Patchbay Setup..

  • Thread starter Thread starter dietcookie
  • Start date Start date
D

dietcookie

New member
Hey guys I'm about to arrange all my stuff and had some questions about patchbays. My current setup is a Digi 001 and a Soundcraft mixer. I want to perhaps get a patch bay in and have it connected where All my mics plug into the patch bay. I most likely have 6 XLR channels from the soundcraft board connected to the line level inputs on the digi, using the direct outs from the soundcraft.

How should I wire my patch bay so I plug my mic into the patch bay instead of soundcraft board or the two pres on the digi? I hope this make sense because I don't know much about them. Is there a better and more beneficial way? Thanks

Edit: I also have PA cabs that need to be powered. Can I make some type of patchbay jack for speakon cables?
 
Bump anyone?

To add to the post, I am thinking about buying an XLR patchbay, from http://www.patchbays.com/ or I know Hosa makes one. Have those go into the XLR inputs on my soundcraft. And also get a 1/4 patchbay so I can have it normalled/half-normalled. Any suggestions?
 
Last edited:
I, myself am currently dealing with similar questions. If I find the answers I'll let you know.
 
Not a good idea to run mics through a patchbay, IMHO, unless the patchbay is all XLR. You don't want to be constantly shorting phantom power, and you sure don't wanna send phantom power into your rack gear or the I/O of your soundcard.
 
How do studios with a control room and jam room connect their mics? Maybe I don't need a 1/4 patch bay normalled/half but I would like to connect my mics into a patch bay, seems easier for me.

The XLR jacks in the patchbay would be connected to the XLR inputs on the board only, nothing else, so phantom power would not be going through all my rack stuff. The 1/4 jacks would be seperatley connected from the XLR jacks in the patch bay. Hope this makes sense..
 
c7sus said:
Not a good idea to run mics through a patchbay, IMHO, unless the patchbay is all XLR. You don't want to be constantly shorting phantom power, and you sure don't wanna send phantom power into your rack gear or the I/O of your soundcard.
Click to expand...

...........................................Good points!...............................................
 
Dietcookie,

I may be misunderstanding you, but it sounds to me like you are just wanting a panel with xlr connectors to bring your mic inputs from your mixer to a more convenient location. Is this right?

This is something I've been wanting for my mic preamps so i can just hook my mic cable to whatever connector goes into the preamp I want to use, and I don't have to pull the preamp out and connect it....then stick it back on the rack/shelf. I am probably going to end up making my own panel and soldering the connectors myself.

I guess the warning about phantom power still applies though. You shouldn't be connecting/disconnecting mics with phantom power turned on. My one complaint about the MAudio AudioBuddy is that the phantom power switch is on the back. WTH???!!!!!

MrBoogie
 
MrBoogie said:
Dietcookie,

I may be misunderstanding you, but it sounds to me like you are just wanting a panel with xlr connectors to bring your mic inputs from your mixer to a more convenient location. Is this right?

This is something I've been wanting for my mic preamps so i can just hook my mic cable to whatever connector goes into the preamp I want to use, and I don't have to pull the preamp out and connect it....then stick it back on the rack/shelf. I am probably going to end up making my own panel and soldering the connectors myself.

I guess the warning about phantom power still applies though. You shouldn't be connecting/disconnecting mics with phantom power turned on. My one complaint about the MAudio AudioBuddy is that the phantom power switch is on the back. WTH???!!!!!

MrBoogie
Click to expand...


Exactly, the issue about pluggin mics into a hot phantom power input doesn;t concern me because I have a nifty button on my soundcraft to turn off/on 48v as well as on my digi 001....

Does anyone have experience with patchbays.com or the HOSA XLR patchbays?
 
NOthing on this issue, huh? I'm in the same situation. I have like 12 channels of pres in my rack and it is annoying to have to pull the rack back to plug in cables to the mics... it would be real nice to have an XLR-like patchbay so I can route all my pres to the patchbay, then connect cables on the front of the patchbay to my mics.

Anyone?
 
What I do is I have the output of my preamp patched ot the patchbay, since that is line level. What I do for the preamp inputs is that I simply have XLR cables connected to them, and the loose ends are pulled out to the front of the rack. So the mic cables are just plugged into those.

This works because I don't ahve a lot of preamps I suppose. But if you labelled your XLR cables it would be pretty easy to keep things straight.
 
You guys are looking for a snake, not a patchbay. It is a box with female xlrs and a long cable with male xlrs on the other side. You hook the male xlrs to the console or mic preamps and you plug the mic into what ever channel on the snake coinsides with the input you want ot connect to.

The phantom power thing was a warning not to run mics through a 1/4 patchbay.
 
Actually, I don't want a snake. I have a snake... I'm wanting to organize my rack. I like the idea of having a patchbay to plug all my mics into on the rack. One organized place... instead of loose wires all over the place.

This is the routing diagram I am referring to:

MIC INTO XLR CABLE >> INTO XLR RACK >> XLR CABLE FROM RACK INTO MIC PRES >> PRES INTO CONVERTERS >> ETC

Make sense?
 
jpfour23 said:
Actually, I don't want a snake. I have a snake... I'm wanting to organize my rack. I like the idea of having a patchbay to plug all my mics into on the rack. One organized place... instead of loose wires all over the place.

This is the routing diagram I am referring to:

MIC INTO XLR CABLE >> INTO XLR RACK >> XLR CABLE FROM RACK INTO MIC PRES >> PRES INTO CONVERTERS >> ETC

Make sense?
Click to expand...

I don't understand how that cuts down on loose wires all over the place. You still have to get from the mic to the patchbay, which I assume will be the long run. Then you are patching into the front of the patchbay, not the back of preamp boxes. So it still seems like clutter to me.

I don't see the advantage to that over having a snake that is hardwired to the preamps on one end, with labeled connectors on the other.
 
What Sonic Albert is describing is pretty much what I'm planning to do with my Octane. I'm going to take 1-8 on the male end of my 16-channel snake to go into the Octane and connect the outs to my patchbay.
 
SonicAlbert said:
If you know about this XLR patchbay, then what was this thread about? Connections are simple, the same as any other patchbay, you take the outs of the patchbay and connect it to the ins of wherever you want the signal to go. Then just patch in your sources to the front of the patchbay.

Here's another XLR patchbay to consider:

http://www.dvwarehouse.com/product_info.php/manufacturers_id/259/products_id/17807
Click to expand...

Eh? :confused: I wasn't the one who started the thread, I just saw 2 threads about the same thing and posted the link here.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top