patchbays

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dbassguy

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Anyone have some good sites on patchbays and wiring of same? The link here on Home Recording is not working.
 
Thanks xtremedb, I ran into that page soon after I posted and it is very informative. i guess the hard part is deciding which pieces of outboard gear should be permantely connected and which need to be re routed often. Any tips you may have on what various brands may be doing to the signal path might be helpful, if not thanks again.
 
Re routing sucks, buy a bigger rack and more patch bays!
 
Gotta hate the right brain, left brain thing. Nothing gets in the way of good tracks than having to figure out where the gozintas and the gozouts need to be. It's at the point where I don't want to think about any of that, but it's just too expensive to pay some one else to go thru that stuff (on my money). Any tips on patchbays that maybe I should stay away from or which are fairly transparent?
 
Any tips on patchbays that maybe I should stay away from or which are fairly transparent?
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That's not really a concern. If you put a ohm meter to any of these things, the difference will be nothing worth worrying about.

Your concern, price wise is how well it will stand up over time. You don't want to be cleaning funk off your connections every two months.

On the other hand... a word of advice you won't hear on this site too much--- everone here tells you to get a patch bay.

It seems to be some sort of badge of honor (no offense everyone... I'm just calling it like I see it). Unless you have a pretty good amount of gear, this is just a pure waste of time.

The point of a patchbay is to make it easier when your studio starts turning into a jungle of patch cables. If you aren't having problems, you probably don't need one... If you only have a few processors, you probably don't need one.

I keep seeing threads asking how to hook up a patch bay for eight tracks, three processors, and one or two compressors.
YOU DON'T NEED IT!

If you're at this point, your time is much better spent LISTENING and practicing your art than learning what a pain in the a** it is to solder a hundred connections in the back of a rack.

Successful people know how to budget their time. If you have less than three or four effects units and six or so channels of dynamics processors, you're better off with long cables and good color coding.
 
xtremedb said:
If you only have a few processors, you probably don't need one.

I keep seeing threads asking how to hook up a patch bay for eight tracks, three processors, and one or two compressors.
YOU DON'T NEED IT!
Click to expand...
Sorry Brad - I disagree... you ARE correct of course - it isn't *needed* as such, but there is a good reason to have it anyways...

Re-routing/re-wiring cables is a big pain in the ass - in a fit of creativity, having to waste time repatching just to run your mult of the guitar solo thru your compressor AFTER your reverb will simply kill ya... what is a 2-second jumper patch on a patchbay becomes a 5-minute, behind the desk re-wiring job! No one should "not try something" simply because the re-patching is such a pain in the ass....

Ok... bad example... but my point is to make life simpler, recording can be difficult enough, so in establishing your own studio "routine", simplify the processes as much as possible, no matter how complex or simple a studio setup you have.

I would recommend PBs for any level of setup - it just makes things a whole lot easier. A modest 4-track rig may be able to get away with using only a single PB - and as you start to expand, you add more as needed, until you're in a position to set up the "standard" multitrack PB rig...

Bruce
 
If you have any effects I highly recommend a patchbay.

Saves space, saves time, saves headaches. Headaches alone is worth it. I know that every time I plug into something that it is correctly set up.One time pre patchbay days, I was in a hurry and routed it wrong. Could have been avoided, but I was rushed and messed up. So if you want to be re routing every time you want to a reverb or comp, go for it, But a patch bay is $100 or so well spent.
 
