is as follows:

I have a stage snake in the live room that runs into the control room. The cables on the end of the snake are connected to an XLR-TRS cable, which is plugged into the back of my NADY 1/4 patchbay. The normalled signal is routed out of the patchbay to the mixer, again using TRS-XLR cables.

In a second patchbay, I have my PreSonus Blue Tube outputs routed to that patchbay, not the inputs because the inputs are on the front of the Blue Tube preamp.

The problem I'm running into is when I route the signal through the patchbay to the preamp, then back into the patchbay to the mixer. The signal is lost at some point. The process on the patchbay is like so: a patch cable from the studio outputs to the input on the preamp, then a patch cable from the preamp output (on the patchbay) to the mixer input patch channel.

When I do this, the signal is lost. Currently, I have to patch directly from the snake xlr to the input on the preamp...only then will the signal travel through the patchbay successfully to the mixer.

Is there a better way around this, or am I just being stupid in my connections? How do larger studios route their outboard gear to the patch bay to avoid this...

Thanks for the help

Jordy A.
 
Hard to say... but on a hunch... I'd guess that you've got inputs and outputs swapped on one of your patch bays.

You can use some long patch cables to patch right from the bay to your mixer... help you find where you've got signal... and where you don't...

You're going to slap your head when you find this one...
 
So, there should be no signal loss when you convert an XLR to a TRS, route it through the patchbay, then the preamp, then back into the patchbay to the mixer. Is that correct?
 
That is correct. Assuming you have good cables, good connections and a decent patchbay.
The patch bay is TRS, right?
 
yes, the patchbay is a NADY balanced 1/4 inch 48 point patchbay. The cables are HOSA 1/4 inch stereo (balanced) patch cables.
 
probably wrong...

ok. here's what i am thinking

if you are using a NORMAL setting on the patch bay, you might be loosing it there.

normally you would come in on the bottom jack, thru the bay, and back out on the top jack.

but you arent using a IN in the patch bay. you are just using the out...

so if you can, try using a "THRU" or direct (maybe a paralell) setting on the patchbay insted of the Normal or half normal setting.

just something to try
 
You may be right. I'll see if that is the problem. Here is how my patchbay is setup...

when I purchased it, I had to flip all of the patch modules because they were backwards, or so I thought.

Once flipped, the snake is plugged into the top rear of the patchbay, and I have another snake coming out of the bottom rear of the patchbay, going to the mixer.

In the front of the patchbay, the top is the output and the bottom is the input. Did I do this wrong? This setup works for all of my other outboard gear, just not with the preamps...
 
Here's an idea...since you should have a straight through connection from the mic end of the mic cable all the way to your input of your mic pre, try using a simply ohm meter...you should be able to trace a short all the way through your cables and patch bays. Do it one stage at a time and find out where you loose the circuit.
 
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