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I am about to solder up my patchbay. I have a mixture of balanced & unbalanced gear. Often I will be patching effects directly from channel inserts which are unbalanced. Does it make sense to use a balanced connection between the patchbay and the gear that does have balanced connections even though I will be going back and forth between balanced & unbalanced gear and unbalanced insert points? And if so should I then always use balanced patch cables on the bay?

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RemyRAD Sun, 10/16/2005 - 21:55

I have usually used all balanced patch bays. Following the XLRs, pin 2 hot, tip, pin 3 low, ring, pin 1, sleeve, ground. When patching an unbalanced device use a guitar cable which is only 2 conductor. This will keep pin 2, tip, hot and tie pin 3 to sleeve ground pin 1. So you will need both balanced an unbalanced patch cords.

anonymous Mon, 10/31/2005 - 11:02

RemyRAD wrote: I have usually used all balanced patch bays. Following the XLRs, pin 2 hot, tip, pin 3 low, ring, pin 1, sleeve, ground. When patching an unbalanced device use a guitar cable which is only 2 conductor. This will keep pin 2, tip, hot and tie pin 3 to sleeve ground pin 1. So you will need both balanced an unbalanced patch cords.

RemyRAD's method has always worked for me as well. Plus when you get the chance to upgrade any of your unbalanced gear to balanced, your patch points are already wired. :P