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Stupid and annoying problem here...

I’ve got two 48 point patchbays . The Furmans got 1/4” on the front and RCA on the back. The Behringers 1/4” all around.

Is there any way of preventing the connections from ending up “scratchy”?
About once every two weeks I’ve got to crawl behind all of my crap to turn all of the connections. Big pain in the ass! Is there anything I can do to keep these connections clean? Maybe some kind of spray or magic solution?

I know that I can’t be the only one with this problem. Advise anyone?

BTW, I’m getting just to damned fat to be crawling behind my gear these day’s. Then again, It’s probably the only exercise I’m getting lately. :eek:

dk

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Guest Tue, 09/04/2001 - 19:52

you can pick up switchcraft tt bays for as low as $100 if you shop around, I saw some brand new ones selling I think for $120 about a month ago. not that switchcraft is the best but at the price you can find em at you cant beat em. you have to be persistant and keep your eyes open for the deals :)

hollywood_steve Tue, 09/04/2001 - 20:18

This internet thing is gonna be big; there is actually a guy out there that goes by "Mr. Patchbay."

http://www.flash.net/~motodata/patchbays

He specializes in supplying used patchbays that he has spent many hours "de-soldering" - and I can vouch that he does a helluva job. The 52 point longframe bay that I purchased from him looked nearly new. He must spend several hours per patchbay to get them this clean. When you divide his price (around $100) by the amount of hours he spends cleaning these things up, well, you wouldn't want to live on the resulting hourly wage. He's a great guy to do business with and he stands behind his products.

Just be honest with yourself about your skills and the time required to install a unit like this. I made it overly complex by adding XLR connectors on panels mounted on the rack's rear rails. This way I can easily add or change the equipment available via the patchbay. But it has also required about 40 hours (so far) just to prepare the cable form that connects the longframe patch panel to the XLR rear panels. And I haven't even started soldering yet. So don't start a project like this thinking that you will be ready for that important session booked next week. It ain't gonna happen.

Steve
sjp@pacbell.net

sapplegate Wed, 09/05/2001 - 03:31

Butterhead,

A soldered patchbay is obviously going to be the best in the long run. In the meantime, I recommend looking into the CAIG labs products like ProGold. It is a contact cleaner/enhancer and has worked well for us.

Also make sure you strain-relieve your cables going to the patchbays (on the rear). These connectors don't like a lot of torque stress on them. That too can cause intermittent problems.

If you do go with soldered connections, be prepared to spend the time and money.

Faeflora Wed, 09/05/2001 - 13:07

I posted some questions about patchbays recently.

What Fletcher meant is that those $99 furman and Behringer patchbays are poorly built and will sound like shit pretty soon after you buy them if you use them frequently.

If you're using the patchbay heavily, perhaps you should get a higher quality patchbay like a ADC or Audio Accessories or Switchcraft.

Soon I'm going to order an Audio Accessories long frame TT bay with solder wrap posts. They were friendly to me when I spoke with them on the phone :) .

http://www.patchbays.com

anonymous Thu, 09/06/2001 - 22:56

I just checked out the Mr Pathcbay site. I know now where I'll be buying my next patchbays from. Now I only have to decide on 1/4" (my existing setup) or TT. I definitely want multipin connectors on the back of the patchbay for easy breakdown because I primarily do mobile recording. And he has a couple of those in stock right now.

erockerboy Sat, 09/08/2001 - 13:33

Hey gang,

What's the current wisdom regarding the "best" make of TT patchbay?

We're using a combo of old Switchcraft and ADC bays right now. After years of use, and despite a whole lotta Cramolin, many patch points are getting noisy/intermittent. Plus we're adding a bunch of gear, so it's probably time for a studio-wide upgrade anyways. I was going to go out and buy a bunch of new Switchcraft bays, but was wondering if there are any other brands to consider. Heard about Audio Accessories, Mosses & Mitchell, and ReAn (?) TT bays. What's the best? I only wanna do this once, so price is far less important than quality. These bays get used heavily, so we need bulletproof reliability. Any suggestions?

Thanx!

hollywood_steve Mon, 09/10/2001 - 17:00

http://www.middleatlantic.com/rackac/ucp/custom.htm

That is the page for a product from Middle Atlantic that I used for my patchbay's rear panel XLR jacks. It allows you to configure 30 XLR jacks per two rack spaces, in any combination of male or female connectors. You can also include any other type of connectors along with the XLR's. The product assembles very easily and the final result is stronger than almost any "off the shelf" product that you can buy. I use these panels as the "building blocks" for almost any project I build for my studio. You can find them in any electronics store that has an audio section.

sjp@pacbell.net