Rackmount/Patchbay - Do I need one?

[AudioJunky]

Right now I have all my "rack" stuff on my table next to me. It works.. I can get to the back of the stuff, and it is right at my left.

Now I know why a rack is used- but wouldn't that make it harder in some cases to get to the back of your gear- or is that what patchbays are for... to put your stuff in a rack and patch it so that you don't have to fish in the back the whole time?

Do patchbays have to be big $$$ or does a simple one work and not change the sound of what you are doing?

[drBill]

IMO, patchbays are a 100% must for a pro studio. For an individual use studio, they are preferable, but perhaps not a 100% necessity. They facilitate a noiseless, creative, quick working envrionment as opposed to a kludged together mess in the back of a rack. I can't imagine working without one and every studio I visit (composers) who have a halfa$$ed patchbay are a nightmare to work in.

If you buy cheap or don't know what you're doing, the interfacing of gear thru a patchbay can be quite a nightmare of ground hums and balanced to unbalanced problems. Best to research it fully first and don't cheap out if your'e doing it yourself.

[AudioJunky]

Currently I just run everything into my MOTU 828- but it is a bitch always going through all these cables when you have a germanium, great river mp1-nv, 2 dbx compressors, a cd player, a triton le.. etc... all wired back there. I'm wondering if a patchbay would help me with this?

I'm looking for a one shot way to make these cables easy to manage along with everything tied into one power source- so I flip the switch and I'm ready to roll.

audiojunky

[Kenny Gioia]

I like not having one.

My studio is not open to the public so I'm (or my assistant) the only one fishing back there.

All my gear is in ATA cases and most of it is coming off of XLR snakes.

I only have to patch when I track because I keep all my outputs in the Folcrom all the time.

It's more flexible for me and I can't stand jiggling patchbay cables or realizing that one of them is shot.

XLR's work every time. (at least more often)

Good luck.

[audioalchemy]

if you do it right patchbays are a beautiful thing. i couldn't imagine being without one. even if you have a limited amount of gear. it's much easier and quicker just to make a couple of patches rather than f'ing around with a ton of cables in a rats nest. plus if you have a client present you don't want to make him/her wait while you monkey around behind your gear, when you can just make a quick patch.

on the setup side i use a TT jackfield and all ins and outs are hardwired to ELCO connections and the gear interfaces from there. i love it. get yourself one, but learn all the ways to hook it up first or you'll go mad.

peace,
AudioAlchemy

[ulysses]

You shouldn't have to cheap out on the patchbay because good ones are coming out of studio closings all the time. Check eBay. But if you have to cheap out and buy one of the modular kind (the kind that has 1/4" jacks on the rear as well as the front), you should be aware that there are several companies selling them and most of them suck. I've seen them with dbx, Neutrik, Rean, Behringer, and other names on them. By far the best ones I've used have been the Neutrik ones. They still suck in comparison to a real, hard-wired patchbay but they're also a whole lot easier to use and you can rearrange them when you get more or different gear, without having to spend a few days soldering or punching in the back of your rack. For a small home studio, I think they're a reasonable solution. If you believe they're a business investment, then invest in the real deal.

[absrec]

There is also something to be said for not wearing out the connectors on the back of your gear. A quality patchbay is designed to be plugged and unplugged constantly. Those DSUB bays from redco look pretty cool and you can get the snakes custom made to fit your needs. If you go the TT "solder bay" route, I would suggest doing them (or getting them done) right the first time and solder every last point on them no matter whether or not you have enough gear to fill it out. That way, it's a once and done thing. When you add a new piece of gear the most you'll have to solder is an XLR (or 4) to the other end.

-Aaron

[keczinem]

i agree with all the previous posts, some very good points. i just recently purchased a modular 1/4" patchbay for my home set up, not my dream configuration, but it's in a flight case and i'm on the go quite a bit, as well as on a budget so it seemed like the best choice for the time being. that being said it has made my life so much easier (and more organized), i now dont understand why i wasnt working this way years ago. definitely check out ebay if your in the market.

[rids]

Can someone mention what some good better quality patchbays would be? Also, what is TT(L)? I'm guessing it's better quality than 1/4. I'd like to only deal with 1/4 for my studio, so would it be a compromise over the TT type?

[GPl]

Mr Patchbay is a good place to check out.

[ulysses]

Originally Posted by rids

Can someone mention what some good better quality patchbays would be? Also, what is TT(L)? I'm guessing it's better quality than 1/4. I'd like to only deal with 1/4 for my studio, so would it be a compromise over the TT type?

TT stands for Tiny Telephone. The advantage is that you can fit more patch points into a given number of rack spaces. If your studio isn't large, you can save money by buying a 1/4" patchbay on the used market. The other advantage, in the case of modular 1/4" bays, is that you can use the same male connectors on the patchbay end of your snakes, your patch cords, and in some cases on the equipment end of your snakes. This allows you to get a better price on the connectors by buying them in larger quantities. It should be noted that Longframe 1/4" TRS patchbays may not provide solid connection when used with standard (shortframe) TRS plugs.

ADC and Switchcraft make high quality patching equipment that can be rather expensive. Neutrik, dbx, and a number of other companies make inexpensive modular shortframe TRS patchbays. Among those, I've found Neutrik's product to be the least undesirable.

Note that "TT" has also been used in reference to another type of patchbay. The old military-style bays that provide a balanced connection on a tandem pair of 1/4" TS plugs was sometimes called "TT" which I assume stood for "Tip-Tip" because the balanced connection was across the two tips. These are rarely seen anymore, and had the distinct feature/flaw that the polarity of the signal could be inverted by flipping over the plug on one end of the cable.