A Guitar And Gear Support Forum

Hey all,

Bit of a dumb question here but I've been mainly using my Kemper and AxeFX going into my Focusrite Scarlett 18i8. I'd like to be able to use some more rack gear like an Eleven Rack, GSP2101 and some Line 6 gear as well otherwise exceeding the 8 inputs.

My question is would you guys recommend getting some sort of patch bay system or just an interface with more inputs?

If going the patch bay route, which one as I've never gone down that road before.

Thanks all!

What language are you speaking?

I am the type that would plug and unplug everything as needed. It complicates things while simplifying, if you get my drift.

Could you set aside a couple of spots in your current rig to be the "switch hitters" and plug and unplug as needed with those? I am asking from a position of not knowing how any of this works, so please forgive me if the question is stupid.

Yeah I do that currently but it’s a pain, plus some of these units have great stereo effects and I’d love to capture that. Plus I’m laze and don’t want to plug/unplug things. I used to have a pod hd pro X and an eleven rack that I would plug into the fx loop of the axefx to remedy the laziness and use a proper cab ir.

If you are not going to do a lot of plugging and unplugging, go for the additional interface.

A traditional patch bay can be found for $25 to $50 these days, but they are 1:1. Accordingly, you'd have a dedicated 11 into your I/F and be plugging and unplugging other devices into those inputs. PB's have more robust jacks than I/F's and that would be the recommendation for being good with plugging and unplugging some of your cables.

What you may be after is a programmable patch bay, which is where you have everything plugged into the PB and route it with a i-pad , MIDI or phone. This are very big $ and I suspect an additional I/F would be the same price if not cheaper.