Patchbay idea

H

hansgauffin

New member
Hi, I´m in the process of setting up an analog home recording studio and want some reflections upon my idea. I know i´ll need a Patchbay for this project but I am unsure of which type of patchbay to look after. Please look at the attached picture and help me decide which patchbay that would fit my needs. I am quite unsure if the various connections would actually work out in the real world, especially when it comes to mono line in instruments, can you use just ONE input on each side of the patchbay (upper front/upper rear?).and if there are other better solutions, please feel free to make your opinion.

I know I´m gonna use unbalanced 1/4 cables for this patchbay.

Thank you for helping me out.
 

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OK, on the inserts, you don't need cables to complete the chain. Patchbays are normalled, which means if you don't plug anything in, the top and bottom rear jacks are connected by default. If you insert a cable into the top front, that breaks the normalled connection.

The compressor is not usually a send effect, it's often an insert (or it follows your stereo bus). So I would move that to 9-10 to be next to the inserts.

Your line ins can run through the patchbay; I'd move those to the other end to stay out of the way of the rest of the gear. You only need top or bottom (front and back) for an input, since they don't need to be normalled to anything. You can run the mic inputs through the patchbay too, if you use TRS cables (and XLR-TRS into the patchbay).

You might want to normal your effects send to one of your effects units, say the reverb, to save you a couple of patch cables. If the effects units are stereo in/out, you'll want all the ins and outs run through the patchbay, even if your effects send/return is only mono. This is so you can chain all of them together on mixdown if you need to.

Finally, you'll want the stereo mix out from the board run through the 'bay for the same reason. In fact, you might want to normal stereo out -> comp -> reverb, and use cables to patch the comp & reverb in to the inserts or effects send. It all depends on how you like to work . . .
 
Thank you

Thank you for the fast answer!!

There some things I don´t quite understand.

""You might want to normal your effects send to one of your effects units, say the reverb, to save you a couple of patch cables. If the effects units are stereo in/out, you'll want all the ins and outs run through the patchbay, even if your effects send/return is only mono. This is so you can chain all of them together on mixdown if you need to.""
Click to expand...
"

I don´t quite understand this, due to tech skills/language problem?, I´m Swedish :)... can you explain this a little bit further, sounds interesting.

The only option to use effects as I understand it as follows.
I can assign ONE effect unit, (or maybe two if I patch them in series like, send - Comp - Rev - Rtn) to each track with the SND/RTN jacks. I can do this during recording or bouncing or mixdown.

If I´d like to use a specific effect on more than ONE tracks, I´d have to go by the EFF OUT/EFF RTN jacks, cuz whatever that´s connected to this jack, can be independently controlled by eff.mix level controls on each channel.

Thank you for your advices, and for me, the best buy would be a normalled, unbalanced Patchbay??

Thank you and have a great day
/Hans
 
I'll try to explain more later, but buy a normalled balanced patchbay--it will work fine for unbalanced too, and you might want the TRS connectors for mics, headphones, etc.
 
NL5 said:
Be careful with this. If you have phantom power on, it can cause problems. :)
Click to expand...

Meh, not so much more than a hotpatch with an XLR. If you patch into the bay before connecting the mic to XLR, it's practically the same. True, ribbons are easily toasted if you hotpatch the TRS, but they can also be toasted with an XLR hotpatch (albeit not as often).

I have seemingly toasted the phantom regulator on my preamp, but my preamp use is very unusual--it's common for me to do 100 XLR hotpatches in 15 minutes :eek: :o But I don't know for sure that is the cause.

In summary, and in conclusion, hotpatching a mic is both safer and more dangerous than most people imagine.
 
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