Patch bay picture examples wanted

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Jazz

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 29, 2006
Messages
95
Location
USA - Portland Oregon
I'm looking to find a really nice example of patch bay work since I am rebuilding mine from the ground up. If anyone has some pics or links they could pass on that would be great.

Thank you

~R
 
bantam? longframe? punch down? solder type?

if i post a picture of a punch down longframe, that doesnt give you much to go on if youre doing a solder type bantam.
 
TT , I have TT patch bay's.

Hey how are you.? This is a suprise.

Thank you

Ok, I see that Bantam and TT is the same. I know what to do however I know that when I'm finished Ill say something like...." I should have....."
so I want to do a but of research and make sure I do a nice job the first time.
 
Jazz what is the actual question. Are you looking on how to wire it, how to make it neat, or how to do labels? If your looking for some crazy patchbay picks that would make DIYer wet by looking at them, then check out Or beloved SSL tech's patchbay pics and some of his handy work.
 
I don't know if I'd claim it's "really nice", but here's one of my projects that's currently in progress. These are 96-point TT (Bantam) bays, ADC punchdown-style. I don't like Bantams, actually, but we had to use them here for reasons of space.

http://www.twin-x.com/groupdiy/albums/userpics/RSWaudiopatch.jpg
 
Jesus Dave, now thats a patch bay.

azz what is the actual question. Are you looking on how to wire it, how to make it neat, or how to do labels? If your looking for some crazy patchbay picks that would make DIYer wet by looking at them, then check out Or beloved SSL tech's patchbay pics and some of his handy work.

Actually pucho now that you mention it I do need a method for making some nice labels. I started with photo shop but I have a feeling theres a better way.

Yup just wnat to see good examples so I can make a very clean tight reliable patch bay. I know thechnically what to do it's just cosmetic tips I'm after and techniques. My first patch bay I hired a guy to do it and my studio was super reliable. That was for my 24track 2" machine which I no longer have. So I have been micky mouseing around with my old bay for years and its time to start over and do it from scratch.

Thanks folks :thumb:
 
Jazz what is the actual question. Are you looking on how to wire it, how to make it neat, or how to do labels?

Now looking for a handy dandy way to make labels. Tried the Neutric PatchLabel program but appears rather weak. I have Switchcraft TT patch bays. Let me know if you know of anything that works well.

Thanks. :thumb:
 
there are a few good known ways to make patchbay labels.

I use Excel as do some of the other lab members. You can wrap text as well as make the labels even spaced to fit patchbays... some nice photo paper and you got yourself some good labels.
At work we use quark express and have designed templates in quark for that. I have seen others use templates vie worldwind. It's on their site for planning a patchbay just delete all what you need and instert your own text. lastly the Rhino label maker has a version which does patchbays but I have yet to use it for that...
 
Thanks for the info!

I started with photoshop then tried the Neutrik program finally tried Microsoft WORD hate to say but its working great. Easy to color code and text si I'm good to go.

:thumb:
 
So this P-bay is a little larger than Grandma's P-Bay in her studio. This must be one of those new modern eight track recorders I assume, I've heard of em but never have actually seen one yet. Did I say eight track? I actually meant 800 track. Are you crazy? No wonder your old Avatar never stopped moving your using stimulants. :shock:

Ok, BS aside. I see now that my P-bay's are probably old technology these days right? Switchcraft TT (4) x (24) sections per one space rack with solder lugs? I've been looking around and see that now days its different.

So if I bought newer bays if needed in the future what would you advise for the ill advised?

Thats some very nice work you do. :thumb:
 
I hope this helps.

If you plan to physically make connections with patch cables you will solder your balanced cable to the 3 main lugs. Top is ground, middle cold, bottom hot(most often). If your unsure of the pinout then use your continuity checker on a bantam cable and solder lugs. The other 2 lugs are for normalling. You have 4 choices when it comes to normalling a patchpoint.
1 is not to normall at all. This is what I described if you want to manually patch everything.

2nd type is the full normal. Full normal means that the connection will be broken from either side that you plug into. Usually you'll full normal things like room lines to pre's. Although many will tell you to not put your pre's on a bantam style bay. To accomplish the full normal make your equipment connections as described above and add jumpers from the extra two solder lugs on both connections.

Half normal down and half normal up breack connections when one of the two patch points are connected. For example my line outs are half normalled to my tape deck so that when I patch into the tape any incoming normalled signal is broken. Example. Lineout of console is halfnormalled to tape. This means without pathcing anything line 1 will go to track 1 on tape. If I patch into the line 1 out jack the signal is still going to track 1. I could pathc from line 1 into track 2 and Ill still get line 1 on track 1 as well as track 2 now. On the other hand, if I want line out 2 to go to track 1 and I patch it in this way the normal will be broken to track 1.

Half normals are made by connecting the normals to the main lugs. In the example above I would wire on the top row my Line outs on the bottom the 2" deck. The line outs would be wired to the regular ground, hot cold lugs as would the tape ins. This time you will connect the jumpers from the main lugs for the line out and the jumpers to the normalling lugs on the tape input. I have found its much easier to prep your normals by wiring them with the equipment wiring. In other words they can be a major pain in the ass if you try to connect the equip first then normal things.

While your at it make a couple of mults.

These are simply a few points that are connected to make it have one signal. On my bays I'll have a row of four or so points with all hots, colds and grounds interconnected. Mults act like this. Example. I want more bass in the mix but I have very little room on the fader to keep pumping it up. Patch bass playback to a mult. Now all of the jacks in the mult become the bass signal. Now I already have one on the console because of my normalling so I simply patch out of a 2nd of the mult point to the console giving me anoher bass signal. Remember you won't want to mult instrument or mic signals as they are way to weak to get good results from.

Good luck,

I'll try to post a couple of shots of my bays if you still need them.

Will
 
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