Patchbay Inquiry. Help!

[Blooby]

I am curious if any of you have had any experience with a patchbay. My studio is in rather tight quarters. I have an eight space rack where I can't easily get to the jacks on the back, so I started thinking about a patchbay. Unfortunately, I'm an ignoramus on the topic, and it would seem that the more I read online, the more I am confused.

Here's the dealio in the rack, I have two mono mic pre's, a mono channel strip, a stereo mic pre (actually, my next purchase), and 2 guitar processors (both with with stereo outs).

I want to hook them up to the patchbay.
I want to route through the patchbay to my audio interface.
I wish to have the option to route the guitar processors into a mic pre before going to the interface.
I would very much like to not fry anything with the phantom power option in the mic pre's. My research is saying as long as I use a balanced patchbay and am careful when I turn on and off the phantom power, I should be okay. This makes me exceptionally nervous.
I would also to have this be less confusing than Keith Emerson's synth setup.

I'm wondering if the Samson S-Patch Plus would work.

Any opinions on the subject? I am in over my head right now.

Thanks.

Blooby

[64Guitars]

I'm wondering if the Samson S-Patch Plus would work.

Any opinions on the subject? I am in over my head right now.

Patchbays can make your setup more flexible but they have a few drawbacks. The main one is that they can introduce noise. A direct connection from one device to another is best. Another issue is the management of all those jacks. You have to know which piece of equipment is connected to each jack. Most professional patchbays have a clear plastic strip above each row of jacks behind which you can slide a piece of paper on which you've typed or written the names of all the connections.



The Samson patchbay lacks these, so I think it could be difficult to manage. I guess you could put a blank rack panel above and below the patchbay with a strip of masking tape on each to write on, but that would be a waste of rack space and look messy. Even if your patchbay provides a good means of labelling the jacks, it can still be difficult to manage because over time you're bound to change equipment and connections and fail to update the labels, or cross out old labels and scribble in new ones.

You also need lots of good quality patch cables on hand. These seem to get broken or misplaced often.

For my money, a better solution is to rearrange your studio so that both the front and back of your rack are easily accessible. A good way to do that is to put the rack and any other equipment on a sturdy table or desk that's positioned with one end against the wall (rather than the back) so that the desk/table sticks out into the middle of the room. That way, you can easily walk around the desk/table for access to all of your connections.

[Vanncad]

I wish you lived a little closer Blooby. I inherited a couple Fostex 3013's and a Behringer Ultrapatch Pro PX3000 that I would let you test drive before you buy something.

A guy used these in a video production studio. I know he patched an Avid system into various mixers and audio/video editing processers with them. I don't think he ever had any issues, but he wasn't using current equipment either so I don't know if the new technology is a little more sensitive.

If you would be willing to pay for my flight, I would be more than happy to bring them to FLA for you to try out (it's getting pretting damn cold here right now) 

[Blooby]

A better solution is to rearrange your studio so that both the front and back of your rack are easily accessible.

This is what I'm trying to avoid.  I simply don't have the room right now. I'm certainly thinking about rearranging.

Vanncad, the door is always open, but the wallet isn't. Would love to have a Met Florida one of these days.

Blooby

[Farrell Jackson]

Blooby, I use a patchbay in my current setup. It's a Behringer but it's minimally used right now on things that are once plugged there's no need to change the routing.  Once I've plugged some basic things in I don't have to go back to it...unless the 1/4" jacks lose contact, which they do from time to time due to some sort of corrosion. When that happens I just unplug and spray with contact cleaner.

My patchbay has switches on top so you can route the signal to different ins/outs or change the configuration of the jack from an in to an out.  This feature does work well. I had hoped (and still do) to get everything in my set up plugged to the patchbay but so far I have six outboard units connected  but need to get at least six more connected and routed to be most efficient.

The biggest problem, like 64 has mentioned, is remembering/labeling where each jack goes, can go, and what it's currently plugged to it.  The same for the switch configuration buttons on top of the patchbay. I do have room to access the back side of my recording desk, which continually proves invaluable. Especially when trying to trace down a problem like bad chord or connection. I'll be re-arranging my studio shortly to make it more user friendly for me, since  these days it's mostly just me in there. That's when the patchbay will come into play more.

I like the use and idea of a patchbay but take the time to label everything and when you change things make sure to update the labeling. It's a tedious task to get it right and you do want to get it right before you push  things back against the wall, but once done correctly you'll like it.

Farrell

[Blooby]

Thank so much for the replies.

Farrell, are you running phantom power through the patchbay?

[Farrell Jackson]

Blooby, I don't patch any mics through the patchbay (at least not yet) so no phantom power goes through it. All my inputs are TRS 1/4" jacks. They can be configured via the top switches to be balanced or unbalanced. Like you, I'm leery of running phantom power through due to the potential of damage to the recorder circuitry. I think dedicated  XLR connections on a patchbay would be the best safeguard to eliminate any damage due to phantom power voltages. You may have already seen but in case you haven't here's a link to a good Sound on Sound article on the subject. It might clear things up a little or make it more confusing, lol. Even if you don't run mics/phantom power through a patchbay it's still a very useful tool for other connections.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec99/articles/patchbay.htm

Good luck!

Farrell