Looking for help with patch bay and audio interface

[LowWay]

Anyone know the best way to connect my Clarett 8pre to a patch bay that can take advantage of both the XLR and TRS aspects of the Clarett’s inputs?

the Clarett has a bunch of XLR/TRS combo inputs. I have a small home studio and would love to rack up my interface and be able to send either a 1/4” source or XLR to any input via a patchbay of sorts.

An example: send an unbalanced instrument cable, a line level unbalanced 1/4 cable from an old analog tape deck, or a microphone signal to any of the inputs that accept both mic and line level inputs.

I’d like to use a SoundTools CAT Rack

for my snake to send to the live room in the basement. And be able to jumper from the XLR ports on the CAT Rack to patch points that would pass through to the interface like a patchbay made of 2 1RU devices.

This part seems straight forward. It’s getting the 1/4” inputs into the interface from the front of the rack that confuses me.

Do I just rely on DIs for instruments and 1/4” or RCA to XLR adapters for the occasional instrument/line unbalanced connection and plug them into the XLR patch panel? Do such adapters exist? I’ve been searching on this topic all night and not sure how to proceed.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Basslice]

I have a Scarlett 18i20 and use a Samson S-patch plus 48-Point Balanced Patchbay but it is 1/4". I know you can buy XLR patchbays to bring those out front. I didn't need that. The 1/4" front access is more important to me and I find the patchbay to be very useful.

 

[LowWay]

I’d love this kind of solution. Does your patch bay pass phantom power?

 

[Basslice]

I’d love this kind of solution. Does your patch bay pass phantom power?

Not that I know of. I tried to use an XLR-to-TRS cable, but regardless of configuration, 48v is not passing to the mic. I am not sure why, but after some reading, I decided to go in a different direction because the easiest-looking solution failed miserably.

***Edit*** in retrospect, the problem is that the Scarlett will only send 48v if it detects an XLR connection, not TRS. Maybe if I went MIC -> XLR->TRS->Patchbay<-TRS<-XLR<-Scarlett ??? I don't know if TRS will pass phantom. Like I said, I got tired of messing with it and just dedicated Channel 1 front input on Scarlett to my condenser...

 

[Frank Tuesday]

Short of taking the combo jacks out and connecting wires directly to the Clarett PCB, there is no way that I know of to access both the XLR and TRS options of a combo jack. For each jack, you'll have to choose either XLR or TRS. Consumer level stuff like this just isn't designed with easy patch bay setup in mind.

There are a couple options. The easiest and probably cheapest solution is to get an 8 channel converter like a Behringer ADA8000, and use the ADAT I/O on back. Then use your Clarett for 8 mic inputs, and your ADA8000 for 8 line inputs. Another option is to use DI boxes for every line level input and use the XLR inputs exclusively. Lastly, you could split them so that some are XLR and some are TRS. You have the front two which could be either, and then do 3-6 as XLR and 7-8 as TRS.

 

[LowWay]

Short of taking the combo jacks out and connecting wires directly to the Clarett PCB, there is no way that I know of to access both the XLR and TRS options of a combo jack. For each jack, you'll have to choose either XLR or TRS. Consumer level stuff like this just isn't designed with easy patch bay setup in mind.

There are a couple options. The easiest and probably cheapest solution is to get an 8 channel converter like a Behringer ADA8000, and use the ADAT I/O on back. Then use your Clarett for 8 mic inputs, and your ADA8000 for 8 line inputs. Another option is to use DI boxes for every line level input and use the XLR inputs exclusively. Lastly, you could split them so that some are XLR and some are TRS. You have the front two which could be either, and then do 3-6 as XLR and 7-8 as TRS.

I was considering DI boxes as I need them in the basement live room anyway, and then using the front combo jacks on the Clarett when I’m tracking myself in the control room would do the trick there. I was hoping for a world where I could use a TRS patchbay and XLR -> TRS cables in the rear just because the TRS patch cables are smaller and easier to use. But this seems like an impossibility. Such is the struggle of the pro-sumer hobbyist.

 

[DirkP]

I was hoping for a world where I could use a TRS patchbay and XLR -> TRS cables in the rear just because the TRS patch cables are smaller and easier to use. But this seems like an impossibility. Such is the struggle of the pro-sumer hobbyist.

Your dream is more than possible, it is not TRS or XLR, your problem are the signal levels!

I (nearly) don't know anything about DMX and cat5 digital patchbays, but I know and use tradional patchbays.
I have a neutrik one for 50,-.

Forget about phantom power through patchbays. They are shortening it. There is a way to get around this called the BBC method, but I'm too lazy for that...

I wouldn't use hz-level signals (hz = for example a guitar or bass) through a patchbay. But you can mix non-symmetric signals with symmetric signals.

XLR to TSR line level symmetric connections are no problem, it is just a different plug, but the same sort of cable and connection. Beware that you should use symmetric TSR cables and XLR->TSR cables. Symmetric mono TSR plugs are the same as stereo-TSR plugs:

The classic way is to make all your usual connections on the back of the patchbay. Use the upper connections for outputs and the lower connections for the inputs.
Make every alternative connection you want on the front.
Besides patchbays are not expensive, you need a lot of cables! But these, esp. the patch-cables are cheap.
These are 10,- bugs:

The problem with most combo-jack input devices like the clarett 8pre is that they expect line level, when a TSR plug is used and mic level when a XLR plug is used. AFAIK you can't switch the inputs from mic level to line level.

I would only use line level signals with a patchbay.
I use mic-preamps and other outboard gear for basses and mics, so everything that goes to the patchbay and the interface is line level.