Patchbay for two?

One of these would support a couple mic pre outputs, stereo compressor i/o, and couple interface i/os: www.redco.com/Switchcraft-1625-Studiopatch-Patchbay-Module.html

I'm starting to realize that even with just a single gear purchase, I'm probably going to want a standard bay. One thing I didn't think of is that I already have a Buss Compressor that sits on the 2 buss. I'll want to avoid multiple DA/AD trips from my interface, which I'm pretty sure means I'll also want to have the buss compressor hooked up to the bay. The Samson S does the trick very affordably. Of course, I'd be spending more on cables than the bay.

You want a patchbay, once you go there you will never understand those who haven't. Even the live racks have a small patchbay for emergency re-routing!

I don’t think a patch bay is worth the hassle for one/two pieces of gear. Go with Digital patching through your interface.

We had a big thread about it earlier this year.

I’m going to counter this my friend, it never stops at 2😁 always easier 2 start at 2 as well as the initial investment in patchbay cabling doesn’t hurt as much. That’s probably the biggest drawback to adding patchbays is that huge hit you take investing in something so blah cabling. You make the investment in bays early and you simply incorporate each necessary cable investment with the purchase of each piece!

See mom did learn something in B-school 😜

You mean something like this?

XLR Patchbay

I'm still trying to wrap my head around how it would work with no normalized connections.

I went the XLR patchbay route as they are used in Mastering Studio's and I wanted the very best quality.

I only have a small number of tracking and mixing units so they fitted on a 32XLR to DB25 bay.

I went with a Networksound patchbay they are beautifully made and very high quality - I then bought 4x custom made Nutrik XLR to DB25 snakes.

It wasn't cheap to buy it all (quality patching never is) but the quality, reliability and flexibility is well worth it.

Plus with an XLR bay you can patch mics directly into the bay.

www.networksound.com/index.php/products/pbays/xlr32db25

You don't want to use "cables" with a patchbay, you need to use snakes for a whole lotta reasons. 

I'll go the other way and say if there's only a handful of gear? Then you probably don't need a patchbay as long as things are setup so you can easily access the rear panels. When I do remote production there's never a patchbay on site, everything gets home runned point A to point B. Wear & tear on XLR jacks? Never. Failure point is almost always the wiring itself...

One reason to avoid a patchbay all together is that every single connection point has the possibility to add noise and be a failure point. Its simple, think of something basic like mic pre > compressor > A/D and if that's a home run? Two patchcables. Introduce a patchbay and now there's about 6 connection points. 

Many reasons to use proper snakes & not single cables. Density. Strain relief. Cost! Future expansion?! 

Most bays, especially the TRS style the jacks are too close together to accept standard patch cables. If you have cables with the "fat guitar" style plug? They're going to push against each other which is going to put stress on the jacks and eventually failure. 

Any patchbay is going to need the rear runs elevated & tied off to eliminate stress on the jacks. Using snakes offers advantages like way, way less weight and overall easier cable management. 

Single cables or multi pair snakes? Its the same 24 or 26 gauge copper inside. But single cables have a thick rubber jacket which adds an insane amount of bulk & weight... and therefore, stress on the jacks. You might also find, at a certain point in studio expansion that all the thick rubber & single cables going every which way makes things much harder to manage.

Think about piles of 8 cables vs something like this - www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/J8CHTRSTRS5--jumperz-j8chatrs-atrs-5-amphenol-8-channel-snake-5-foot

I'd also take a stance that unless you get ALL the gear on bays? They might be of limited use. Not only whatever outboard gear is around, but also all the I/O on the interface and anything else in the studio universe. Most other things tend to be a compromise. The whole point of having a patchbay is flexibility. So if only half the things in a studio are on it..? 

I'd just say give it some real thought, especially on future expansion. Comprehensive patchbay, even at the most basic levels is not an inexpensive endeavor and really not the kind of thing you want to do over because it wasn't planned well... a few jacks/points short... wiring that's a foot too short in a new configuration... 

Planned well a good patchbay can grow with the studios needs and might even outlive everything else in the room. My bays are on console #2 and interface #3? Some of the wiring goes back to the days when I was running 2" analog tape. 

soundcraft makes an 8 x8 channel 1/4 rack pack bay.

There may well be good ones, but what I typically see in project studios are TRS bays that flex under stress when patching and poor quality jacks that are a bad mix with that kind of duress.

This is probably because people who buy TRS bays may trend budget conscious, I can see a world in which there are more robust offerings and my friends and clients just aren’t buying them.

Those are super high quality units.

I considered getting these units before I finally went for an XLR bay.