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Setting up your Patchbay
As I mentioned before, the way you set up your patchbay is determined by the complexity of your studio, the gear you have, and the frequency of patching you may need for each piece of equipment. Some gear may never need patching at all. In that case, simply connect it up permanently, avoiding the patchbay altogether. For example, one persons set-up might have a stereo recorder permanently connected to a pair of subgroup jacks on their mixer. You, on the other hand, might want to patch something between your stereo recorder and the mixer, and in this case, it would be easier to use the patchbay. Studying the way you work beforehand can make a big difference when the patchbay arrives, and you begin hooking it up! Now here is a little dose of reality. You may think that, for a hundred bucks, you can do all this stuff, and greatly ease your signal routing woes. Not exactly. In addition to buying a patchbay, you will need to also nearly double the number of cables you are now using, since every unit now has to go to and from the patchbay. That can be expensive! However, I personally feel that the added flexibility and convenience is well worth the price. Besides, it looks pretty cool when you show your studio off to friends!
As mentioned above, most patchbays have balanced jacks, and I have not seen one that is unbalanced. I suggest that you use balanced cables to connect your gear to the patchbay. (Don't let me confuse you though, because you can use unbalanced cables. I just recommend balance cables because of their inherent nature to reduce noise.)
I would start designing your setup by making a list of all your components, and figure out which ones you want to have attached to the patchbay. Make sure you have the correct number of cables to attach everything. Remember to plan out which jacks you want to have normaled, half-normaled, and denormaled. This will save you a lot of aggravation after you finish and figure out something is set up wrong. I would also figure out which component jacks should be next to each other in the patchbay itself, because some shorter cables cannot reach from one end of the bay to the other. For example, you could position your aux sends and returns relatively in the middle so it's within easy reach of all other points.
Ok, keeping in mind that all of these connections will be made on the back, one convenient scenario is to have all of the following run through your patchbay:
1) All the outputs (or direct outs) of your mixer on the top row with the inputs to the multitracks below it. Keep channel 1 of the mixer over track 1 of the multitrack, and so on. Make this a half-normaled connection so they are internaly connected. Again, it's pretty much standard to have outputs on the top and inputs on the bottom.
2) All of the individual track outputs of your multitrack over the inputs to the open input channels of your mixer. Again, keep track 1 of the multitrack over the first input you plan to use for mixdowns on your mixer, and so on. Again, a half-normaled connection.
3) The outputs of your aux masters over the inputs of signal processors that you want to have permanently connected at the bay. This should probably be a half-normaled patch so that if you ever want to send the signal from the aux master to another processor, you can patch into the top jack on front and deadpatch the bottom one. Then route the signal to your new processor.
4) The outputs of your signal processor (that we just talked about) over the inputs to the aux returns on your mixer. I would make this a normaled patch to leave it normally connected, but which would also break the internal connection from top and bottom in back if you plug another processor output into the bottom front jack.
5) Your mixer main outs over the two-track recorder inputs. Using a half-normaled jack allows you to make two copies of a mix by inserting cables into the top front jacks and running them to another recorder's inputs while still maintaining the internal connections to your normal recorder.
As for hooking up dynamic processors like compressors and EQ units using your insert jacks, you should use an insert cable (this is assuming that each of your mixer channels has an insert jack). This may get a little tricky so let me first explain insert cables. Insert cables are an unbalanced Y-type cable that has a single 1/4" TRS plug on one end (TRS standing for Tip, Ring, Sleeve), and then on the two arms you have separate 1/4" TS and RS connectors. On this cable, the single end is both a send and receive plug, where the tip is the send (output) and ring is the receive (input). On the Y side, the TS connector is now the output from the mixer and the RS connector is the input back to the mixer.
Now, you could buy insert cables for each one of your channels, plugging the TRS end into the unbalanced insert jack of the mixer, and the other two into the patchbay. In this case I would put the insert outputs (tip) on top of the insert inputs (ring). However, in order for this to work, the top jack must be normaled to the bottom one. This is because the full signal path on that channel is now diverted from the mixer into the insert cable, and must find it's way through the patchbay back to the mixer in order for the signal to get to tape. If nothing is patched into the front of those jacks on the patchbay, using a normaled patch will allow the signal to flow through unobstructed. Also, if there is a compressor hooked up to the front jacks, using a normaled jack won't allow any uncompressed copies of the signal to go directly to the bottom jack in back like a half-normaled jack would.
You can hook your compressor up to the patchbay using 1/4" TRS cables, one for each input and output for each channel of the compressor. Make this a denormaled connection since there is no signal going through the compressor when it's not used.
This is a good basic setup. If you have any other dynamic processors, signal processors, a sonic maximizer, or anything else, hook those up too if it meets your needs. Just remember that you don't need to put everything in there; only those units that you are used to patching differently, the way you normally work with them.
In my patchbay, I have the following plugged in: Aux sends/returns, all inputs/outputs of signal processors, the inputs/outputs of my DAT, cassette deck, and CD burner, mixer RCA inputs / outputs (for listening to, and for re cording to cassette tapes), a couple of sub-outputs from my mixer, and my microphone preamp. Sometime soon, I plan on following my own advice, running all my mixer inputs/outputs through my patchbay, as well as my 8 track inputs and outputs.
Conclusion
So as you can see, the possibilities and flexibility provided by a patchbay can be a real lifesaver when dealing with a lot of gear. For about $250, you could have a nice patchbay setup, and the ability to expand endlessly beyond that. There are literally hundreds of ways to setup your patchbay, and as your studio grows, you may have to redesign the configurations, but that is part of the fun of having a nice studio. Believe me...once you incorporate a patchbay into your setup, you won't want to work without it! Happy recording.
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