140' cable part II

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rushfan33

rushfan33

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Well noe that I have all this different color cable, I'm curious as to how pther people have color coded their cables. I've designated grey as patch cords but that's as far s I got. Do any of you have "systems" for color coding?

Thanks,
RF
 
Here's my high-level color theorizing:

You want to use the colors to distinguish cables that you otherwise might confuse. A corollary: don't use colors to distinguish between cables that you would not otherwise confuse.

This immediately calls into question your "patch cords" = grey scheme. Actually, I'd probably want patchcords to be all sorts of different colors, so I wouldn't mix up one end of one with the other end of another.

A whole 'nother approach might involve the services of a graphic designer, to create a pleasing pallette with meanings that corresond to your innate emotional reactions (like red makes you want to buy stuff ... or is that green?).

What colors do you have?

I also like the idea of distinguishing one end of a cord from the other, to avoid accidentally plugging an output into another output. But apparently I'm unique in this desire (save only for the makers of those goofy directional "interconnect" cables, who are up to something else altogether).
 
Well so far I have grey, yellow and Purple. I was going to use yellow as Mic cable with, Purple as instrument cable and grey as patch cable. You do make a good point sjjohnston (not about the graphic designer though ;)) about the patch cables being different for input and output. Maybe I'll get one more color for grey's counterpart.

Thanks,
RF
 
To expound on Sjohnstons' response the idea is that you are not going to mix up a patch cable with a mic cable so its okay if they are the same colors. But for patch cables you may want purple as sends and gray as returns, etc. Or for mics you might want different colors of each so you know that the purple is going to the kick, gray for snare, etc.
 
The only colors I use are from the console to the DBX units to the tape deck.

That's only in case I have to track something down while I'm rooting around with a flashlight laying on my back under the rack.

Everything else is black. If I think I could get something mixed up like insert cables or send and return cables I label them on the steel plug jacket with a Perma-Marker.

I have patch bay cables of all colors, but no patch bay as of yet and no need for one as of now. They did come in handy though for previous patch bays.
 
10 foot = Yellow
15 foot = Purple
25 foot = Red
50 foot = green
100 foot = blue

Not that I have any 100 foot cables right now, but that is what most of the lighting and sound companies I work for use. The cables are all black, with colored electrical tape. I also like the idea of having many colors of patch cables so that I (or my assistants) can tell what is pluged in where. You don't want your assistant unpulging the wrong thing, and you gotta watch those kids.

Light
"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
I think you will have a much better time if you just use colored tape and/or a sharpie to label your cables at the connector instead of worrying about cable color...especially if you only have 3 colors. I mean really, you can come up with a zillion different color requirements, and then you'll have to remember them all! And what if you turn a mic cable into 5 patch cables next year? Oops, wrong color! And what about all those "special" cables, like your XLR->TRS and XLR->TS and TS->RCA so on and so forth. You can't have a different color for each cable type.

I would go for asthetics...use all one color for your patch cables, with a bands of different colored electrical tape positioned where the connector meets the cable. This will look good and be much more manageable than only having three color choices, or ordering more cable. Plus it allows you to focus on the cable inserts without being distracted by the cable colors themselves. I would use the same technique for your mic cables, etc.

Slackmaster 2000
 
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