Patchbay Routing

A common piece of studio equipment used for routing of audio, and rerouting of audio through all components of a studio. Most home studio patchbays consist of a row of 2 sets of 1/4inch plugs while pro studios tend to use smaller sizes to fit more patching options in a smaller space. While the following terms generally hold true, you should refer to the individual patchbay manual that might show alterations in its signal flow. "normal" refers to the signal path passing automatically from rear top to rear bottom when no patches are inserted, the "normal" or uneffected path of the audio. Patching will break this normal and change the signal path. Patchbays can be both balanced and unbalanced.

Normalled

The signal passes through from the top rear through to the bottom rear with nothing plugged in. Either top or bottom front patching interrupts this loop. (for instance outputs from the board automatically being sent to tape or protools.) When you patch into the top or bottom front, you interrupt the signal from the top rear to bottom rear, this is refered to as "breaking the normal".

Half Normalled

In a half-normalled bay it would operate the same as a normalled bay except that you can monitor the signal from the top front without breaking the normal. If you plug a patch into the bottom front it will break the normal.

Non Normalled

The connection is between back and front with no top to bottom link. If you want to send the top to the bottom you must patch it using a cable. This tends to be used for things like synths or samplers you have sitting in your rack that have no standard place to be sent, but instead must be patched each time into an input on the console or DAW.

Categories: Equipment | Technical