2023: A Year in Gear (What You've Bought or Want to Buy in 2023)

[kritikon]

Not this version, the newer QX but mostly the same features. Finally arrived, waiting for a month. Spent most of the last 2 days wiring everything up properly via patchbay. Forgot what a bastard of a job that is, and discovered the spiders have been hard at it underneath/behind the desk. It has to be the worst studio chore ever. 48 fkn cables... . Finally finished and nice to be back with a mixer again, bonus that I got some old hw fx out to play with and much easier to get my old LA4C comp going again. Low pass vca compression on some old style Opsix FM bass, mmmmhmmmm. ITB bass can't touch it IMO. It feels like a proper studio again with a mixer.

Fkn spiders though....how do they make so many webs?

[WatchTheGuitar]

I have a much smaller mixer just really to let me play my streamed music from devices or eurorack without needing the PC, but it has a massively annoying feature that there’s no independent volume level for phones and monitors and if you turn down the “main” output level the monitors hang off then the phone level zeroes. Derp.

[jmichaelkober]

My main music gear purchase this year was getting a new MacBook for DJing... then found out that I didn't have to pay to get the newest version of Logic Pro since I already had an older version, so it's been a nice surprise reacquainting myself with Logic after a long absence.

[Daimonicon]

I'll probably will buy a Solar evertune eqipped guitar. I've only 2 evertune equipped guitars and it's the best that have happened to guitars in years. Just tune and forget and record and record without having to check the tuning.

[justin3am]

Spent most of the last 2 days wiring everything up properly via patchbay. Forgot what a bastard of a job that is, and discovered the spiders have been hard at it underneath/behind the desk. It has to be the worst studio chore ever. 48 fkn cables...

I have a love/hate relationship with rewiring patch bays. I love organizing things and thinking about the most efficient signal flow but it can certainly be a task.

At the studio where I used to work, it was all TT patchbays with solder tabs on the back, so we did everything we could to avoid changing connections at the back of the patch bay.

These days, I'm using TT patch bays but they all have DB-25 connectors on the back, which makes rewiring things a lot easier. Between my studio patch bays, stage box and the patch bay in the potable mixer case, there are over 300 patch points and over 500 cables. It's pretty ridiculous.

[elxsound]

Spent most of the last 2 days wiring everything up properly via patchbay. Forgot what a bastard of a job that is, and discovered the spiders have been hard at it underneath/behind the desk. It has to be the worst studio chore ever. 48 fkn cables...

I have a love/hate relationship with rewiring patch bays. I love organizing things and thinking about the most efficient signal flow but it can certainly be a task.

At the studio where I used to work, it was all TT patchbays with solder tabs on the back, so we did everything we could to avoid changing connections at the back of the patch bay.

These days, I'm using TT patch bays but they all have DB-25 connectors on the back, which makes rewiring things a lot easier. Between my studio patch bays, stage box and the patch bay in the potable mixer case, there are over 300 patch points and over 500 cables. It's pretty ridiculous.

Just ordered my first proper patchbay, an Art P48. Should I look at getting 8 channel snakes?

I have a focusrite 18i20 and the newly added Audient SP8 via ADAT.

I'm going to draw up a diagram, but the only things I'd want in fixed positions are an ART 2 channel pre-amp, 4 effects (Zen Delay, Bim, Bam, Boum), and 2 instruments Opsix and SE-02.

I'm sure I'm forgetting something big, but can't remember what especially since most instruments will get rotated out.

[pekbro]

Maybe i never had enough stuff to pass through one, but i never really got the patchbay thing. It always cost me extra
cables for not much reason tbh.

*gotta try bolting it onto a pedal board maybe.

[kritikon]

These days, I'm using TT patch bays but they all have DB-25 connectors on the back, which makes rewiring things a lot easier. Between my studio patch bays, stage box and the patch bay in the potable mixer case, there are over 300 patch points and over 500 cables. It's pretty ridiculous.

300 patchpoints . I think I'd kill myself rather than repatch that lot...

[kritikon]

Just ordered my first proper patchbay, an Art P48. Should I look at getting 8 channel snakes?

I have a focusrite 18i20 and the newly added Audient SP8 via ADAT.

I'm going to draw up a diagram, but the only things I'd want in fixed positions are an ART 2 channel pre-amp, 4 effects (Zen Delay, Bim, Bam, Boum), and 2 instruments Opsix and SE-02.

I'm sure I'm forgetting something big, but can't remember what especially since most instruments will get rotated out.

Snakes/looms are useful, esp if you've got groups of 8s like the in/outs.

