ive decited that i hate moving my rack cabinet in and out when i want to change my routing in the studio. so my questions are,
1. what makes a good patchbay?
2. am i going to loose quality the more times i route the signal in and out of it?
3. should i be using balanced or unballanced cables?
Comments
If you do install one my tip is to mount it horizontally. Mine i
If you do install one my tip is to mount it horizontally. Mine is a high quality batam, and it's a real dust trap because it's nearly vertical. I spend a bit of time with my can of contact spray because of bad connections. It's also a bit of a pig to solder up because the tags are so small. Bantams are expensive too, but remember to use good quality cables and connectors.
I rekon my loom patcth bay and cords must cost about £1000 UK now. My pal Miles runs his studio and still doesn't use one.
The choice is yours. Dave
Lots of information about patch bays via the forum search facili
Lots of information about patch bays via the forum search facility.
Basically, you should use balanced wherever you can. You can always operate a balanced patchbay with unbalanced gear but not vice versa. If you arrange to patch at line level, you should not notice any audio quality degradation.
Apart from that, there are different types to consider, depending on your intended usage. You have to plan your patch setup carefully and work out what you want the normalling behaviour of the patchbay to be.
In terms of connectors, 1/4 inch jacks are usual, but the smaller bantam (TT) jacks allow more ways per rack width, but you need to use TT patch cords. XLR patch bays are also available.