Well this seems to have turned into a spirited debate. I sort of agree with everything here. While my studio is not full of lots and lots of gear, I have already made the decision that I WANT a patchbay. I have gotten really tired of staring at the backs of stuff trying to figure out what hole this thing needs to go into and then.....find I gotta hunt down that last stray cord to hook it up (or more likely, unplug something else before the creative juice goes down the brain drain). Then when it's all over and I'm ready to listen have to go back thru the whole process in reverse. I have been doing my recordings now for 8 years without one and everytime I'm hired to do a session in a full blown studio, I have PB envy when I see the speed and ease that comes from just pluggin those little cords from here to there. I just wanted some opinions on how much signal degradation might occur by adding a couple more connections in the signal path and/or if any units had a reputation of being particularly good or bad in that respect. I'm enjoying the posts at any rate and feel much more comfortable in my decision to take the plunge into the "bay". Thanks to all and I'll keep checking in here to see what new developements are occuring in the discussion.
 
There should be no more signal loss than plugging staight into your effects unless there is something wrong with your patch bay.
 
There should be little or no signal degradation using any patchbay. You will have to invest in more cables, however I strongly suggest a patch bay will make your life much easier and once you use it you won't understand how you got along without one for such a long time.

If you have less than 3 effects units and less than 6 processors you can easily benefit from a patchbay. And it has nothing to do with any "badge of honnor." If you want to "budget your time" and save a few headaches, a 100.00 patch bay is an excellent investment.
 
A little spirited debate... I like it. I would like to make a few things clear. I never meant that no one in a home studio should use a patch bay... I realize that my choice of wording in my previous post was misleading, and maybe even offensive to some... Sorry.

My point is that I don't think this is really a cut and dry, yes or no answer. It all depends. How often do you use this stuff? Do you change it out often? Borrow friend's gear a lot? Want to use it for just effects or dynamics processing also? (It's a lot more effort when you have to patch every insert on a 32/8 console). Do you know how to solder? Do you plan on expanding your studio in the near future?

In short, there are a lot of questions that need to be answered. That's why I do not normally respond to posts like this, because it turns a specific question into a general debate. There are no correct answers to general questions.

It's like when I'm doing in install and someone asks me what type of speakers they should buy. They think they might save some money instead of hiring a professional contractor. When I tell them it depends on the acoustics, etc and there is no "right" answer or "best" speaker, lots of people think I'm lying... as if knowing the name of that "magic" speaker or piece of gear will give their system what they are looking for.

That being said, I'd also like to mention that the expense in a quality patch bay setup is NOT the patchbay. It is the cables and connectors. I hate thinking that their are guys spending their hard earned cash on a patchbay, just to find out that the cables and connections required to do it right cost at least as much money as the patchbay itself.

Folks, I'm not exaggerating when I say that we have well over a thousand dollars of cables lying around the house... and that's only for a 24 track studio! (My main gig is live sound) Some of the guys on this board work in studios two and three times that size and more.

In addition, I'd like to say that I love patchbays! But I hate wiring them... and I'm no newbie to soldering to say the least. I've got it to the point that it can hold a mag-lite in my armpit and hold a connector in place with my left hand, manipulate the solder with my right hand, and hold the iron in my mouth... and that's while a festival promoter is yelling at me. Some of the older guys on this board can do it while eating a doughnut. Some of them take it for granted that they have developed these skills.

I have friends who bought a patchbay at my suggestion.
 
(cont.)

Some of them are still sitting in a corner of a room. These people are not technically oriented... but they are all incredible musicians... does that mean they shouldn't be recording music? I feel awful, knowing they wasted their money because I though everyone thought like me. They don't.

Anyway, I just think the whole issue depends very strongly on the circumstances. I also apologize if my previous post offended anyone. "Badge of honor"... man that sound really rude... I guess that's what happends when I don't think before I open my mouth. The reason I didn't respond fully is because it takes this much space to explain why this is not a cut and dry issue. Regardless, someone will post a one liner saying that patchbays rule, in response to my five page documentary. Oh well, such is life :-)

Brad Gallagher
http://www.just-for-musicians.com/
 
Brad...

Patchbays RULE!!!!!!! And what did you say the best monitor was again??? :D :D


Cheers! ;)

Bruce
 
Actually, I have a fondness for EAW, but don't tell anyone I said that... I'l lose work ;-)

Brad
 
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