Patchbay?

[Wireneck]

I've never used a patchbay and I know that there are many ways you can set them up but im curious what would be the best for me? I have 6 channels of compression and 4 channels of gate that I use quite a bit. My mixer has 16 channels with 16 inserts. I hate having to climb behind my rack and my mixer to repatch insert cables and what not. Is there a simple solution with a patchbay for my application or will it cost me a fortune in cables and not be worth the extra trouble?

 

[Fireal402]

I don't know if this will explain it for you, but this is the manual for the Behringer PX2000 Ultrapatch. Manual (in PDF format)
It has descriptions and (limited) diagrams on how to set up a patchbay in a multitrack environment, which can be applied to most other patchbays.

Ben.

 

[MadAudio]

Is there a simple solution with a patchbay for my application or will it cost me a fortune in cables and not be worth the extra trouble?

Welcome to the little money pit we like to call Home Recording!
This is a very good question, though! A pathcbay will save you a lot of time (and wear on your mixer's jacks) but, yeah - hooking it up does require a lot of cables and that can get expensive. One way too keep costs down is to buy a big spool of good cable, the appropriate connectors and learn to solder! (I actually enjoy making cables. It's almost meditative.)

 

[Track Rat]

I'm using something like these and a LOT of Beldon cable.
http://www.switchcraft.com/products/mt48.html
Since the rear connections to the patchbay are soldered, it's a little less expensive to set up (you don't have to buy connectors for the patchbay end) and I feel it's more reliable (since it's soldered, nothing can get unplugged).

 

[earworm]

haha, welcome to the world of patchbays and headaches !

i started working with one like 6 months ago, and damn ;... what a beast

i don't have such a good memory and i just always forget the differences between normalled, half normalled, blablabla

but i'm gonna check out this behringer manual, most of the time those behringer dudes explain it pretty simple, might be exactly what i'm looking for

thnx for the link !

 

[MichaelM]

I'm probably goin to get the behringer PX2000. The PX1000 is balanced but it doesn't have the handy mode switches. Instead you pull the front plate off and spin the connectors around. Painfull, and there's nothing really holding them in there with the face off, so if you drop it you have to put them all back in.. The PX3000 is a balanced version with the switches.

 

[kiira]

I've never used a patchbay and I know that there are many ways you can set them up but im curious what would be the best for me? I have 6 channels of compression and 4 channels of gate that I use quite a bit. My mixer has 16 channels with 16 inserts. I hate having to climb behind my rack and my mixer to repatch insert cables and what not. Is there a simple solution with a patchbay for my application or will it cost me a fortune in cables and not be worth the extra trouble?

they are a pain to set up and get the extra cables for but once you get all that down you might wonder why you didn't use them earlier. we have 5 48 port bays but I got them all on ebay and the snakes too... I'm using the Pro-Co ones that you can make abnormal,normal,and almost normal with little slide switches. you can make cables and save money over top quality cables new but you can get really good snakes and patch cables on ebay IF, that's IF, you wait for good deals, cheaper tan making your cables. Like this month I got one patch bay, a 24 channel Mogami snake, a 12 channel Mogami snake and 15 top quality patch cables for $50. There are good articles on the intarweb about patch bays, settingthem up and the different types an all.

I only half-normal the tape ins/outs to my busses and direct outs/ins on the channel strips. I also have a few inserts half normalled to the bay for compressors and gates - i have 4 channels of gates and 7 of compressors. The sends/returns are unnormalled coz I just patch in reverbs and filters and stuff there as needed. I'm no expert at all so there are lots of different ways to set up how everything is patched in depending on how much flexibility you need. Mike Rivers (Scott Dorsey?) did a really good article in Recording on patch bays and theres a good one in Tape-Ops too.

good luck.

 

[MadAudio]

Like this month I got one patch bay, a 24 channel Mogami snake, a 12 channel Mogami snake and 15 top quality patch cables for $50.

Wow, that's a serious bargain! How much time did it take to find that? I'm impressed!

 

[kiira]

Wow, that's a serious bargain! How much time did it take to find that? I'm impressed!

I know seriously! I had been away for over two years and came back, set up my studio, my old mixer sucked and I got a fantastic deal on a new one, which btw included 48 channels of snakes and a patch bay, needed still more and found the deal on the pb and Mogami. Ha Ha then I got sick and haven't gotten back to hooking up the new mixer. argh.