running out of line ins apollo 8 - looking for passive solution

[rsda1980]

hey guys

i have 4 unison line ins on my uad apollo 8...
the first two ins are 1 stereo synth... the 3th in is a mono synth the 4th in is a monomicrophone...
now i bought me another monosynth... but i have no unison in left on my apollo! are there solutions for me?

iam looking for a passivebox where i can plug 2 mono synths in and from this box i want to go out to one of my apollo inputs. with a switch i could choose wich monosynth i want to send to my apollo!

or is there a better way? the best solution would be to plug all of my synths in and my mic too. but this is just a dream at least i have no apollo 16

thank you

[rsda1980]

nobody any ideas

[Gamma-UT]

You can use either a small analogue mixer as a submixer - it's easy to pick those up secondhand - or a patchbay. Both are overkill for what you want today, but they provide plenty of room for expansion assuming you don't want to record a lot of channels simultaneously.

Patchbays range from cheap to "how much??!??": https://www.thomann.de/gb/art_tpatch.ht ... c26c321037

[rsda1980]

thank you for your answer!

but a patchbay has many input as outputs right?
i need more inputs than outputs!
actually i need 2 inputs and 1 output or if i make it clearer!
i want 8 input and one output... just like on your link it should have buttons to asign what inputs should go out that 1 output on the back

[Gamma-UT]

You use short patch cables on the front to switch between sources. The connections on the back are the ones you make to the gear and interface. You mix and match inputs and outputs any way you like - just have a handy source of sticky labels for the front.

[rsda1980]

You use short patch cables on the front to switch between sources.

how do you mean this?

lets say a box with 8 inputs and 1 output... ok?

the boxes front has 8 holes where you can plug 8 cables in, next to this holes are buttons that you can push to activate this hole!

on the back of the box you have 2 holes where your cable is coming from your apollo into to (one hole mono or two holes stereo) the backside hole!

so i guess all this means if i switch every inputhole on i would get a summed and layered sound of it! (if every hole would be 1 monosynth)

[Gamma-UT]

https://reverb.com/uk/news/a-closer-look-at-patchbays

[whyterabbyt]

You use short patch cables on the front to switch between sources.

how do you mean this?

lets say a box with 8 inputs and 1 output... ok?

the boxes front has 8 holes where you can plug 8 cables in, next to this holes are buttons that you can push to activate this hole!

Nope. Patchbays typically have two rows of 'holes' where each 'hole' is a socket on the front -and a socket on the back, both connected together.

The vertical pairs of sockets on the back are also often connected when there's nothing plugged in at the front ('normalled') so that anything connected to one gets passed through to the other. Normalling gets 'replaced' by anything you do plug in at the front though.

So if you imagine your first pair. You route a cable plugged in to a synth output to the rear top socket, and a cable plugged to the soundcard input to the rear lower socket.
If the patchbay is 'normalled' then the synth is already connected to the soundcard input. If its not normalled, then its disconnected until you plug in a cable on the front connecting the front top and front lower sockets.

Now imagine you have a cable running to your second synth. If you plug that in to the front lower socket, then, voila its being connected to the rear lower socket which is connected to the soundcard input.

Alternately, you could have that second synth always connected to a different pair on the patchbay, in which case you just use a cable between the patchbay points.

Furthermore if, for example, you wanted to add, say a delay pedal effect to the first synth before it goes to to the soundcard, you could run a cable out the patchbay through the pedal, then back to the patchbay, without having to disconnect the synth or the soundcard.

patchbay diagram (showing normalling)

Code: Select all

rear top socket ------> front top socket
           |
           |
           V
rear lower socket -----> front lower socket

[rsda1980]

thank you so much for making this clear for me!

helped really alot