llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Wed Jan 29, 2025 2:39 pm So I’m at the very beginning stages of patch bay planning and I don’t even know where to start.

I’ve got 16 channels each i/o for conversion, and then everything is monitored through a 32 channel Midas mixer with effects sends, monitor sends, sub groups, all of which I use.

Add to that the outboard - a few compressors, a few eqs, a few stereo reverbs, which wouldn’t necessarily be so bad on its own, but I need it all to work with the mixer somehow. I definitely don’t want a patchbay that’s just a bunch of hardware inserts for reaper.

I’m going through everything available at Tape Op and Sound On Sound and I’m going to start on a spreadsheet to see what can be done with what. Any other general ideas?

I'm a systems patching pervert.

I use Draw.io to block diagram all my connections before I even start. I like my bays to kinda be in order of flow of signal, so I have a bay with the top row populated by 16 console preamps direct out normalled to the bottom row that are plugged into my MOTU 16a. Then I have the actually 16a in the rack below that, and under that is a bay with the 16 outputs of the 16a normaled to the first 14 inputs of my Console, and a Stereo Channel for DAW monitor. Without plugging in a single thing I can track and monitor plus make 4 analog headphone feeds. There is other random console in and out on the remainder of thos 2 bays plus some lines for phones to the other room, normaled off the auxes... etc. Above that I have an Aux Patchbay that has preamps, compressors, tape machine IO, and other rando stuff terminated so if I want to use any of it, I just overpatch it. There is a side car rack with more preamp (12 ch) 8 of which normal to a Arturia 8X Adat converter and can be picked in the DAW, or overpatched to a console input etc... everything is overpatchable. There is an 8 ch sub xlr snake feeding this patchbay from the other room that normals to all my Black Lion and Golden age preamps (that normal to the ADAT) but I can patch those mic lines to 4 Shure M68 preamps, an old Precision Audio tube pre, a JHS Colorbox if I want them. There is more (MOTU Monitor 8, and Ultralite AVB) that are AVB pickable IO each with their own patchbay in the other room, so there is actually some patch flexibility in there as well. It is kinda a lot, but after you wrap your head around it, it gives you a ton of options and is really fast to make changes.

There is basically an in depth technical manual of my entire setup. It gets pretty weird. All the bays are color coded so you can see what is normaled and what isn't. I need to update the AVB/ADAT digital map cause I've added 16 channels of ADAT IO into that universe. It's actually really easy to explain to people (Heather gets it) if they look at these eyecharts.
EDIT: just realized these are old. There are new, much expanded versions of these at home.

I admire this ^ kind of comittment.

Curry Pervert wrote: Wed Jan 29, 2025 5:38 pm I admire this ^ kind of comittment.

Admire yes, am capable of...not so much.
p.s. I like that the speaker is an ipod.

thecr4ne wrote: Wed Jan 29, 2025 6:33 pm

Curry Pervert wrote: Wed Jan 29, 2025 5:38 pm I admire this ^ kind of comittment.

Admire yes, am capable of...not so much.
p.s. I like that the speaker is an ipod. It's A Fiio X1!

I am an AV systems engineer for a huge money flush corporation, I'm required to document all or builds and changes so now I can 't do anything without doing it anymore. Means I can be working on MY stuff at work and it looks like I'm being a good employee... but I'm SLACKING OFF!

I also use PatchCad and H2RGear to build patch ideas. H2R is great

https://h2rgear.com/

that dude has a lot of cool tools actually.

Kniferide wrote: Wed Jan 29, 2025 3:28 pm

This is all super helpful, especially seeing what gets normaled. I was having trouble thinking of which route to go on that end, but I do want a bunch of patchbay channels to always feed directly from the recorder to a Midas channel until i patch something in… I just didn’t care about something like a typical vocal chain patch or something.

Not looking forward to buying all the patchbays and cabling, but at least its nickel and dime stuff i can bite a piece off of once every two weeks.

llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 9:50 am
Not looking forward to buying all the patchbays and cabling, but at least its nickel and dime stuff i can bite a piece off of once every two weeks.

I know behringer is horseshit, but their Ultrapatch 3000 TRS bays are like $60 at sweetwater right now. I've been using them for like a decade and have never had a single one go bad in any way. I prefer TRS to TT for my needs because TT is expensive, and you have to adapt to patch a synth in and in my opinion the only real advantage is that it saves space in a rack. For normaling, I usually just think about how I can make the space have the most capability WITHOUT having to patch a single cable. Right now you can record, mix, monitor, and do 4 Headphone mixes using the console as a front end without a single thing patched into a single bay. You only ever patch if you are substituting something else or tieing in outboard gear. Feel free to ask any specific stuff. I build patchbay and matrix router shit every day.

llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 9:50 am Not looking forward to buying all the patchbays and cabling, but at least its nickel and dime stuff i can bite a piece off of once every two weeks.

If you're up for doing some soldering, you can find ADC patch bays with nice long-frame jacks for decent enough prices on ebay/reverb. You can also save a fair amount on actual patch cables by going 1/4" instead of Bantam/TT. Cabling, keep an eye out for old snakes or boxes of Belden 8451 or 9451. Sometimes companies end up with extra after a job and you can get a decent price.

Hit me up if you have trouble finding stuff. I have more than I'll probably ever use.