![]() ![]() But there’s still a lot of room for confusion and lost time. ![]() Patchbay Organization Tipsīy restricting the top jacks to outputs and bottom to inputs, you’ve minimized the chaos big time. The above rules and the tips below will make sure you never are stuck wondering what goes where. Never stray from these three rules or you’ll defeat the purpose by having to climb behind your rack to figure out how the heck you cabled all of your gear in. These three rules set the stage for making a patchbay useful. Patch cables only ever connect a top jack to a bottom jack. The same goes for bottom to bottom connections. Since outputs are on top and inputs are on bottom, you will never need to or want to patch a cable from a top jack to another top jack. Rule 3 – Connections Only Occur Top-to-Bottom The inputs are bottom only, front-to-back. The signal flows into the cable, into a bottom front jack, and out of the bottom back jack and into an input in another piece of gear. ![]() You plug in a patch cable and route it to the bottom row, which is the exact opposite of the top row. So now you have your signal coming out of the top row on the front of your panel. In most cases (keep it simple for now), the signal comes out of the keyboard or microphone, goes into the top back, and comes out of the top front. If you follow this rule (as do all professionals) you will only be dealing with the outputted signal when you’re patching the top row. The top jacks are called output jacks because the top back jack receives the output from whatever piece of gear you’re using and spits it out of the front top jack. Rule 1 – Top Jacks are for OutputsĪlways envision the audio signal going into the top back jack and coming out of the top front jack. Let’s discuss each of these in depth, even though they’re self-explanatory, because it sets the stage for understanding the tips and discussion on modes below. This is done through observance of the three fundamental rules to setting up your patchbay: In the same way, it brings you into alignment with other professionals and also keeps you organized. The first way to wrangle in all of the possibilities is to setup your patchbay in a manner that greatly reduces your options. A typical & great TRS rack-mounted patchbay, the Samson S-Patch Plus The Three Patchbay Rules We’ll proceed by narrowing down the possibilities (and reducing confusion) by laying out some ground rules, then give some tips to further help stay organized, explain the three modes each series of jacks can use, and then finally lay out an example with a walkthrough. While still accessible for all levels of recording engineer skill, the examples and explanations will be far more involved, and we’re going to assume you know what patchbays, patch cables, and jacks are as well as recording studio cable types such as TRS, XLR, TS, etc. In this article we’re going to take a deeper look at the methodology. The reason is that, before we review any specific models, we give a summarized run down of everything you need to know about these miracle machines, including how to use one. Since collaboration and communication are critical for efficiently recording high-quality music and audio while the creative juices are flowing, nothing is more important than unraveling this mystery and putting it back together in our heads in the same way others have.īefore we get started, let me say that any newcomers to the concept of a patchbay should also read our article called The Best Patchbay for Studio & Live Audio. There is no rewiring in these cases so even the casual user is beginning to be confronted with the issue of using a patch panel. Patchbays are becoming increasingly important due to the increased popularity of structured wiring, where commercial buildings and homes are built with cabling within the walls and flooring. You want to learn it right, because there is a correct way and this is the way all of the other professionals you’ll encounter learned it. It doesn’t matter if you manage to wire up your own bay or you bought one new (of all of the gear out there, this is the one you don’t want to buy cheap or used due to the million parts that someone else likely broke), you will still need to know how to use it.Īnd it’s not just a matter of being able to use one. Take into account that most of us end up unplugging three cables by accident for every one we successfully add and you can understand why a patchbay is a non-negotiable piece of equipment. The dust, the spiders, the cat hair, and other surprises aren’t worth the trouble, especially when there’s an affordable and genius solution on the market. ![]() So you finally got sick of climbing behind your desk or wiggling under your rack to change your audio signals’ path through your now giant recording gear collection. ![]()
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