Most TRS jack patchbays default to a half‑normal configuration but they can often be changed, and if you’re likely to need to change the routing often, some, such as this Samson Patch+, have switchable routing.
I think I need a patchbay for my outboard but don’t really understand what normalling and half‑normalling are — how do I know what kind of setup I need?
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SOS Reviews Editor Matt Houghton: Normalling just means there’s a ‘normal’ signal path when no cables are plugged into the front of the patchbay. When you plug cables in the front, you either interrupt (break) that connection or take a copy of it to be routed elsewhere. Most budget jack patchbays default to a half‑normalled setup: plugging into the top row copies the signal, whereas in a (fully) normalled setup it would break it.
In either setup, plugging into the bottom row breaks the normal connection.
You can also configure a ‘thru’ connection, with no normalling — the front and rear connectors are directly linked and go nowhere else until you patch cables in. For an accessible ‘deeper dive’ that should tell you what you need to know for your setup, check out Hugh Robjohns’ article (https://sosm.ag/PatchbaysInTheModernStudio) in SOS December 2020.