analogue patch bays, rack gear & placement

[disuye]

(Note first to mods: If necessary please move this to a more appropriate forum. It falls under construction, but doesn't have anything to do with acoustics!)

Are there any potential problems with locating analogue patch bays in the same rack as my digital equipment (like soundcards & convertors etc.)?

I posted this in Mastering as everyone here has smallish sized rooms, often with patch bays and a modest amount of digital & analogue gear together in close proximity. A scenario more in line with my own room than - say - larger tracking & mixing studios. Am re-wiring my studio around a pair of used Mosses & Mitchell GPO bays which already have a substantial loom soldered on the rear ... Before I go and make a big mistake shortening & modifying cables, just wanted to check I wasn't designing myself into problems.

I've read a few tips suggesting not to put patch bays into racks with gear containing cooling fans nor gear that generates too much heat (dust movement); keep them away from big obvious sources of noise, and to keep the rack horizontal to prevent dust entering the bays etc... but haven't read anything with regards placement directly next to digital gear. Any interference or noise issue I could be creating by doing this? I have an API A2D, Crane Song Avocet (DAC) and Digi002 (AD/DA) which I would like to locate around the bays.

Space is not really an issue, so if its best to keep em apart, I will do so.

Thanks in advance!
D

[MASSIVE Master]

I'm a big fan of a little space...

But the easy way is to take a "noise sample" of the rig without the bay (assuming it's not hooked up as of yet) and then a sample after the bay is hooked up.

Chances are pretty good that there won't be any change...

[disuye]

All of my rack-to-rack signals are balanced. Just my gear (guitar DI and old analogue synths) are unbalanced. I was more concerned about the internal electronics within digital gear transmitting off funky noises which could then be picked up by a nearby patch bay. Perhaps?

As for Mosses & Mitchell GPO ... Agreed! ... I did my homework in the High End forum then watched the GS Classified section for several weeks until a couple came up for sale. As far as I've read, the *only* advantage of bantam TT is space (as they were designed to be wired up to large format consoles), and that'll never be an issue for me! Plus I am a fat fingered dolt so soldering & daily patching on a 24 hole longframe is nice and comfortable. The M&M's are replacing my trusty but now rapidly failing Hosa TRS consumer-level bays.

Thanks for the noise-floor measurement suggestion, I could try that, although my current rig is pretty embarrassingly wired up (and that's being polite about it) so it wouldn't be any useful sort of reference point.

[GGreen]

Get yourself a GPO cleaning jack and some swtichcleaner

Alongside some 'brasso' or 'scotchbrite' for the patch leads themselves

Those GPO's can suffer from dirt in the contacts overtime and get intermittant.

A quick squirt into the jack and insert it/remove it a few times will help to keep everything ticketyboo.

Gareth

[unit7]

Instead of starting a new thread I found this thread to be close enough...
Is there a standard on how units in the rack correspond to the order they show up on the patch bay? Going left to right on the patch bay, would you start with the units on top of the rack or from the bottom?

[Scott Anthony]

The most easily used bays I've found follow the console's signal flow from top to bottom, with outboard to the right, located near commonly associated areas of the console. Reverbs near the sends and/or returns, eqs and comps to the right of the inserts, 2tks near the buss patch points. In the eq and comp section of the bay, patch points go from left to right in the order in the rack top to bottom.

[unit7]

Originally Posted by Scott Anthony

from left to right in the order in the rack top to bottom.

Thx! Suspected that. I have it the other way currently, which has been feeling a bit awkward. Luckily I have d-sub bays so I'm up for a little re arranging before this season takes off!

[The Orbit Room]

"Alongside some 'brasso' or 'scotchbrite' for the patch leads themselves"

Use only Light Abarsive liquid or paste cleaners made to clean nickel. Use lint free soft cloths to polish the plugs.

"A quick squirt into the jack and insert it/remove it a few times will help to keep everything ticketyboo."

Never squirt anything into the jack field. Use a burnishing plug (available from Vertigo) or clean off any cleaning paste residue with a spray cleaner/ lubricant with a clean lint free cloth, insert into jack field, rotate plug and remove if not needed.
When making a patch, I insert the patch plug and rotate the plug a quarter to half turn as space allows. This helps to maintain the patch points contacts when used with clean patch cords.