The Logic Off Topic list

Hi,
I'm currently planning a pretty major overhaul to my home studio, and I've
realised that a patch bay would be highly useful.
In particular, I'd want it to provide channel inserts for all my gear to
allow patching in of compressors, EQs and routing to the filters on other
pieces of gear etc as well as routing to my Sound Card inputs..
Now, I've never used a patchbay before so I have NO experience of this kind
of thing.
I was hoping that somebody could advise me on the best type and manufacturer
etc.

Most of my gear doesn't have balanced ins/outs (except for the outboard
stuff). My Mixer (Mackie 1604) doesn't have balanced ins on every channel.
So, is there any benefit to having a balanced patch bay? Can you get them
with XLR connectors as I'm not too impressed with the reliability of jack
connectors?

Any advice or pointers greatfully received.

Thanks,
Paul

Hi Paul.

Patchbays are unbelievably useful. In fact, having had some work tracking in
a project studio which didn't have one, I had to resort to taking a torch
(flashlight to any Yanks out there) simply to get connections sorted - eg
when we were using the mic pres on a  racked TL Audio valve EQ and wanted to
take it straight to a C1 compressor. These boxes themselves have insert
points but there weren't enough in this studio! Creativity can fade away
quickly when you are fiddling around at the back of a dark rack!

I would recommend checking out the Studiospares catalogue, as they stock a
variety of patchbays and are in my experience fast and 100% reliable when it
comes to delivery. Their own brand balanced/unbalanced jack are fine and any
pair can be changed from normalilsed to not simply by unscrewing the module
and turening it round. It's also possible to buy modular patchbay systems
which can have XLR, balanced jack or phono modules. IMO balanced jacks are
fine at home/project studio level.

A final piece of advice would be to buy in patchbay capacity for the future
- overestimate rather than under. The ability to chain hardware FX is a
definite asset, for example.

Hope this helps
 
Tony Thompson

> Hi,
> I'm currently planning a pretty major overhaul to my home studio, and I've
> realised that a patch bay would be highly useful.
> In particular, I'd want it to provide channel inserts for all my gear to
> allow patching in of compressors, EQs and routing to the filters on other
> pieces of gear etc as well as routing to my Sound Card inputs..
> Now, I've never used a patchbay before so I have NO experience of this kind
> of thing.
> I was hoping that somebody could advise me on the best type and manufacturer
> etc.
> 
> Most of my gear doesn't have balanced ins/outs (except for the outboard
> stuff). My Mixer (Mackie 1604) doesn't have balanced ins on every channel.
> So, is there any benefit to having a balanced patch bay? Can you get them
> with XLR connectors as I'm not too impressed with the reliability of jack
> connectors?
> 
> Any advice or pointers greatfully received.
> 
> Thanks,
> Paul
>

Hi Paul,

I realize you posted this some time ago, so maybe it's too late. I've got
several rack spaces worth of Neutrik (sp?) patch bays and I'm quite
satisfied with them. They are quarter inch balanced TRS jacks. Even if you
don't have balanced equipment yet you might as well get balanced jacks in
your patch panels. I think most of them come this way anyway.

I don't know of any that have XLR connectors. I thought about that too.

However, the Neutriks allow for a normalized connection between the top and
bottom row of jacks, so you can configure this so the top and bottom are
normally connected until you plug something into the bottom. Then the
connection on the bottom is replaced with what you plugged in. This is what
you want if you plan to use them for inserts. You'd run the back of the top
jack to the "send" of your mixer insert and the back of the bottom jack to
the insert "return". Then at the front panel connect a cord from the top to
the input of your EQ, compressor, or whatever, and the output of the EQ to
the bottom jack on the panel. If nothing's plugged in, then your insert
"send" is connected to your insert "return". I'm not sure that an XLR patch
panel would give you this flexibility.

You could also get patch panels with bantom (smaller) connectors and
hardwire terminals in the back. Professional studios use those, but for home
it's much easier to use 1/4 jacks because that's the kind of cabling all
your equipment probably already uses.

Eric

On 12/17/01 4:58 AM, "Paul Crowley" <paul@...> wrote:

> Hi,
> I'm currently planning a pretty major overhaul to my home studio, and I've
> realised that a patch bay would be highly useful.
> In particular, I'd want it to provide channel inserts for all my gear to
> allow patching in of compressors, EQs and routing to the filters on other
> pieces of gear etc as well as routing to my Sound Card inputs..
> Now, I've never used a patchbay before so I have NO experience of this kind
> of thing.
> I was hoping that somebody could advise me on the best type and manufacturer
> etc.
> 
> Most of my gear doesn't have balanced ins/outs (except for the outboard
> stuff). My Mixer (Mackie 1604) doesn't have balanced ins on every channel.
> So, is there any benefit to having a balanced patch bay? Can you get them
> with XLR connectors as I'm not too impressed with the reliability of jack
> connectors?
> 
> Any advice or pointers greatfully received.
> 
> Thanks,
> Paul
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> 
>