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jindrich · 8th November 2009

A patchbay is such a simple and yet complex thing. It allows to connect all sort of devices in almost infinite ways, as long as one has enough patchcords.

But lets remember a studio patchbay has A LOT of points. For instance, just to connect the insert points from a 24chm mixer to, say, 16 pieces of outboard, no less than 80 patch points are needed.

The X-Patch will surely be a great product, but it only connects 16 sources to 16 destinations. That will cover for instance the inserts of a 8ch mixer (like the X-Desk) with 8 outboard devices. Or with two X-Patch units, you could connect a 16 ch mixer (its insert points) to 16 devices, but you won't be able to put any of those devices into the same chain (say insert send>comp>eq>insert return). To do such a thing, or to connect 24 insert points to 16 devices, you'll need a bunch of cascaded X-Patches, and the routing would be a total mess.

Therefore I fail to see the point of the X-Patch with just 16+16 points. Home studios (which have fewer things) won't be that interested in them, and for bigger setups it doesn't have enough points. A 32+32 (essentially what the Matrix has, because it connects 16 devices to 16 insert points) would have certainly been more expensive, but much more functional in the end, and would have made easier to cascade between units.

I've been drawing some diagrams this afternoon, and I couldnt find a way to connect 24 insert points with 24 outboard devices other than using ...SIX of the X-Patches, so that any of the 24 chs of a mixer could access any of the 24 outboard pieces. And that's all straight, without even allowing chains among those 24 devices (like a comp into an EQ). You'd need NINE X-Patches for that.

I don't know what to think, maybe there's something I havent considered or done properly...

8th November 2009	#29
jindrich Lives for gear Joined: Mar 2003 Location: Palma+Stuttgart Posts: 1,599	A patchbay is such a simple and yet complex thing. It allows to connect all sort of devices in almost infinite ways, as long as one has enough patchcords. But lets remember a studio patchbay has A LOT of points. For instance, just to connect the insert points from a 24chm mixer to, say, 16 pieces of outboard, no less than 80 patch points are needed. The X-Patch will surely be a great product, but it only connects 16 sources to 16 destinations. That will cover for instance the inserts of a 8ch mixer (like the X-Desk) with 8 outboard devices. Or with two X-Patch units, you could connect a 16 ch mixer (its insert points) to 16 devices, but you won't be able to put any of those devices into the same chain (say insert send>comp>eq>insert return). To do such a thing, or to connect 24 insert points to 16 devices, you'll need a bunch of cascaded X-Patches, and the routing would be a total mess. Therefore I fail to see the point of the X-Patch with just 16+16 points. Home studios (which have fewer things) won't be that interested in them, and for bigger setups it doesn't have enough points. A 32+32 (essentially what the Matrix has, because it connects 16 devices to 16 insert points) would have certainly been more expensive, but much more functional in the end, and would have made easier to cascade between units. I've been drawing some diagrams this afternoon, and I couldnt find a way to connect 24 insert points with 24 outboard devices other than using ...SIX of the X-Patches, so that any of the 24 chs of a mixer could access any of the 24 outboard pieces. And that's all straight, without even allowing chains among those 24 devices (like a comp into an EQ). You'd need NINE X-Patches for that. I don't know what to think, maybe there's something I havent considered or done properly...