I just made an update in my studio by adding a patchbay. I think I’m good with the theory, outputs over inputs and all that stuff, but I still have a little problem: when I patch a synth through the patchbay to my audio interface input , I have way more gain than if if plug the synth directly to my audio interface input.
My first guess is that I use a mono jack from the synth to my TRS patchbay, then TRS patch cable, then a TRS cable from the patchbay to the audio interface. Would buying a TRS cable to connect the synth to the patchbay resolve the problem?
I hope I’m clear in my explanation! If needed I can take pictures of the patchbay.
Edit, I forgot to mention that the patchbay is half-normalized.
I have no experience with patch bays but my gut says check your signal path and make sure you don’t have it running through anything adding gain on accident like a a send effect with the wet mix down and the dry mix at 100% adding gain to all the channels.
Thanks for the input, unfortunately I’m sure about the signal path, there’s not much going on here, just a synth , a patchbay and an audio interface input, no hardware fx, no soft fx. Plus, when I do the exact same thing with my mic (xlr, balanced), I don’t have the problem. Can anyone help me to find out why?
Ok so I figured it out, that was so obvious… I’m going from the patchbay to the audio interface with an XLR, and when I plug the synth directly it’s with a jack. So of course the combo inputs on the audio interface doesn’t handle the signal the same way if a jack or a XLR is plugged… That explain the different input gain.
Oh, right XLR is like 6db of gain right?
I didn’t measure it precisely but it must be something around that. Must be proportional to the difference between mic level and line level.