Half Normalled Patchbay - what is "Correct" way to wire Outboard gear

[infopimpster]

I have a half normalled patchbay... what is the correct way - or convention if it doesn't matter - to wire outbound gear up on the back?

eg:

top = in for instrument (out to gear)
bottom = out for gear (back to line)

Thanks slutz,

-steve

[cbc459]

As far as I can tell, what you said is right. The top row is ouputs, and the bottom rows is inputs.

[theom]

in general,

out on top ins on bottom.


Half normalled as in:

Say you have 4 outboard mic pres. (among lots of other stuff)
And an a/d converter, just for this example say and 8 ch

you wire the output of the mic pres to jacks 1-4 TOP of the bay.
And your A/D line ins to Bottom jacks 1-8

So in operation: you do not need a patch cable going from top to bottom positions in the bays to pass signal.

The output of pres 1-4 will be normally patched internally to A/D ins 1-4 "normalled"

Now the cool part about half normalled is, if you wanted to pass the output of pre #one to a compressor and still simultaneously record the un-compressed signal>>> you place a patch cable in top jack one, the other end of that cable goes to the "IN" of your comp.
Now you patch the out of the comp to bottom jack 5 to get the compressed signal into a/d #5.
Because your bay is half normalled your uncompressed signal is still normalled to a/d 1
So you can record both compressed and uncompressed.

The signal from pre one will be patched to a/d one UNLESS you patch something to jack one bottom to "break" the normal.

Many studios use non-normaled or discrete jack pairs in their bays for insert type processing like comps and gates. You can damage some gear by means of the normal shorting inputs and outputs. so be careful.

It's really up to the installer how stuff is in the bays.
I've seen normalled stuff paired top and bottom and discrete "in and outs" going side to side.

Man, I made that sound a lot more confusing than it really is, I hope it helped more than it added to confusion.

[infopimpster]

theom nailed it - that is exactly what I want - to track dry and wet at the same time - great setup suggestions!!!

im thinking about starting a "show your patchbay setup" thread to see how everyone configures their layouts.... meanwhile i have a good start here!

if you find this thread and have more suggestions let me know

thanks again!

-steve

[Jayro_Rockola]

Originally Posted by infopimpster

I'm thinking of starting a thread to see how everyone configures their layouts....

I would love to see that. I'm sort of a patchbay aficionado.

[infopimpster]

Done.

show us your patchbay setup(s)

[Bloodz]

Originally Posted by theom

in general,

out on top ins on bottom.


Half normalled as in:

Say you have 4 outboard mic pres. (among lots of other stuff)
And an a/d converter, just for this example say and 8 ch

you wire the output of the mic pres to jacks 1-4 TOP of the bay.
And your A/D line ins to Bottom jacks 1-8

So in operation: you do not need a patch cable going from top to bottom positions in the bays to pass signal.

The output of pres 1-4 will be normally patched internally to A/D ins 1-4 "normalled"

Now the cool part about half normalled is, if you wanted to pass the output of pre #one to a compressor and still simultaneously record the un-compressed signal>>> you place a patch cable in top jack one, the other end of that cable goes to the "IN" of your comp.
Now you patch the out of the comp to bottom jack 5 to get the compressed signal into a/d #5.
Because your bay is half normalled your uncompressed signal is still normalled to a/d 1
So you can record both compressed and uncompressed.

The signal from pre one will be patched to a/d one UNLESS you patch something to jack one bottom to "break" the normal.

Many studios use non-normaled or discrete jack pairs in their bays for insert type processing like comps and gates. You can damage some gear by means of the normal shorting inputs and outputs. so be careful.

It's really up to the installer how stuff is in the bays.
I've seen normalled stuff paired top and bottom and discrete "in and outs" going side to side.

Man, I made that sound a lot more confusing than it really is, I hope it helped more than it added to confusion.

what about lines comming from the mics, would thos typicaly be the first row female xlr in and be the top row so they are auto routed to the bottom.

thanks

[theom]

Originally Posted by Bloodz

what about lines coming from the mics, would thos typicaly be the first row female xlr in and be the top row so they are auto routed to the bottom.

thanks

mic level patch bays are just something I have generally avoided.

I've worked places where they have several rooms and all the various xlr panels end up on a tt bay. I guess i'm ok with that. with a ton of wall boxes. normaling the most used panel to console connections in the bay. Note this bay is in another area of the room than the line level bays.

You dont want to mix line and mic level in one bay. Phantom can mess stuff up.

I do like xlr panels from recording room lines and xlr panels to various mic pres.
But you cant really normal them. just hard patch with a lot of little xlrs.

And yes, outs on top xlr Male
Ins on the bottom XLR female.

This is just my way, I know people do mix line and mic in one patch field. I just dont like it. YMM=\]

[larry b]

I keep my outboard processing such as compression, eq, reverb, delay, etc on non-normalled bays, paired vertically with the outputs on the top row and inputs on the bottom, for uniformity across the patchbay. That way, my signal processing gear doesnt normal the output back to the input. Then the routing-oriented bays that handle outputs of mic preamps, console direct outs, etc are set up on half-normalled bays that normal to my PT Mix system. The outputs of the PT system are on another half-normalled bay that normals to my console's tape return path. Mic lines from the studio are on custom made XLR patch panels, male (from studio) on top, female (to mic pres) on the bottom.

I think that's pretty standard studio stuff right there.