Ok so I'm not sure if this is the right place to make this post but here goes.
I need 2 96 Point TT Bays for a new studio im setting up.
I have a pro tools setup with 16 in 8 out a mackie 1604 mixer and a 20 channel snake to my live room and various outboard gear.
I want to setup the patchbays so most of the gear has no normals.
I need Full Normaling for a the inserts on the mackie mixer and some half normals for outputs of pro tools.
So in a nutshell I dont need a lot of normaling.
I was on this mr patchbay site (http://home.flash.net/~motodata/patchbays/)
Looking at the ADC 96 Point TT bay ( 3 pins per jack) he has for $125
I emailed him about the availability of them and he says he doesnt have one but he has a bay that has 5 pins per jack.
Can anyone shed some light on this?
Can I acheive Full and Half normals with a patchbay that only has 3 pins per jack or do I need a bay that has 5 per jack?
I have to order 2 bays this week.
Does anyone have any recomendations of where I can find some fairly affordable 96 point TT bays?

I am under sort of a time crunch and need to get all my gear hooked up fast.
I am aware of the punchdown style bays but their a little more expensive and I will have help soldering and am Not too corncerened about that.

If anyone could provide me with a site or place I can get a hold of what I need I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks guys

I assume the 5-pin style is a switched (or normaled) jack. The two extra "Pins" are the Tip and Ring switches. When there isn't a plug inserted in the jack these points are connected to their respective conductors. When a plug is present the switch breaks and the normal is broken. TT Jacks with only three solder terminals are unswiched (non-normaled) jacks.

If you are in a hurry, be prepared to spend some long nights soldering. Properly terminating patchbays takes a while. If you are going to bring out the points to a punchdown block, You might want to bring out the normals as well... That is the ultimate in patchbay flexibility.

Well, I was looking at these audio accoesories TT bays with DB 25 connections in the back which are really nice but way too expensive.(they want $890 each plus then you need a bunch of DB25 to XLR/TRS cables and such for about $80 each)
Not im going to go with the Whirlwind WTT961 TT bays for about $350 each and solder my hands off. Most of the gear im connecting is not going to be normaled so hopefully I wont be looking at as much time soldering as I thought. I only have like 8 inserts from a mackie mixer to be fully normaled and some pro tools outputs that will need half normaling to my presonus central station.
Thanks for the reply.

just call up bob(mr. patchbay) and ask him. i got my bays from him a few months ago and he is very helpful. answered all my questions and then some(he's a talker).

call him at night though, he doesnt answer during the day.

might also want to check out:

www.bittree.com


not sure about the price, but i've heard good things about the quality.

I've just bought 4 switchcraft paychbays and actually have no idea how to solder them up.
I know how they work but I don't know which of the 5 pins is ground, hot etc.
Is there a good website or document I can refer to?

James

The guys at..... www.redco.com seem to have very affordable prices and if you want they`ll wire everything up for you as well so your good to go.

yea, i actually just found redco and their close by too. Im going to pick up 2 Audio Accesories 5 pin Solder TT bays.
thanks guys

If you look closely at the side of a jack, you'll see how everything is "stacked up". Each of the various contacts has a thin metal plate that is sandwiched by brown insulators. If you follow each strip of metal, you'll see the function it performs....IE, tip, ring, normals, etc.

Bri

pm'ed you.