what is a good patch bay for $100-150?

  • Thread starter Thread starter maskedman72
  • Start date Start date
M

maskedman72

Member
i am going to buy a patch bay(my first) and i dont know jack about them. i have $100-$150 to spend.
i want to have all 24 of my recorders inputs brought to the front of it and all of my mackie 24-8's outputs too. i have 4 channels of mic pre outputs to bring to the bay to.
what do i need? im sick of going behind my rack to patch things in.

thanks -jay
 
Well if you can spend $42.40 more (plus tax and shipping), are capable and willing to do some soldering, and don't mind using longframe 1/4" connectors, then buy a Switchcraft MT52FN... It brings you into the next realm of patchbays... You won't have to replace PCB cards every 1-3 years (depending on how often it is used) like you do with most cheaper ones.
 
is what i want a 96 point bay? im not shure. i would like a high quality bay. are the ones mentione high quality? i hear people down beringer quite a bit.
-jay
 
What you want is a 52-point if using it exactly for what you said.

If you want a high quality one, then yes, Switchcraft would be the way to go... Without spending $250 for the ADC equivalent or $280 for the ADC with the Normalled lines already strapped (so you don't have to solder the normalling lines yourself with little tiny wires, or without spending $500 starting on Mosses & Mitchell.

The ones mentioned above use longframe 1/4" or bantam TT connectors. I quickly found-out once you get into the next level of patchbays, no one makes them with standard 1/4" connectors.
 
this is the best source for high quality patchbays at reasonable prices that i have found:

www.patchbays.com

even the 1/4" versions are far superior to the ones commonly found in the music stores.
 
One thing you want to keep in mind is that there are two types of patch panels: Soldered and jacked, and there are three types of normalling selection: Switched, soldered or "flipped".

The soldered ones usually are ment for permanent installation. You buy cables, and solder teh cables between the patch panel close to your mixer and the jacks in your sound room and to your racks. You also often solder the normalizing.

That's perfect for permanent installation, of course, no unessecary costly jacks that may fall out, and no internal switches that can rust.

However, if your studio is in your bedroom and in constant change, you probably don't want to unscrew your rack and pull out the soldering machine each time you bought some new gear, just to connect it up. And if you (like me) move your stuff around pretty darn often, because you can't decide how to organize your cramped studio, then you don't want to buy new cabling each time either. In that case you want jacked patch bays, with jacks both front AND back. These come in all varieties of normalling selection, but the common ones are the 'flipped' where you flip a circuit board inside, or 'switched' where you select with a switch.

More expensive, but less work.

The Behringer ones are jacked with a switch. The Switch unfortunately is not on the front or back-panel, meaning that if you have it in a rack, you need to unrack it if you want to change the normalization.

Here are some more jacked patchbays. That top one PHB-256 has front-panel selection of the normalling. It's just 'almost' balanced though, which is weird. :) I don't have ANY idea of the quality of these though, I haven't used them. :)

http://www.hosatech.com/product_page_patchbay.html

Samson has one too:
http://www.samsontech.com/products/productpage.cfm?prodID=1656&brandID=2
 
thanks for all the input everyone!! i move and add gear too often to get anything i would have to solider. this bay will not be used each day either so it should last a long time. so someone mentioned i would need a 52 point bay. i want to be able to have all 24 ins from the recorder and all 24 outs from the boadrd along with a half dozen mic pre outputs all accessable on the front of the bay so i can put any signal on any track via a 1/4 jack.
i have never seen such a bay in a 1/4 configuration. is there one for around $150?
thanks -jay

ps-do i want balanced or unbalanced?
 
Wait a minute now... You originally said 24 console outputs, 24 recorder inputs, and 4 outboard preamp outputs. THAT = 52-points.

There's no way you're gonna get a half-dozen (6) outboard preamp outputs on a 52-point bay, because with a half-dozen, that equals 54-points.

I'm not sure if there are standard 1/4" bays with 52-points... Someone else might know.

You want balanced.
 
whatever you choose, keep in mind that it might not always be the best idea to patch microphones via a patchbay - especially if phantom power is to be used. of course that depends on the grounding scheme of the bay ...

fretless
 
fretless: could you explain a bit more please ??

let's say I have some TT patchbays, with the top being studio panels and second row pre inputs. I was learned to put in mics first, and THEN turn on 48v, whether in a patch panel or direct in the console, so that wouldn't be much of a problem ?

what would be the connection with the grounding scheme be ??



Herwig
 
I wouldn't use a patchbay for mic pre inputs. Are you going to put tt plugs on the ends of all your mic cables?

use your tt bay for the preamp OUTPUTS, and use an xlr patchbay (or a stage snake) for the preamp inputs.
 
littledog said:
I wouldn't use a patchbay for mic pre inputs. Are you going to put tt plugs on the ends of all your mic cables?

use your tt bay for the preamp OUTPUTS, and use an xlr patchbay (or a stage snake) for the preamp inputs.
Click to expand...

Strange... I've never seen an XLR patchbay in any of the pro studio's I recorded, they're all TT


Herwig
 
recording engineer-youre right, i said 4 mic pre outputs, but i plan on adding 2 more soon. so right now a 52 point bay is what i need i reckon.
i will not have mic ins running into the bay just pre outs, board outs and tape ins so phantom power will not be an issue.
now i want everything to line up 1-24 when nothing is patched into the front.
does this mean i want a "normalled"bay? i would prefer to have ont that i can flip the card in for more options.
thanks!
 
littledog said:
I wouldn't use a patchbay for mic pre inputs. Are you going to put tt plugs on the ends of all your mic cables?

use your tt bay for the preamp OUTPUTS, and use an xlr patchbay (or a stage snake) for the preamp inputs.
Click to expand...

There are special "patch bays" for this, like the Hosa ones, although close inspection show that these really aren't patchbays, but just extention cords so that you get all your mic inputs in a good place, in the rack.
 
regebro said:
There are special "patch bays" for this, like the Hosa ones, although close inspection show that these really aren't patchbays, but just extention cords so that you get all your mic inputs in a good place, in the rack.
Click to expand...

that's right, that's why i mentioned a "stage snake", since that's really what they are - a panel or box of XLR females with a cable breaking out into a fan of XLR males to plug into all your preamp inputs.

Herwig, you are partly correct: TT patchbays are the workhorses of professional studios, and are used for everything EXCEPT preamp inputs. Next time you're in a pro studio, check it out for yourself...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top