amble wrote:

One followup question--if I'm connecting some unbalanced gear to the
patchbay in most cases is it better to use balanced or unbalananced
cables?

Slight misnomer there, but it's getting so common that it's almost
acceptable. I always use two-conductor shielded cable (what you call
"balanced") and wire the connector at the unbalanced end so that the
equipment works. But it means that you need to wire the connector and
not use a pre-made cable.

Let's say you have a cable with a black and a white wire, plus the
shield. At the patchbay, connect the white to the tip and the black to
the ring. At the other end of the cable, where it's plugged into
something that's unbalanced, connect the white wire to the tip and both
the black wire and shield. That will put the signal beween the tip and
shiled at the unbalanced equipment, but between the tip and ring on the
ptachbay. If you use 2-conductor (TRS) patch cables, you'll be able to
patch between balanced and unbalanced equipment without worrying about
what's hot and what's not.

There are only a couple of exceptions. First, some older equipment was
built with XLR connectors but unbalanced outputs, and the signal was on
Pin 3 (conventially equivalent to the Tip) and nothing is on Pin 2. So
you have to wire to that accordingly. Also, there are some
electronically balanced outputs that are build so that they don't like
to have the low side grounded (which is what happens with this wiring
scheme when you patch it to an unbalanced input). If you have one of
those, you have to make an exception to the all-the-same-patch-cable
feature and use a special patch cable that has the ring open so it
doesn't get grounded at the unbalanced input.

And before you ask, you just have to figure those exceptions out. They
don't usually tell you about them (though sometimes the
balanced-unbalanced with Pin 3 floating warning is noted in a manual).
And to make your life even more interesting, there are some
electronically balanced outputs that need to have the low side
connected to ground if you're connecting them to an unbalanced input.
(All of the Mackie Onyxen except the 1220 is like this)