I'm looking into getting a patchbay because I'm getting tired of plugging and unplugging my gear. I want to stay under $300, any suggestions? Also how easy/hard are they to setup properly?

Well, for a low price you can go for TRS jack patchbays : Behringer, Tascam, Furman, dBx. They use normal 1/4" jacks, and are good enough for home studio use, and not expensive at all. They are pretty easy to setup, as the back connects usually use jacks too (Furman uses DB25). Be sure to take their latest, as the older one uses unbalanced connections. TRS patchbays are not so expensive, it's usually the big amount of patchcables that will define the price.

The problem with jacks is, with much use, the female connector bases will start to give away a bit. But with intelligent setup of the patch bay, this shouldn't be a problem (more on this later).

If you want longer lasting stuff, look at patchbays that use minibantam, or Tiny Telephone jacks. Much more sturdy, but much more expensive. It's usually those you find in pro studio's. Neutrik has one, but it's pretty expensive (about 600 for the patchbay alone), so I guess right now this is not an option... Also, the cables need to be soldered on the backside.

Now about setting up. It's very important you make a planning even before you bought the patchbay. A good setup can make things much more easier, while a badly planned wiring can make life even more difficult than without the patchbay.

In most cases, it's common use to have the top row as outputs, and the lower row as inputs.
There are different kind of connections, which can make life easier.

The first one is non normalled or open. To make a connection, you need to insert a jack from an output to an input. It's not used much, but you never know you might need it.

The second one is fully normalled. Without any jack, the signal from the top (output) connector, will be carried directly to the input connector just beneath it. If you insert a jack in the upper one, or the output one, that "normalled" connection will break. (Actually there are two types of fully normalled, but not really relevant here).

The third one is half normalled. Same basic principle as the normalled. Nothing inserted => signal will be carried over. But with half normalled, if you insert a jack in the output connector, the connection won't break (if you insert in the lower input connector, it will break). Practically that means : you can split the output, not the input.

Now here are two schools of thought. Some say fully normalled is the most used, some say half normalled is. I must say, I've encountered half normalled as the standard most of the times. It's always useful to be able to split an output to route it to several destinations.

The last type is parallel. This one is not limited to vertical operation, you can parallel connectors next to each other on the same row too. The name is self explanatory. You plug one source into one of the paralleled connectors, and all those that are paralleled with it will carry the same signal. Useful if you need more than one split.

Now, about the planning part. I suggest you use half normalled as a standard. The right way of setting up a patchbay is to connect it that way, that in the situation you work most, you don't need cables at all.
Some examples of "logical" wiring : insert send and returns normalled (usually, with most mixers if you insert a jack in the insert, the internal connection is broken, so you need to make the connection between send and return), auxes to most used effects (for example aux one to reverb), stereo recorder out to mixer tape return, most common recording use (for example if you usually connect your synth to inputs 1 and 2 of your mixer, normal them), ...

Make sure NOT to normal effects out to the input of the same effect (you can't believe how much I've seen that in home studio's, and then they ask why it feedbacks).

So you see, in a normal situation you shouldn't need any patch cables. If you temporarily change something, then you'll need a couple of patchcables.
Would you have misconfigured it (normalled the wrong connections, or no normalling at all), then you would gain nothing from the patchbay, as you would need to cable everything each time again.

So, careful planning is necessary. List all the connections you use regularily so you can normal them on the patchbay.

Neutrik patchbay - the standard. Costs about $100 and easy to work with. As far as drawing out the studio on paper - that's 100% true. I ran into a problem with tracing all the cables, so here's a tip:

I had more synth than HD recording inputs (Since most HD recording interfaces have 8 total inputs or less), that meant i'd be only able to run 4 of synths to your HD interface at once. If I needed to change it, I had to play cable jockey. What I did was:

Broke my synth layout into logical sections: Zone1 1: Access Virus, Yamaha AN1x; Zone 2: SNII, Access Virus Indigo, JP8080; Zone 3: JD-800, Andromeda A6, Electron Machine Drum. Since they are on different racks in the "|_|" layout, it made sense to get snakes of different sizes. Keep in mind that you'd want TRS ballanced cables (or whatever - depending on your gear).

1. Buy cable snakes - go for the good ones (though costly but you won't have to worry about tracing that unknown humming noise) such as Monster cable. A 15 foot Monster snake with 8 TRS's will set you back about $200 or so. You can probably get it cheaper if you buy monster cable in bulk and make your own (not that hard but not that easy and won't save you too much...). Buy short patch cables (no longer than 2 feet or so - you don't want them hanging down like spaghetti).

2. Buy cable labels (usually sold in telecom stores, home depot, or online) - look like this: http://www.ziptape.com/mm_dispenser.asp

3. Draw it out - use a program like Visio or draw by hand. Be sure to understand how you want your signal to flow. If you are using any of your synths for FX processing, be sure to account for that on the patch bay and obviously, in cabling.

4. Keep your audio cables away from power cables or any high-voltage lines. You may get "hum" from interference.

5. Keep your power strip away from your patch bay - same as #4 above.

6. Mark your cables. I used a general numbering convention so:

Zone1: - Snake labeled "1"
Zone 2: - Snake labeled "2"
etc...

on each snake, I broke cables into pairs (4 pairs/snake). In a pair, odd numbers - Left Channel Even numbers Right Channel. So, in snake 1, Pair 1 goes to Access Virus. Cable 1 goes to (L) cable 2 goes to (R). - repeat for the rest of the synths. This way when you look at the cable and see: 3, 2, 1 and 3, 2, 2 - (Zone) (pair) (channel) - you will know that it goes to Zone 3, 2nd pair, Left and Right.

Since some snakes have color coding, I organize colors by neumonics - Light color - Left. daRk color - Right. here goes:

Pair 1: White/Black
Pair 2: Red/Blue
Pair 3: Yellow/Green
Pair 4: Orange/Gray

So, even if label was lost, I'd still know which one is left and which one is right.

It helps to do the work ahead of time to save yourself trouble of tracing later.

Next. Once you labeled all cables, standardize on your patch connections. Since most patchbays offer 24 jacks, I've designated them as such:

Bottom, Back Row Jacks 1 - 8 - static (doesn't change) and runs into HD interface.
Top, Back Row Jacks 9 - 24 - Synths inputs.


So, if you want your synth on jacks 12/13 to be your jacks 1/2 on HD interface, just patch from front top jack 12 and 13 jacks into front top 1/2 jacks. And you're set! (See Neutrik documentation here: Neutrik PDF or Here

Anyway, this will take little time but once it's done you'll be happy. Bottom line - the more you're organized in the beginning and plan it out right, the better off you will be later.

have fun, mate!



Cheers!

___________________
Proud member of the "Filthy Zionist" coalition

Last edited by CynepMeH on Jul-01-2004 at 21:32

thanks for the input guys. Its kinda hard to get good advice on patchbays, so its good to here from some TA's