How To Configure a Patchbay
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- Опубликовано: 17 сен 2024
- Patchbays can be extremely confusing, even for experienced engineers, but they are a fantastic tool that will drastically improve your workflow, as long as you know how to set it up correctly. This video will explain how to configure a patchbay step by step!
If you're looking for more experienced hands for your next record, check out my site: www.primroseproductionsmusic.com
Thanks for showing the setting up of your patch bay., I just purchased a Samson S patch plus and I am trying to lay out my routing design for how I am going to route my hardware through it.
Planning is definitely essential, Ernest; best of luck!
This was a fun watch thank you
Ive been planning my new patch bay out in my mind and I never thought to write it out on paper wow Im an idiot thanks.
Hey man. Nice video.
Wouldn't you get more handspace at the back using a bigger rack and by putting some blind plates between the patchbays?
I mean, yeah, but if I set it up right I shouldn’t need to really get behind it for at least a few years
Hosa produces the noisiest cables
I’d be really interested to learn more about that; could you provide some examples with actual measurements in controlled environments?
Have you had any issues using phantom power with this set up? I’ve just set up a very similar patching set up to this.
I have my live room/mics outputs going to the patch bay with xlr - trs, normalled into my toft ATB console trs-trs.
Then another patch bay which has the Toft’s direct outputs normalled into my converters Trs-Trs.
My third patch bay is set to Thru and holds my outboard compressors and pre amps. And another bunch of mic inputs from another room on the last 12.
I’ve been reading very conflicting advice on this and need some clarity before I commit to the set up.
Thanks
preferrably you would connect into a dedicated mic preamp card into a converter from which point on i would distribute the signal to a patch bay/SSL/dante as you don't have to route your phantom power connection to other devices and won't run into procedural hassle (f.e. having to shut everything off just to plug in a different or new mic/device to mitigate potential grounding damage and current drops on powered gear and stress on the PSUs due to undercurrents). I don't get why you would want your mics powered from the same PSU source as your your other studio rooms. that just means huge resistances on the Power supply due to the amount of cables and devices your 48v have to pass through (in a multi-studio setup, that does not sound electrically sound). Every time you extend that circuit without powering off first, you may induce switching stress and current drops which will cause devices to be fried at some point. and we wouldn't want that to happen to expensive mics or preamps...
@@mynameismynameis666 Thanks for the reply. Yes that makes sense and you're right about procedural hassle for sure. It can kill momentum having to stop and power down +48 to make a change mid session.
This may be a stupid suggestion as I'm still getting my head around the electrical stuff, but if I had dedicated phantom power psu units in the live room(s), before the stage box, would this still run a risk of sending +48 into the patch bay from the output of the psu unit? whilst keeping the same flexibility. We sometimes have to change to live room 2 at short notice and its a real pain having to get behind the console and reroute everything.
I'm maybe hoping for an answer that I'm not going to get here but just wanting to explore my options.
Thanks
@@robmcinnesdrummer5660
Short answer: the shorter your phantom power return path is, the lower the overall risk that introducing a user error causes a discharge, voltage leakage or static load on a device further down the line. which is why i would provide preamps with 48v locally as the first connection the powered mics make. everything after that is a clean standard analog audio signal and can be routed at will.
Long answer, which has become quite the essay after multiple redactions....:
first you have to clarify your routing more, are you referring to:
1) mic into patchbay into preamp and then distribute more complicated.... potentially longer inductive loops and thus thins the margin of error during re-plugging, especially if the preamp is not dedicated and sits somewhere further down the routing path, which in turn increases the inductivity and as such potential loads that can go the wrong way during a user mistake, in such a case an error can propagate to other devices. and you'd probably have to shut off your system for replugging depending on how it is set up (f.e. if the 48v come from the main mixer or a device way back in the chain). if there is a dedicated preamp/48v between patchbay and mixer, then it would be enough to mute the channel on the mixer and restart the preamp/48v source and mic
or are you talking about
2.)mic into preamp into patchbay and then distribute (never a problem in and of itself, because the phantom power returns via the preamp cards own power supply and does not create longer inductive loops, any error will occur locally on your preamp card or microphone and not affect the rest of your system, the overall discharge will be lower because the inductive loop is shorter)
- both is definitely possible if you know the ins and outs of your routing and you can memorize it under stress, my argument here is basically about how to set it up to mitigate errors and reduce their potential effects
regarding dedicated phantom power PSUs, your mic preamp card should have these already, switchable usually.
