Patchbays...need some

[danwillrock]

Ok....time to get a patchbay(s). I have a 003 and M-Audio Octane (sweet BTW clocked up to the 003) and I'm sick of reaching around to the back of the rack and pluging these bad boys up. so a couple of questions about patchbays.....


1) I know thats it possible to pass phantom power through a patchbay....Just gotta be careful patching when "hot". My big question is does the patchbay screw with the quality of the pre-amp its attached to (degrade the signal)???

2) I need to buy 2 balanced patchbays.....one for XLRs and 1/4 inch inputs....that being said....can I patch up both 1/4 inch and XLR to the inputs on each channel? (4 on the digi, 8 on on the octane) I would use only one or the other obviously...I just want to know if its possible plug both in at the same time.

3) any suggestions on units?? I'm looking at a Hosa 12 point XLR...not sure whos the best or the worst......this one works perfect for ALL my XLR ins....any suggestions would be great.

Thanks for any replies in advance. this will really help me alot.

[Jim Casey]

Ok....time to get a patchbay(s). I have a 003 and M-Audio Octane (sweet BTW clocked up to the 003) and I'm sick of reaching around to the back of the rack and pluging these bad boys up. so a couple of questions about patchbays.....


1) I know thats it possible to pass phantom power through a patchbay....Just gotta be careful patching when "hot". My big question is does the patchbay screw with the quality of the pre-amp its attached to (degrade the signal)???

2) I need to buy 2 balanced patchbays.....one for XLRs and 1/4 inch inputs....that being said....can I patch up both 1/4 inch and XLR to the inputs on each channel? (4 on the digi, 8 on on the octane) I would use only one or the other obviously...I just want to know if its possible plug both in at the same time.

3) any suggestions on units?? I'm looking at a Hosa 12 point XLR...not sure whos the best or the worst......this one works perfect for ALL my XLR ins....any suggestions would be great.

Thanks for any replies in advance. this will really help me alot.

I like switchable patch bays. I have had Furmans, Hosas and others. Hosa knows connections - their work is very strong. I don't find that any balanced or unbalanced connections degrade through a patch bay unless you use crap cables - weakest link theory here.

You can get Hosa and all sorts of patchbays for great prices right here, today:
http://search.ebay.com/search/search...bay&category0=

The great thing here is you can buy them and try them - keep the box - if you don't like one, repost if back up for sale with its original photo and ship it out in the same box it came in.

Thanks for reminding me, I need some too - and I have $50!

[MrJoshua]

I've had nothing but good results from Hosa patchbays. I can't say that for other companies I've used. I have two of the 12-point XLR patchbays you refer to, and they work very well.

For the 1/4" inputs, I'm not sure about the Octane, but the Digi has balanced 1/4" input connectors (TRS), so you want a patchbay with TRS connectors. I use TRS patchbays for all of my signal routing - the XLR patchbays are strictly for connecting microphones to preamps. Then the preamp line signal comes out to the TRS patchbay, where I patch it into either one of the line-level inputs on my Digi002 Rack, or the inputs on my Apogee Rosetta 200. It's a LOT easier than having to climb behind the rack and swap cables around.

If you get a TRS patchbay, make sure you have balanced TRS patch CABLES! A balanced patch bay won't do you a whole lot of good if you use an unbalanced cable.

[bigbubbaj]

I think Inteldoc is selling a bunch of stuff, you should PM him!