Using & Storing Cables

[rayc]

When it comes to managing cables I was taught, when learning how to set up & run PAs etc, to unroll all cables & lie them out parallel on the floor & leave them , if poss. for an half hour before using them.
I was also taught to loop them at two open arms length & alternate reversing the loop before tying the loops together - preferably near the ends - with a leather tie (that gives my age/era away -now velcro).
Finally I was taught to stow the cables away rather than hang them.
I attempt to do this still - except for the lying out - as I rarely think that far ahead in my little cave, nor do I have the space.
Anything I shouldn't be doing, should be doing?

[Topcat53]

You are doing everything I was taught as well, so I think you've got it right although looping at two arms length may be a little excessive unless you are talking snakes or extremely long cables. For tying the cables, rather than buying those velcro ties that music stores charge a bundle for, I go to the local "dollar" store and get a pack of the elastic things that girls use for pony tails or pig tails with the little plastic balls on each end. They work great and I get a bunch of them for the same price as one velcro tie.

[rmaier]

For those of us living in the Great White North, the velcro ties can be found at Rona for a fraction of what they charge at the music store. No fancy colors, though.

[Slowjett]

You can get 50 velcro ties for under 5 bucks at lowes. They are great. I use them for everything. you can loop one end around your cable if you want, or double them up to go around really thick cables.

[dementedchord]

while all of the things listed are/nt necessarily a bad idea... it's kinda overkill i think... in short t6he thing ya dont want to do is wrap them too tight and/or with the end of the cord wrapped tight around the middle... the basic problem being that the sheilding often tends to break or spread out and then noise can seep in... make sense???

[stevieb]

Man, the guys I play music with/provide PA for are great about helping me load up- but some of 'em wrap my chords into tight, tiny little coils. I HATE that! Trying to educate them...

[suprstar]

Invariably, as soon as I get all the cables wrapped up perfect neat and tidy, I have to get another cable in or out of the snake.. Twice as fast if I'm using zip ties you have to cut off.. Pisses me off, so I don't really bother with cable management anymore.

[dementedchord]

Originally Posted by stevieb

Man, the guys I play music with/provide PA for are great about helping me load up- but some of 'em wrap my chords into tight, tiny little coils. I HATE that! Trying to educate them...

ive seen fist fights over this....

[stevieb]

Originally Posted by dementedchord

ive seen fist fights over this....

Yeah, well, after spending considerable time today unwinding those balls of yarn my guys so happily handed to me, setting them in the sun so they would soften a bit and lose their memory, and coiling them up the RIGHT way, I am feeling pretty scrappy, myself...

[rayc]

I bought a roll of 100 velcro ties - it cost nearly $60 but that's not too bad.
They do the job nicely enough - after rerolling about 50 cables of various sorts I tossed most of the bits of rope, bag ties, stiff wire etc I'd used previously. Things seem better - I'll see when I need to get something in a hurry. THe space certainly looks tidier.
I spent some time looking around for other things to tie!
I remember, in the PA days, dangling cables over 2nd & 3rd storey balconies in the sun to reset memories and get the wind out after someone else had packed and ROLLED the cables into those little yarn balls as mentioned.
Why are cables so dirty?

[stevieb]

Yeah, when I lived in New Orleans, I lived on the 3rd floor of my house (4-plex) and dangled cables out of my windows to straighten them out. Now that I am in the 'burbs of Atlanta, that is only ONE of the things I miss.

Man, sixty bux for 100 velcro ties??? That 50-pack at Lowe's cost less than five bux, I checked.

I use the multi-color pack available at Home Depot, and am trying to color-code my cables by application, using them:
Blue- speaker cables
Green- speaker cables with banana plugs or bare ends.
Red- XLR cables (yes, I know they look different, but you don't know the guys I play music with/provide PA for...)
Orange- XLR female one end, TRS the other.
Yellow- XLR male one end, TRS the other (or it it the other way 'round?)
Black- instrument cables

Jury still out on how well it will work. I will probably buy one or two of the black/grey packs from Lowe's, for general on-site use.

[rayc]

stevieb,
We don't have it so good cost wise in Australia. Closer to China you'd think thing'd be cheaper but NO. What you get for 5c we get for 55.
I could only get them in light green but I'm going to add some sort of ID tag of some sort for the same purpose as you describe.

[TinNedd]

Why not get a lot of different colour sticky tape and color code the ends of the cables so you know which type is which. I put most of them in a box and the ones I tend to use I hang near where Im working. Depends on how you record, the more different ways the more likely you will have a spegetti of wire. I try and put tags on most wired cable so I can get there quicker, including the cables behind the computer, the power leads....ect

[stevieb]

Originally Posted by rayc

I could only get them in light green

Light green- don't have that color. Wanna trade some of those for some greys?

[nomad1970]

I use this stuff, just a big roll of velcro can custom cut your own lengths.

www dot gardeners dot com/Re-Usable+Plant+Ties/FlowerGardening_FlowerSupports,33-978,default,cp.html?SC=XNET8035

[stevieb]

Originally Posted by TinNedd

Why not get a lot of different colour sticky tape and color code the ends of the cables so you know which type is which. I put most of them in a box and the ones I tend to use I hang near where Im working. Depends on how you record, the more different ways the more likely you will have a spegetti of wire. I try and put tags on most wired cable so I can get there quicker, including the cables behind the computer, the power leads....ect

Oh, I do that, too- 5 or 6 colors of electrical tape = about 120 different combinations, at least in theory: 5! or 5 factorial = 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = 120) Means I do not have to trace cables, just find the other end with the same color code. BUT it has it's limitations: If you, say, use two XLR cables to make one longer one, and they are both color coded from the previous use, when you start at the snake box and blithly walk to the board's inputs, the color code has changed- or you have to re-code them every time.

But anyway, the velcro color code system is not for tracing cables when they are hooked up- it's so I can tell my well-meaning but clueless band mates "If it's got BLUE velcro on it, it's a speaker cable, and it goes in the blue bag." etc.

Actually, I have not extended that system to bag colors, yet, but it's coming.

First step in this, btw, was buying a bunch of canvas bags from a second hand store, and separating cables by type into them. The bags take alot of abuse, and some are ripping apart by now, so the next round of bags will be color coded.