the short flexible solution for fault protection in the first case is to have a second patchbay for your unpowered devices with which you just sideline the phantom powered preamps and only connect to preamps that don't provide phantom power. with a little color coding this would be an idiot proof setup. playing around with normalling to patch the powered and unpowered mics around on the same patchbay is just an invitation to fry a device in the confusion of time contraint replugging. especially if you use a cheapo neutrik patchbay, just be on the safe side and just get 2, they go for 50 bucks 2nd hand.
another advantage here is that if you have (FX)processing on that rack, you can route from the first patch bay (powered) and return the clean signal into the second patch bay and normal through a processing device for f.e. parallel processing, compression e.t.c.). properly set up this can save a lot of headaches. but also introduce some when you return to your setup to change something.
and given the fact that cables break and can cause even an otherwise solid setup to leaking around phantom power, i would strongly recommend for the mic->48v+ preamp->patchbay solution as it is the least error prone and is a reasonably safe protection for your other more expensive processing equipment...
do you connect all your pres XLR patchbay or TRS ? I heard its no good to use a mic through a patchbay
For all of my compressors and such I’m just using TRS on both ends, but for mics and preamps I’m using a TRS->XLR cable, the xlr going into the preamp or the mic side, then the TRS side going into the back of the patch bay.
I have zero issues running my mics and preamps and phantom power and all that through the patchbay
@@callumconnorXX the way I have mine set up is so that every single connection point is an individual point in my patchbay setup. So I can send any mic input to any pre to any compressor to any input on my interface
@@primroseproductionsmusic ok Thank you ! so with that method would i be able to have my snake plugged in back of pres still ? or does patchbay need to need to be plugged in to both ins and outs of pres. And than use front xlr input on pres for plugging in mic ? i dont know how to have my XLR snake running to pres while also having pres totally patched in to be able to send other stuff .
Man I’ve been soldering up my cables for patchbays and it’s a lot cheaper but damn does it get old sitting around making these things lol. Worth saving half the cost though
It's a lot of work, but it's fucking fun innit?
It's fun when it's done;)
Quick Question if I have only 4 ins / 4 outs available on my interface (2 pairs) and 3 pieces of stereo outboard gear to patch atm...
Would I be better off in Normal or Half-Normal?
Can I quickly reroute 1 pair of outs from the interface to 1 FX at a time or chain them in Normal or would it be better to stay Half-Normal?
From my understanding Half-Normal lets you split the signal but I can't return the signal right below an output without cutting the chain so leaving space between units would be optimal I guess?
You seem to have a pretty good grasp on it honestly. Yeah half normal would let you split a signal to multiple places which you would only really need for like sidechaining or parallel processing, in most cases you would just chain from one piece of equipment to the next. So for example, out of the mic input, into a preamp, out of the preamp, into an EQ, out of the EQ, into a compressor, out of the compressor, into the interface
@@primroseproductionsmusic Thanks for answering! Looking back now my question sounds so weird haha.
I happily found my way now thanks 🙂
So if yellow plugs into blue and pink plugs into orange the I assume blue and yellow would plug into the Interface to make green
Therefore a green interface DB25 adat out would plug into the top or out of the patchbay normalled then into the direct in of the portico 2 and out to
the in or bottom of the patchbay which would complete the loop back to the console or adat expander then to the Apollo that is thunderbolt cascaded to the expander unit
Simple!
I need to go pull my hair out, if you will excuse me😅
that it s allsame ok when you the patchbay in to a rack taket . but wen you the patchbay in a table and the cabel down outside is terribel
and now when you takt te pins in and hold the pp in the hand then fall de pinns from the multicore on the backside outside
Dude… get a belt
But that would just make it all the more difficult for you to kiss my ass
@@primroseproductionsmusic Lol.....seriously though you might need to adjust your levels. Spent a lot of time turning down the music and then turning it back up when you were talking. Granted I was listening on laptop speakers, but I shouldn't nave to resort to headphones for something informative like this. Great info btw. Well worth listening to. Good luck with your channel.