Advantages are: less tangle, easier to keep audio cables away from power cables etc, more obvious where everything is to/from if you ever have to redo it or change it, same quality cables (obvs you want decent cables but inevitably you end up with a mishmash of different cables - some of mine are definitely questionable). Colour coordination makes it less confusing instead of everything being the same colour (all my looms have 8 different colours on the jacks).

Disadvantages: obvious one is weight. Have to be careful how it's set up because you'd be surprised how heavy those things are. It can put a huge amount of stress on the jacks which can drag down - worth seeing if you can balance the snake somehow or tie/rest it at the back so it doesn't just drop down and yank on all the sockets. And they're not cheap if you have them made up. You can buy some that are pre-made but usually only certain specified lengths. I had several sets made from a studio supplies place aeons ago that were to the length I needed (obvs that is now different in a different studio space, longer than I need mostly ) and TBH they were horrifyingly expensive at the time. Lasted decades though, so a good investment. The other obvs downside is for hw outs - they only work if your hw is all close together. Even for synths on a 3-tier stand a loom is difficult. Much easier for racks though, I used to have all outboard via looms.

In pure terms of tidiness and organisation I like snakes/looms.

As to fixed positions - if you have them normalled they sit in a fixed in/out position for usual use, but patching from the front lets you route anything to anywhere when/if you need to, so it's not actually fixed. That's the main benefit of patchbays - if you want to just move synth A from mixer channel 1 to channel 7 you do it from the patchbay front. Move synth B to channel 1 - from the patchbay front. If you have a mixer with direct outs you might have the patchbay normalled with those going directly to your 8 interface ins, but if you wanted to use your submix buses to your interface instead (so you could compress a drum bus or whatever) - just patch from the front.

Depends on your set up. I used to use the patchbay(s) non-normalled with just direct in/out from each single jack when I didn't have the mixer and recorded direct into my interface. I even used outboard that way. Now with a mixer it's normalled for ease of use. Either way you do it, nothing has to be fixed. TBH I never really saw the point of half-normalled but I'm sure it has uses...

[kritikon]

EDIT I remember someone explaining half-normalled to me once but I fell asleep half way through.

[pekbro]

Good explanation on the patch bay usage kritikon thx

[kritikon]

Patchbays are unsung heroes. They make no noise, are unexciting and long-winded to set up, but if you have enough hw they're invaluable. Possibly my best ever purchases. I didn't get the point of them at all until I actually started using them. TBH when I lost my big mixer in 1999, I thought they'd be redundant but were even more useful. I can make music without them but it's so much easier with them, either via mixer or direct.

[kritikon]

Oh yeah - old defunct patchbays make great storage for unused cables too. I have some crappy old Tandy DIY cheap-as-chips ones that I used to have up on the wall and hang cables from them.

[elxsound]

Thanks Kritkon! From what I was looking at, I believe I want to keep mine setup as half normaled.

I want the effects boxes and instruments connected to specified ins/outs on 18i20/SP8 to route digitally from the DAW, plus be able to break the connection when I introudce a different source, or if I want to route one effect into another (not digitally).

I have to do some measurements, but I think I can get by with just 3 feet/1 meter length snakes, so mass-manufactured rainbowed 8 channel snakes is what I'm thinking.

[justin3am]

I have almost every patch point set to half-normal. It just means that the connection between top and bottom only breaks when something is connected to the bottom. In modular parlance, this is the equivalent of using a passive multiple. With an output connected to the back-top, and an input connected to the back-bottom, you can connect a patch cable to the front-top at which point the signal is routed through the front patch cable and the back-bottom connection at the same time. This is really useful if you wanna send an output to its default connection and also another input, in parallel.

The biggest down side to a patchbay is that it doubles the number of cables you need for any connection. If you have a lot of XLR gear, you need a bunch of XLR>1/4" cables. Snakes are a good way to limit some cable clutter but as kritikon said, it depends on how close together you have your gear. If you get off-the-shelf snakes, you can usually cut the sheath open to expose more of the individual cables for longer stretches or you can get custom snakes from someplace like redco. https://www.redco.com

Having normalled patches is a big part of the appeal of a patch bay. If you have a mixer that doesn't have tape returns for every channel, you can use inserts with a patchbay, to easily send channels to audio interface inputs or route through effects. If you have a bunch of stuff that needs to be connected to audio interface inputs, you can have your most used stuff normalled to your interface inputs... or through effects and then into the interface... whatever you want. Just make sure that if you go into the mic inputs on an interface or preamp, that you avoid using phantom power. If you disconnect a patch while phantom power is on, you'll get 48v shorted to the hot and cold pins of the cable, which can potentially damage some things. I tend to use a standalone phantom power box when using condenser mics or inline preamps.