Mono/stereo patch bay question

tandrewnichols

tandrewnichols

Well-Known Member
Good day, I'm hoping someone who knows mono/stereo stuff really well can help me out here.

Context:

I have an existing board that has a PBC 10 on it. I'm currently using the second insert point to go to my Strymon Iridium and back to the mastermind. That saves a loop since it's almost always on anyway.

Question:

I would like to have an audition point in that insert, before the Iridium. The Iridium is currently taking mono in and sending stereo out back to the mastermind. I'd like a sort of "TRS patch bay" that I can go to from the mastermind and then to the iridium. The catch is that the mono/stereo-ness of the signal flow complicates things. I have one pedal (KMA Horizont) that takes only mono in and sends only stereo out that I'd like to put in that audition point sometimes (amongst other pedals) so I need to be able to send mono to the in and out its send, and then receive stereo back in the return and send stereo out to the Iridium. But I also need it to work when nothing is connected/auditioned. In that case, it would have mono to the in and then mono out to the Iridium, but using a TRS cable (I'm not gonna switch that cable every time I want to audition something, but the Iridium has a switch to toggle between mono and stereo in). I know you can use TRS cables for mono signals, but I'm unsure if it will be a problem switching from a TS cable to a TRS cable at the patch bay (I could also use mono over TRS cables from the mastermind to the patch bay if the mastermind supports that). Attached are diagrams of the relevant portion of the signal flow (although they show a dual patch bay, cause that's ultimately what I'd like to do, but the second in/out/send/receive can just be regular stereo with TRS, so there is no complication there, so I left them out of the question for simplicity).

Is something like this feasible with a TRS patch bay? And if not, is there a way to achieve something like this? Thanks!
 

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A lot depends on how that box is wired internally. In order to avoid the need to switch the Iridium's input from mono to stereo or vice versa, the box would need to convert from mono to stereo. It probably wouldn't be too hard to modify the box to do mono to stereo conversion when no pedal is plugged into the insert loop. Maybe you could talk the American Loopers guys into wiring it the way you need...
 
I don't mind toggling the Iridium from mono to stereo, I just don't want to have to change the cable from TS to TRS, so if I can run mono TS from the mastermind to the patch bay and mono TRS from the patch bay to the Iridium (or mono TRS on both) then I think I'm good. I actually started by asking American Loopers about a custom order and they basically said "This is a pedalboard consult question and we don't do that" (which I took to mean, they weren't sure). They suggested asking Goodwood Audio, but I figured I would start here.
 
Without knowing how that box is wired, it's hard to say for certain. But, most likely, using a TRS cable and flipping the mono/stereo cable should work.
 
Using a TRS cable out of the 2nd insert point would be fine though? I kinda feel like, if that is the case, using all TRS cables with it would probably work (since presumably all the tips and rings would be wired together) and just pass the full signal along regardless of whether it was mono or stereo.
 
Without knowing how that box is wired, it's hard to say for certain
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I don't think American Loopers makes such a thing (they told me a dual TRS audition box would be a custom order - which is fine). I guess I'm trying to figure out whether such a thing is possible to build. I apparently don't know how to ask for what I'm after because they weren't sure what I meant at first and were unwilling to recommend anything.
 
I see, I somehow managed to miss the part saying that the insert box didn't exist yet. "Dual TRS audition box" should be what you need. I don't see any issues with what you're trying to do with it, as long as you flip the mono/stereo switch on the Iridium as needed. The fact that some of the cables are mono is ok.
 
Sorry, I might not have been clear on that. I was trying to reduce the problem to smallest explanation I could for simplicity, but I might have omitted too much. Thanks for the feedback!
 
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