Signal Flow, Yo! - Posted on 2013-05-27 by Anthony Howell

This week was all about signal flow. It was yet another fresh concept for me. I was most interested in discussing and further understanding the function of the patch bay. The patch bay is in essence a component of most large commercial studios that makes the engineers life much easier and provides flexibility in terms of determining signal flow. It all has a component of artistry to it. Lionel explained this to me using a great example regarding vocal chains. When determining which pre-amp best suits any given vocalist, he will send a parallel patch from the vocal mic to three separate vocal pre-amps. This helps him to determine which sequence of outboard effects will best compliment whichever vocalist he is working with. He also explained to me how important this process of elimination is when determining the vocal chain. Celine Dion has hers everywhere she goes! While ever engineer will differ on how they wire their patch bay and in which order they will put their effects, it is a general rule of thumb to go from the mic first and then to the eq’s before patching in to the various pre-amp, and other effect options any given studio will have at their disposal. I am certainly very much looking forward to the experimentation process and long hours tinkering in the studio to obtain the best sounds I can.