Setting up a patchbay

[Leo Rapture]

So, Now that I have acquired a few microphone preamps, it's time I stop going behind the desk to switch between them, and just set up a patchbay for easy access. The problem is, I have never done it before, so I need some help doing it. The patchbay I'm going to be using(Neutrik NYS-SPP-L) has 48 points on the front, and 48 points on the back. So, help me understand what I should be doing here.

Right now, I have the mic connected to the preamp via XLR to XLR. Then, I have a TRS cable running out of the preamp, into channel 1 of the mixer. What I currently do to change preamps with the only mic I run, is physically unplug everything from the current preamp, and run it to the mixer the same way, just hooked in to the other preamp I'm using. So, this is obviously the hard way of doing things.

What confuses me is how I get the mic cable routed to multiple sources via the patchbay when the patchbay only consists of TRS insert points. Do I need one with XLRs and TRS to make this work? I'm just really confused at the moment, hopefully someone can shed some light on the subject.

From what i understand though, I plug everything into the back of the unit, and just use patch cables(1' long cables) in the front to switch between things. So, how do I make this work, guys?

[Leo Rapture]

It just dawned on me...could i do it this way? Run the mic into the xrl patchbay, then run the outputs to the preamp inputs. From there, run the preamp outputs to the mixer, say channels 3 and 4. Then, when I want to use a different pre with the mic, just switch the mic xlr cable from input one to input two on the xlr bay. Would this work? I mean, I have plenty of free channels on the studio live, so I'm guessing it would, as long as I didn't do the switch when phantom power was running through the mic cable.

[ZenPunkHippy]

Read this Tweakheadz article about patch bays:

http://tweakheadz.com/patchbay-setup/

It's quite difficult to explain patch bays in writing because there are so many combinations and some of them won't make sense until you understand a few of the basic concepts. The above article is a good guide that includes some example configurations.

Peace,
Andy.

[ghettosynth]

Read this Tweakheadz article about patch bays:

http://tweakheadz.com/patchbay-setup/

It's quite difficult to explain patch bays in writing because there are so many combinations and some of them won't make sense until you understand a few of the basic concepts. The above article is a good guide that includes some example configurations.

Peace,
Andy.

It's a good article. Simply, the tops of the patch bays are out and the bottoms are ins. You often normal them in some way that makes sense for your use. With your setup I'd probably run the pre-outs into the patch bay and normal my most common units into my interfaces/mixer. Now, when you want to use a different pre, you plug the mic into the different pre and patch that pre out (top row) into the mixer in (bottom row). If you also want to use the pre that you just bypassed, no problem, it's out is available on the top row still, you patch it in elsewhere.

I've never had a big studio, it's always been a hobby and the most that I've ever done is my own projects, my bands, a few friends, and one or two people that just asked me to help them. That said, the patch bay thing quickly gets out of hand. With it just being a hobby I still have four 24 (48) point patch bays that I've used extensively. I'm currently down to one because I'm mostly ITB these days.

[martygras]

Not all patchbays are equal though. Which one do you have or are planning on getting?

Some aren't balanced, some have cards you may have to remove and flip around to get the "normalization" you need. Some have switches on each bay to select different modes of use.

Several people I know split the patchbay into 2 sections. One for effect inserts and the other part for selecting output destinations from the mixing console.

A word of warning. Use quality cables in the back of the patchbay. Actually, use quality cables everywhere in your signal chain. It will save you many troubleshooting sessions.

[Leo Rapture]

Not all patchbays are equal though. Which one do you have or are planning on getting?

Some aren't balanced, some have cards you may have to remove and flip around to get the "normalization" you need. Some have switches on each bay to select different modes of use.

Several people I know split the patchbay into 2 sections. One for effect inserts and the other part for selecting output destinations from the mixing console.

A word of warning. Use quality cables in the back of the patchbay. Actually, use quality cables everywhere in your signal chain. It will save you many troubleshooting sessions.

I'm using the Art P16. I talked with a professor from my college, and he thinks this method should work: Run the mic into the XLR patchbay, then run the outputs of the patchbay to the preamp inputs. From there, run the preamp outputs to the mixer, say channels 3 and 4. Then, when I want to use a different pre with the mic, just switch the mic XLR cable from input one to input two on the front of the XLR bay. Obviously, avoiding Phantom running through any cables while doing the switch between preamps.

[ghettosynth]

Not all patchbays are equal though. Which one do you have or are planning on getting?

Some aren't balanced, some have cards you may have to remove and flip around to get the "normalization" you need. Some have switches on each bay to select different modes of use.

Several people I know split the patchbay into 2 sections. One for effect inserts and the other part for selecting output destinations from the mixing console.

