Welcome To The Nightmare: Cable Management Suffering & Their Solutions
- Thread starter la szum
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I sometimes think I've reinvented the wheel ten zillion times!
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Definitely the best way in many situations - purest tone!
In my ad work, I get called on to do various sounds, so a smattering of pedals is called for; but last week I took all the digital stuff off my pedalboard. I may put a Strymon EC-1 back on because the delay tone was actually pretty good, but it'll go into its own loop that I can use when desired.
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Everybody knows tone is stored in the front-butt.
But seriously, in the context of a Recording sub-forum, a lot more goes on besides hands and speaker. Mic, room, location within that room and the objects placed in that room dictate what is finally fed through the mic preamp, compressors or other outboard gear, before it hits the control desk in the other room and from a pair of monitors...
Just that last sentence is enough cables to make me want to Indiana Jones my way across the room and over those vicious snakes!
Playing guitar? Hell yes give me a cable and let'er rip! Recording a band takes a little more copper.
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Chipping away. 
Built a Sidecar Rack today. Ok. Didn't build. Put together.
I am going to mount a few guitar preamps in it, a patchbay, a line mixer, and a compressor 3.
This alone will allow me to have a better flow and a central hub from which all my runs
are pretty much going to and from. I had it in the garage for months, and finally put it
all together today. It's freaking solid as f!! And yeah, I have a few screws and nuts left over.
Going to be able to load up the rack drawer with some Pedals, too.
Built a Sidecar Rack today. Ok. Didn't build. Put together.
I am going to mount a few guitar preamps in it, a patchbay, a line mixer, and a compressor 3.
This alone will allow me to have a better flow and a central hub from which all my runs
are pretty much going to and from. I had it in the garage for months, and finally put it
all together today. It's freaking solid as f!! And yeah, I have a few screws and nuts left over.
Going to be able to load up the rack drawer with some Pedals, too.
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Yup. I want to get all geeky on the manipulations of tones in a studio/recording environment.... and sometimes be a purist.
But yeah, this an audio lab, baby!! Let the alchemy continue!
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This is my shit-crap studio where I create mostly music for TV ads. But at least it works. It's a single room. I find that's sufficient for my needs, but have previously had a studio with a separate recording booth.
I solved a lot of cable problems, but not all of them. I have all the amps and cabs connected to an 8 amp, 4 cab switcher (I need to add another cab module since getting a 5th cab). This lets me put all the cables except the pedalboard cables behind the switcher and the amps; I use cable ties to bundle them.
I have some multi-cable wraps, but I don't use them as I find myself moving things around and dealing with the wraps turned into a PITA.
The one problem is I like to have the amps far enough away from the workstation that they're not on top of me while I operate the recording gear; this lets me hear through cans while recording as the amps are far enough away that the distance to them is helpful. The room is 33' long.
The compromise is that if I want to power the amps and pedalboard from the same power supply (I use the Furman PF1800-R with a 45 Amp power reservoir) so as to avoid ground loops and other power issues, I have to run a fairly long power cable and signal cable to the pedalboard.
To reduce the tripping hazard I wanted everything to lay flat, and had the power cord and signal cables wrapped with Flextech. They lay flat on the floor with this stuff. It's easy for me to deal with, but having one cable in the middle of the floor kind of sucks. Yet it's simple and effective this way.
I orient the cables front to back instead of left to right because that way I don't have to step over any cables on the way to the amps. Kind of a 'go with the traffic flow' thing. When I'm working I bundle these cables with velcro ties as well. If people are over, I have some cable ramps I can place over this cable, but I rarely need it.
It's far from perfect, and yet it's also kinda far from fucked up.
I'm mostly in the box these days with the workstation. I've bundled the cables under the workstation desk. It's a pretty clean setup. I have a 15 foot snake with 8 mic inputs that lives behind the rack. I generally run it along the wall behind the main keyboard desk to plug mics in, but if I'm recording myself playing an acoustic instrument, I often run it along the other wall and set up mic stands closer to the workstation so I can still operate the gear.
Here's another view of the amp nook area; I've been trying different spots for a couple of the amps, so the cables are bundled pretty loosely at the moment until I get that set more permanently.
Signal and power cables including snake are bundled separately, behind the workstation:
I use a 2 kVa balanced power supply with an isolation transformer by Equi-Tech. Each of the outlets is also isolated to avoid ground issues. Works great, reduced the noise floor by 6dB according to my Tech's scope. It doesn't show in this pic, but the power cables are also bundled and run along the back under the desk to avoid trip hazards.
What a space!
I think I am trying to cram 10X that amount of gear in 1/3 the space.
I'll never have a space that tidy, organized, and efficient. Sure is inspiring, though.
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Yes! I plan a few trips down under the house running cables as soon as it warms up .... and dries up.
Thanks, MDW!!
TSJMajesty
Rock Star
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The only thing I can recommend, and that highly, is to create a plan. As in, on paper (or software, if that's your thing.) If it were me, I'd consider all my use cases- things I want to be able to do often, things I do occasionally, and things I might not even consider doing now, but may do in the future. Then map it out.
And of course, check for wires/plumbing/HVAC in the crawl space before you drill. You probably already know that, but a reminder never hurt.
Whenever I go in my crawl space, I take 2 tools first- small shop vac for the spiderwebs and such, and an automotive creeper.
And of course, check for wires/plumbing/HVAC in the crawl space before you drill. You probably already know that, but a reminder never hurt.
Whenever I go in my crawl space, I take 2 tools first- small shop vac for the spiderwebs and such, and an automotive creeper.
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We may be the same guy.
I swear. The last time I put down a vapor barrier and vacc'd. I'll probably need to do it again.
But definitely mapping all of this out beforehand is going to be vital. I sure as heck don;'t
want multiple trips doing the belly crawl down there. My abs aren't what they used to be.
MirrorProfiles
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try not to cram too much in any rack, I like patchbays in the top, or their own rack as it makes it easier to get behind them if needed.Any thoughts on how best to load one's rack for max efficiency and access?
Power supply and patchbay higher? Just curious if anyone has learned anything
that may be useful for me to know before loading it all up.
It can be good to plan it a bit in advance and just see roughly where the cables will want to go and how long things need to be to keep it neat and tidy. Cable sleeves and cable ties and clips etc can all be helpful too. Also if you have rear racks, you can put some shelves and rack power strips there and it can keep things tidier.
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Don't know if you rack has rails on front and back, but I like to have my power supply off the back of the rack when that is an option so that chords aren't poking out the front. As you know, hot air rises so putting the hot items at or near the top will keep them from heating up the other components above them, but sometimes you have to bite the bullet and put some hot items lower. In such cases, rack fans above the hot unit is never a bad idea ;~))Any thoughts on how best to load one's rack for max efficiency and access?
Power supply and patchbay higher? Just curious if anyone has learned anything
that may be useful for me to know before loading it all up.
TSJMajesty
Rock Star
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If you go to a home store or lumberyard, you can find this product that a former boss of mine called "smurf tube", probably cuz it's smurf blue. He was the first one to tell me to install it in the walls, from attic to basement in my case, (we had mechanical equipment in both areas) so you could feed any future wires through it. We do it now on any job where we open up walls. It's flexible, so easy to route around stuff.I sure as heck don;'t
want multiple trips doing the belly crawl down there.
Maybe run one of those with a pull-string in it, just in case you think of something later.
