Patchbays in location recording racks

[LX3]

I'm considering integrating a patchbay into to my 48-channel preamp rack rebuild. It would open up some cool possibilities.

My concern is reliability. Has anyone taken patchbays out on the road with them, and did you find that they stayed working? (especially the normalling... obviously, if normalling contacts start to fail, you could be in all kinds of trouble).

I'm leaning towards the old-style B-gauge format. Expensive, but I don't think TT would be as dependable around dirty, messy, mayhem-ridden rock venues.

Thoughts?

[Remoteness]

Paul,

We have analog patch bays in racks with heavy duty road cases and also a few two and four row bays in SKB cases for super portable applications.

All our bays are wired to ELCO 90 pin and XLR connectors.
And, for the most part all our equipment racks have ELCO/XLR/BNC panels where applicable.
Interfacing on the road is an extremely simple process.

The SKB bays can be brought in and inserted into the ELCO chain as needed when our larger bays are not necessary.

We just bring in the specific bay depending on whether we need full, half and/or no normal bays.

We exclusively use Bantam (TT) patch bays with no major problems.
How they are wired, installed, mounted and stored will keep the reliability high.
Applying Loctite to all screws and bolts is mandatory!
There are NO ifs, ands or buts when it comes to securing the fasteners.

I found Audio Accessories patch bays to be the best for many reasons.
We have been using them since the 80s with excellent reliability and service.

Even with the excellent build quality of Audio Accessories bays we still have everything wired to ELCOs, so on the outside chance something fails you can either swap out the bay or wire it directly or to two ELCO to XLR fan snakes, so you can use it as a cross patch point.

I hope this helped.

[LX3]

Thanks Steve. I'd considered an "outboard" patchbay, mentally swung away from the idea, but now you've got me considering it again. It's definitely more reassuring when you have the option of taking the patchbay completely out of circuit.

[Remoteness]

Originally Posted by LX3

Thanks Steve. I'd considered an "outboard" patchbay, mentally swung away from the idea, but now you've got me considering it again. It's definitely more reassuring when you have the option of taking the patchbay completely out of circuit.

It's all part of the master plan to have all sorts of back up options on every level.

The super portable SKB patch bay is split up in various sections.

• Stage outs/Pre ins
  
• Pre outs/Recorder ins
  
• Recorder outs/Console ins
  
• Tie lines, et cetera, etc
  
• Distribution amps/Stereo devices, CRM, STU and such

[LX3]

Interesting... thanks Steve, you have me thinking all over again thumbsup As an ex-studio guy, I appreciate the value of having all my interconnections in one place.

I do enjoy this planning phase, it's that challenge of weighing up multiple pros and cons. No-one likes carrying a lot of separate pieces of gear to pull off a fairly standard gig, so I'm always trying to consolidate things where possible. On the other hand, if we get too "integrated" it's possible to lose versatility, and end up hauling around more weight around than we need to on the small gigs.

Not sure exactly which way I'm going to go with the patchbay (I'm leaning back towards integrating it with the preamp rack, and having a secondary patchbay for everything else). Another one to chew over for a few days.

Thanks again.

PS we typically have Mosses and Mitchell and Neutrik to choose from over here, and a bit of Switchcraft. I'm getting interested in the idea of a fully-enclosed, cased patchbay, so that the only entry point for dirt is the actual sockets themselves. Although that's an issue that would be mostly avoided by building a standalone patchbay.... ooh, decisions...

[t_chance]

Thanks for bringing this subject up LX3.
I've been knocking this idea about for some time and just started to setup my own studio patch system. I went the 1/4 inch route, but now I can see the ultimate economy in space and time with doing it all once the right way with TT. I have two hd24s and it would be so convenient to be able to just patch from the front on the live gigs too, avoiding the hassle of going around to the backside on band changes. So much easier to pop in and out the money pre's and re-routing.
I'm thinking of going with the Cannon FK37 connectors 12-up per tail to compliment a snake/split system. I think they would be more robust too. And thanks to His Remoteness as always for his spot on advice.

[LX3]

See what you've done Tom, you just gone and given me another idea (unrelated to my patchbay decision, but directly related to my new splitter).

I don't know how anyone new to this game ever gets anything built - I've been in the "remote" business proper for seven years, been thinking about this rack rebuild for a year, and still I'm changing my mind about it.

[LX3]

Hey Steve, I just checked out the Audio Accessories products.

You are absolutely right, as ever. They just happen to make exactly the patchbay product I was dreaming of, but assumed no-one actually produced. Amazing. Expensive probably, but it might save me having to custom-build what I want.

[Remoteness]

The awesome thing about the Audio Accessories patch bays is the fact that the normalising doesn't have to be above or below the point you want to normal.
It can be in another room or rack if you want.

Furthermore, I believe they are still the only manufacturer that makes a 52 patch point TT rows. They can also layout the points with or without spacing and such.
So, you can custom design your bay with the exact spacing in between the point and they will fabricate it to your spec.