Originally posted by butterhead:
I know that I can’t be the only one with this problem. Advise anyone?

Perhaps getting real patchbays and wiring things to them...like with solder? Just a thought.

"real" patchbays? umm, like what?

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 :)

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

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.

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

If you don't want to spend much time or money on the patchbays then buy the new Neutrik Patchlink SP or whatever their $99 model is. When your jacks die, you don't have to replace the whole bay, you can replace each channel individually.

Thanks everyone. Now then, hmm, where'd I put that damn soldering iron... :)

dk

Originally posted by hollywood_steve:
[QB]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

Mr.Patchbay is really a great resource.
I bought three patchbay from him, two ADC and one Switchcraft, and they are perfect.
The Price? unbeliavable.
Really.

ronnie

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.

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!

What are those 8-16 port XLR breakout boxes called? I'm talking about the piece of equipment you wire to your patchbay and then mount to the front of your rack. You plug gear into it rather than soldering and desoldering your patchbay...

What are those 8-16 port XLR breakout boxes called? I'm talking about the piece of equipment you wire to your patchbay and then mount to the front of your rack. You plug gear into it rather than soldering and desoldering your patchbay...

A tie-line panel?

Check out a company in California called Signal Transport

http://www.sigt.com/

...and no, I don't work for them :) . But I did rewire my entire studio with their products. This is by no means a cheap solution to the problem - but it is a very good solution that will keep you from running around to the back of your patch bays.

Cheers,

Mark

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

I've seen a few companys selling three row TT patch bays. What is the 3rd rom used for? Does it normal to anything?