Patchbay normalling made easy

Normals is a common term that refers to the 'normal' or regular path of a signal in a patching system. When a signal is rerouted, it is considered to be breaking the 'normals' and the main function of normalled jacks (sockets) is to eliminate the need for either looping plugs or a permanently placed patchcord in the circuit.

Full Normals (or fully normalled):

• Top and bottom jacks (in a patchbay) have T, R, S, TN, and RN contacts. In a wired patchbay, the two TN terminals are tied together as are the RN terminals.
• Allow for a continuous signal flow without the use of a patchcord or looping plug.
• Allow the user to reroute source (top row of jacks), destination (bottom row of jacks), or both signals.
• Typically found connected to a mixing console.
• On unwired patchbays, user must tie (connect) the top and bottom normal circuits together.

Half Normals (or half normalled):

• Top jacks have T, R, S, while bottom jacks have T, R, S, plus TN and RN. In a wired patchbay, T and R on top are tied to TN and RN on the bottom jacks.
• Acts as a monitor to allow the user to listen in on a signal without interrupting it.
• Acts as a Y junction to allow the user to send a signal to two different destinations.

Non Normals (or non-normalled):

• Top and bottom jacks have T, R, S only.
• Only useful as a cost-saving measure.
• Typically used in applications where no standard signal path will take place.
• Require a patchcord or looping plug to continue signal flow.

Internally shunted

• Means tip, ring and sleeve contacts etc are internally connected to the tip, ring and sleeve contacts, etc, of the jack below.

Abbreviations: FN - Full normals; HN - half normals; NN - no or non-normals; T - terminal that mates with tip of jack plug; R - terminal that mates with ring of jack plug; S - terminal that mates with sleeve (ground) of jack plug; TN - tip normal terminal; RN - ring normal terminal.