Do I need a patchbay?

[DrNewcenstein]

Ok, I've got this desire for a box that I plug my guitar into which will send my guitar's signal to all of my rack units at once.

Right now I'm using an ABY box set to Y (guitar goes in, signal goes to two rack units at once, which then run into a mixer, and I control what's heard from there).

I've looked at audio distribution amps, figuring that if I simply build a 1-in/8-out 1/4" jacks-all-over-the-place box, I'd get serious signal degradation as more outputs were used (which happened to a volume pedal I tried to convert to dual-mono output), but everything I find is geared for digital or RCA (R/W) or XLR.

Looking at patchbays, will that work?

If so, I'm assuming I'm going to need patch cables to manually connect the one guitar input to all the outputs?
Unless I can find an all digital unit that has internal/programmable routing.

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: Do I need a patchbay?

Yes? No? Maybe?

Anyone have a patch bay you can try that out on?

 

[uOpt]

Re: Do I need a patchbay?

But a patchbay generally doesn't do anything about Y-distribution.

I'm not sure what you want to do.

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: Do I need a patchbay?

I want to send one input signal to multiple rack preamps at once.

 

[SabbathFan0220]

Re: Do I need a patchbay?

I'm in the same boat and I was looking into a Voodoo Lab Amp Selector. It's designed to send one source to up to four amps without signal degradation.

It's pricey, but I'm not sure how else to do it in real time. The other option I'm considering is getting a reamp box, recording dry, and sending the signal back through whatever devices I want later.

 

[Kamanda~SD]

Re: Do I need a patchbay?

Also look into Radial's products, here's one that may be what you're after:

http://www.radialeng.com/r2011/jd7.php

Look at their 'reamping' 'splitting' and 'switcher' lines of products...may find what you're looking for!

uOpt is right, a patchbay usually doesn't split Y.

 

[ImmortalSix]

Re: Do I need a patchbay?

How many?

You could just get more Ys.
YY
Y

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Do I need a patchbay?

Routing one signal to numerous processors ought to be within the capabilities of a professional mixing console. The Auxiliary send pots feed the signal to the individual effect and/or processor units. How the signal returns reach the power amplifier depends on how many sockets you have.

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: Do I need a patchbay?

A friend got me hooked up with a Sound Sculpture Switchblade 8 (he had 2, which from reading the specs of it and what it can do, means he's crazier than I am :lol: )

The only trouble with passive boxes is you lose signal quality further down the line. I was looking at a couple of passive 1-in/4-out boxes, but again, you lose signal quality and need buffers, I would think.
I already have one Y box, and have to use a Dunlop HighGain volume pedal in front of that or I lose signal quality when I plug in the second Output, even if it's not active (A/B).

The Radial stuff looked interesting, and similar to the Switchblade, but I got it for a decent price.

The mixer I use is a rackmount Line Mixer with only a Master Send/Return. If it had individual channel Auxs, I would've used that. As it is, it's more for patching in one effect and blending it with the signal on each channel (normally my IPS 33 is in there so I can use it with every preamp).

Reamp stuff would be ok if my PC was fast enough that there was no latency going from the Input device back to the racks and then back to the PC, but it can't even trigger my Alesis QSR without lagging, and that's using the lightpipe.

The Voodoo Lab thing looks ok, and doesn't go for too much ($150-range in Completed Listings), but can only do 4. I've got 8 potential targets to choose from:
1. ADA MP-1 + Digitech TSR-12 combo
2. Digitech 1101
3. Bass POD
4. Line6 AM-4 Amp Modeler pedal
5. Digitech Legend
6. Another Legend (which I may use with a 2nd MP-1 in the FX Return - haven't decided)
7. Fender RocPro 1000 head + Carvin 2x12 cabinet
8. Either a Fender Rumble 25 bass combo, a 2nd ADA MP-1 (possibly combined with one of the Legends), a Roland MicroCube, or a Tascam PocketStudio (decent amp models in that one).
I may even run channel 8 out to my Y-box just to have one more option.

The only things not going to the mixer are the amps. The mixer has 10 channels, with a vocal mic on #1 and the preamps in 2-10.

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: Do I need a patchbay?

Ok, so I've had the Switchblade 8 for about a week now, and I gotta say, it does exactly what I wanted. I don't have to swap cables around - I can just dial up a given unit's mixer channel and it's putting out.

This means I can quickly switch between rack preamps for layering multiple tracks with different tones in a mix, or I can blend them together right at the mixer and record one track (doing it that way also present interesting phase and artifact elements to the tone, but can also lead to a mess).

It's also got potential as an FX loop switcher, but I haven't found myself needing that just yet.

I still consider it a bit pricey. I'd love to see a similar unit that has only one input to several outputs for this specific application without the programmability or other options for around $200.