Select a single patchbay connector. Label it with a meaningful tag that describes what will be connected to the other end of your balanced audio cable (for example, "Reverb Send" or "Reverb Return," "EQ Left Send" or "EQ Left Return").
Identify the tip, ring and sleeve terminals on the back of the patchbay connector.
Use the razor knife to remove 1 to 2 inches of the outer jacket of your balanced audio cable. Twist several strands of shield braid together to form a ground wire and trim it to match the length of the center conductors. Trim off the remaining exposed shield braid. (If you are using a foil-shielded cable, simply trim off the exposed foil and keep the existing ground wire.) Strip approximately three-sixteenths of an inch of insulation off of the two center conductors.
Solder the shield conductor of your balanced audio cable to the sleeve terminal of the patchbay connector. Solder one of the balanced cable signal conductors to the tip terminal, and the other to the ring terminal. Make a note of which conductor you used for the tip and which you used for the sleeve.
Connect the other end of these conductors to the tip and ring terminals of the connector going to your audio device (or to pins 2 and 3, respectively, if you are using an XLR connector). Connect the shield conductor to the sleeve terminal of your audio device's connector (or to pin 1 if you are using an XLR connector).
Label this connector with the same tag name you chose in the beginning of this step. The patchbay connector can now be used to connect (or "patch") your audio device to the other audio devices connected to your patchbay quickly and conveniently.
Select a pair of patchbay connectors. Label them with meaningful tags that describe what will be connected to the other end of your balanced audio cables (for example, a pair of connectors may be logically grouped and labeled "From Tape Track 1" and "To Mixer Channel 1," or "From Preamp Channel 1" and "To Tape Track 1").
Select the first patchbay connector in your pair (which we will call "connector A") and identify the tip, ring and sleeve terminals on the back of the patchbay connector. Also identify the special "tip normal" and "sleeve normal" terminals on the back of the patchbay connector.
Select one of your balanced audio cables (which we will call "cable A"). Use the razor knife to remove 1 to 2 inches of the outer jacket of your balanced audio cable. Twist several strands of shield braid together to form a ground wire and trim it to match the length of the center conductors. Trim off the remaining exposed shield braid. (If you are using a foil-shielded cable, simply trim off the exposed foil and keep the existing ground wire.) Strip approximately three-sixteenths of an inch of insulation off of the two center conductors.
Solder the shield conductor of your balanced audio cable to the sleeve terminal of the patchbay connector. Solder one of the balanced cable signal conductors to the tip terminal, and the other to the ring terminal. Make a note of which conductor you used for the tip and which you used for the sleeve.
Connect the other end of these conductors to the tip and ring terminals of the connector going to your audio device (or to pins 2 and 3, respectively, if you are using an XLR connector). Connect the shield conductor to the sleeve terminal of your audio device's connector (or to pin 1 if you are using an XLR connector). Label this connector with the same tag name you chose for the patchbay connector.
Select your second balanced audio cable ("cable B") and connect it to "patchbay connector B," repeating the process used for cable A and connector A. Also attach and label the connector to the corresponding audio device for cable B.
Solder a wire from the sleeve terminal of patchbay connector A to the sleeve terminal of patchbay connector B. Solder a wire from the tip terminal on patchbay connector A to the tip normal terminal of patchbay connector B. Solder another wire from the ring terminal on patchbay connector A to the ring normal terminal on patchbay connector B. The half-normalled pair is complete. Audio signals will now pass between "audio device A" and "audio device B" without any patchbay cable inserted. If a patchbay cable is inserted into connector A, audio will still pass between devices A and B and will also pass through the patchbay cable. If a patchbay cable is inserted into connector B, audio signals will be interrupted between audio device A and audio device B. Audio device B will now pass audio signals through the patchbay cable only.
Select a pair of patchbay connectors. Label them with meaningful tags that describe what will be connected to the other end of your balanced audio cables (for example, a pair of connectors may be logically grouped and labeled "From Tape Track 1" and "To Mixer Channel 1," or "From Preamp Channel 1" and "To Tape Track 1").
Select the first patchbay connector in your pair (which we will call "connector A") and identify the tip, ring and sleeve terminals on the back of the patchbay connector. Also identify the special "tip normal" and "sleeve normal" terminals on the back of the patchbay connector.
Select one of your balanced audio cables (which we will call "cable A"). Use the razor knife to remove 1 to 2 inches of the outer jacket of your balanced audio cable. Twist several strands of shield braid together to form a ground wire and trim it to match the length of the center conductors. Trim off the remaining exposed shield braid. (If you are using a foil-shielded cable, simply trim off the exposed foil and keep the existing ground wire.) Strip approximately three-sixteenths of an inch of insulation off of the two center conductors.
Solder the shield conductor of your balanced audio cable to the sleeve terminal of the patchbay connector. Solder one of the balanced cable signal conductors to the tip terminal, and the other to the ring terminal. Make a note of which conductor you used for the tip and which you used for the sleeve.
Connect the other end of these conductors to the tip and ring terminals of the connector going to your audio device (or to pins 2 and 3, respectively, if you are using an XLR connector). Connect the shield conductor to the sleeve terminal of your audio device's connector (or to pin 1 if you are using an XLR connector). Label this connector with the same tag name you chose for the patchbay connector.
Select your second balanced audio cable ("cable B") and connect it to "patchbay connector B," repeating the process used for cable A and connector A. Also attach and label the connector to the corresponding audio device for cable B.
Solder a wire from the sleeve terminal of patchbay connector A to the sleeve terminal of patchbay connector B. Solder a wire from the tip normal terminal on patchbay connector A to the tip normal terminal of patchbay connector B. Solder another wire from the ring normal terminal on patchbay connector A to the ring normal terminal on patchbay connector B. The fully-normalled pair is complete. Audio signals will now pass between "audio device A" and "audio device B" without any patchbay cable inserted. If a patchbay cable is inserted into connector A, audio will be interrupted between devices A and B and will only pass through that patchbay cable. If a patchbay cable is inserted into connector B, audio signals will also be interrupted between audio device A and audio device B. Audio device B will now pass audio signals through that patchbay cable only.