Over the past several decades, many of our most essential tools from the analog era have either adapted to give us more flexibility, recallability, and automation, or been replaced by digital versions in which these features are much easier to implement (and now come standard). One holdout, until very recently, was the patchbay. It seemed unthinkable just a few years ago to enter the control room of any professional-level studio and not see a huge stack of 96-point TT patchbays at the heart of it. Complex digital routing systems have been around for a while, but many of us want to continue to use our analog gear while going through as few conversion stages as possible. How can you keep your signal analog, yet utilize the type of control and convenience a digital routing matrix offers? It's a challenge, to say the least. So, as smart people faced with a challenge do, Jared Vogt (Trillium Lane Labs) and Paul Wolff (API and Tonelux) set out to figure out how to bring the analog patchbay into the 21st century, resulting in the Wolff Audio ProPatch.
As of this writing, the only available version of this product is the ProPatch 128R (64 inputs and 64 outputs). It contains 96 channels of I/O on the rear panel, via twelve DB-25 connectors, and 32 channels on the front, via an assortment of TT (Bantam), XLR, and 1/4-inch TRS jacks. I’ll get into these front connectors later, but let’s focus on the DB-25s for a minute. Long-time Tape Op readers may know how much I love DB-25 cables for larger channel counts, largely due to their per-channel affordability – especially when making them yourself, but also when buying pre-made ones. On top of that, they allow you to swap eight balanced channels at a time quickly, enabling this humble gear reviewer to integrate a ProPatch into their existing system with minimal fuss. The only two things I don’t like about DB-25s are that their hoods act like little grappling hooks when you’re snaking them through your other cables (ARRGH!), and sometimes the little nuts on the gear get stuck on the thumbscrews instead of staying put on the panel, but neither of those issues are the fault of Wolff Audio.
What exactly does the ProPatch do? Well, the same thing any traditional patchbay does: It allows you to change the interconnections between any of the devices wired to it from a single central location, without having to crawl under your desk or behind your rack every time you want to redirect your signal flow. If we never wanted to change our signal flow, we could just wire a mic into a preamp into a compressor into an interface, and never have to think about it again. But most of us are a little too mercurial for that. Or, we want to use that compressor on the vocal during tracking, but switch it up to use on the bass during a mix.
The magic of ProPatch lies in its use of relays to perform re-routing, which are controlled by software running on your Mac or PC. The connection to the computer for this control is over either USB-C or Ethernet. I had a little trouble getting a solid link with my Apple Mac Studio, since the USB-C connection wasn’t stable – apparently a bug with my particular unit – and I use a lot of Ethernet devices, some of which need a direct line to the computer (like the Avid Pro Tools | Carbon [Tape Op #144]). None of the various hubs I have worked reliably, so I bought a $10 generic 5-port gigabit Ethernet switch, which allowed me to connect my LAN, Avid S3 [#130], and ProPatch to the Ethernet port of the Mac, and has given me zero problems over months of use. There is also a plan to allow future users to purchase “super high quality conversion” as an upgrade to ProPatch units, either via the secondary Ethernet port for Dante or over USB-C.
Back to the relays. There are other devices now on the market that function similarly to the ProPatch but utilize active electronics in the routing. However, a relay is just a switch, and once these types of switches (latching, for the nerds) do their thing, they are basically the same as a straight wire. In other words, there are no active electronics in this signal path, only in the control over the switching mechanism. If you unplug the ProPatch after making connections, your signal still flows exactly how you configured it. Yes, this means that there is zero signal degradation, but it also means that the unit operates with an extremely low amount of heat, which means no loud fans running! In addition, these relays are signal-agnostic; they can pass mic level signal, plus with phantom power, just as well as instrument or line level, or control voltage, or whatever – you name it.