A word of warning. Use quality cables in the back of the patchbay. Actually, use quality cables everywhere in your signal chain. It will save you many troubleshooting sessions.

I'm using the Art P16. I talked with a professor from my college, and he thinks this method should work: Run the mic into the XLR patchbay, then run the outputs of the patchbay to the preamp inputs. From there, run the preamp outputs to the mixer, say channels 3 and 4. Then, when I want to use a different pre with the mic, just switch the mic XLR cable from input one to input two on the front of the XLR bay. Obviously, avoiding Phantom running through any cables while doing the switch between preamps.

Unless I'm missing something, the patchbay isn't doing you any good. If you have mixer input channels for all of your pres then just move the mic from one pre to another. The entire point of a patch bay is to be able to quickly connect gear in a variety of different ways. If you hardwire the output of your pre to a channel, then there's little to no value in running the input channels to a patchbay.

So, it's almost universal that if you're using a mixer, one of the standard routings is that all of the inputs to your mixer are connected to the bottom row (rear) of one of your patch bays.

Now, from the rear, the top row is connected to whatever is the most commonly used input processor/device for that channel. For example, you might have an 8 channel preamp that you typically use on channels one through 8, so, you wire its outputs to the top row rear of channels 1 to 8 and you enable normaling on those patch bay sections. Your preamp is connected by default, but, if you want to use a different preamp, you just patch its output into the bottom row mixer channel of interest.

Another common scenario is that inserts are connected to top and bottom and normaling is enabled. This way, if nothing is plugged into the patchbay, your inserts go out and then immediately back in. This allows you to connect a preamp at the insert point completely avoiding the input section of your mixer.

I don't know anything about "xlr" patchbays, the model that was posted at the top of this thread looked like a trs patchbay to me.

[ghettosynth]

What I currently do to change preamps with the only mic I run

Let me get this straight, you have ONE microphone and you want to know how to flexibly connect it with a patch bay? Is that right?

My guess here is that you're just trying to avoid pulling your mixer out all the time just to get behind it and plug in a preamp. I'd forget about trying to bring the XLR connections to a patchbay.

Mount the preamps in a small rack with the patch bay so that you can get easy access to their XLR inputs. If you can't do this then you want to get a simple XLR panel which is really nothing more than a non normaled patch bay and mount this on the front of your rack wiring the back to each of your pres. These are hardwired, if you want to use a mic with pre-1, then plug it into pre-1.

Now, the outputs of the pres go into the top row of a normaled TRS patchbay and the bottom row goes into your mixer inputs as I described above. Plug your mic into the XLR that goes to whichever pre you want to use and now its output will automatically be routed to one of your mixer inputs. If you want to route this pre to a different mixer input this is when you use a "patch" cable on the front of the patch bay. Plug the patch cable into the top row (front) that represents the output of the pre that you are now using, and plug the other end of this patch cable into the bottom row for whatever mixer channel you want to use. When you do this, the normal is broken so the output of pre that is normaled is no longer routed to the mixer input.

[Leo Rapture]

What I currently do to change preamps with the only mic I run

Let me get this straight, you have ONE microphone and you want to know how to flexibly connect it with a patch bay? Is that right?

My guess here is that you're just trying to avoid pulling your mixer out all the time just to get behind it and plug in a preamp. I'd forget about trying to bring the XLR connections to a patchbay.

Mount the preamps in a small rack with the patch bay so that you can get easy access to their XLR inputs. If you can't do this then you want to get a simple XLR panel which is really nothing more than a non normaled patch bay and mount this on the front of your rack wiring the back to each of your pres. These are hardwired, if you want to use a mic with pre-1, then plug it into pre-1.

Now, the outputs of the pres go into the top row of a normaled TRS patchbay and the bottom row goes into your mixer inputs as I described above. Plug your mic into the XLR that goes to whichever pre you want to use and now its output will automatically be routed to one of your mixer inputs. If you want to route this pre to a different mixer input this is when you use a "patch" cable on the front of the patch bay. Plug the patch cable into the top row (front) that represents the output of the pre that you are now using, and plug the other end of this patch cable into the bottom row for whatever mixer channel you want to use. When you do this, the normal is broken so the output of pre that is normaled is no longer routed to the mixer input.

This is a great post. So, basically, you're saying that I should add a TRS patchbay into the mix, and go from the preamps to the top row of it, and go from the bottom row to my mixer channels, using patch cables to do the switches. Is it really worth the extra $100 to do it this way? Because, you are right, the only reason I want to use a patchbay is so it's right in from of me instead of having to move a 250 pound desk with 10k worth of gear on it. What advantages will this have over the first method(just switching the mic cable on the xlr bay)?