how to keep your studio nice & clean from wires

M

Modern_Talking

New member
Hello to all . . .

How are you guys keeping your studio nice and clean from wires hanging, twisting up, tangles etc . . . By wires it could be anything, ranging from speaker wires, patch cables, insert cables, power cables etc etc . . .

I'm thinking of getting rid of all the single cable's and getting some snakes to connect all my sound modules, effect racks, patch bays etc etc . .

behind the desk or table there are lots of wires hanging behind and it totally looks messy there and with power cable there too, I guess I'm hearing hum noise being introduced into the mixing board. . . . .

I though of either buying snakes or just couple up all my wires (like effect unit patch cables, sound modules cables etc etc ) and tape them up and create a snake (of course not 1 large snake but few short snakes) as this way less wires would be showing at the back and things won't get tangle up that much and things will look at lot neater. . . . Plus power cords won't be touching the patch cables and chances are less or no interference will occur.

thanks
 
This took me a while to figure out: my studio features unbalanced cables, balanced cables, TDIF cables, MIDI cables, USB cables, the video cable for my monitor, speaker cables, AES/EBU cables, and of course there's an AC cord for every piece of gear in the room, which includes two mixers, two headphone amps, a pair of powered monitors, a pair of unpowered speakers and their amp, a mic preamp, a TDIF-ADAT converter box, a wordclock distribution amp, and Minnie Moore. Not to mention a Mackie Control and a computer with a monitor, keyboard and mouse. That's not even including the mic cables and whatnot when I'm actually recording!

I use a lot of twist ties and velcro strips.

With rack-mounted gear, I shorten the AC cord so it reaches the outlet with a little slack (all my racks have rackmount power strips in them). If trimming is not an option (I prefer not to cut on AC/DC transformer wires [wall warts]), I use twist ties to gather up all the slack in the wires. The power leads for the power strips plug into UPS boxes (two of them, and another for the computer). Probably the UPS is not necessary, but it reduces the number of cords plugged into the wall, and allows for neater routing.

Speaker cables generally are paired into split tubing so they don't wander all over the floor. This also makes it easier to cross the AC lines at right angles.

My mixers rackmount, and have the outputs on the face, so I use right-angle TRS plugs, then route the cables down the sides of the rack using harness clamps (like you would use to tie a wiring harness to a car frame).
One headphone amp is across the room from my mixers, so I routed the balanced cables from the mixer to the amp overhead, along an exposed wooden beam. The other one is mounted on the wall to the left of the mixer, and the cables are routed along the wall to it.

I also spend a bit of time figuring out how to best route all the cables...my computer is behind a wall, to keep noise down, so I have to deal with all the wires and cables for that too. Since I use fiberoptics between the mixer and the computer, I don't have to worry about interference there, but everything else is dressed away from anything that might cause noise or RFI.
 
Tape gets messy after a while, the glue gets gummy and sticks to the cable. If you ever want to un-bundle the cables they will be covered by glue goop and you'll have to clean the cables. I use plastic ties (not twist ties) to bundle cables together. You can get them at a well stocked hardware or computer store like Fry's.

Velcro is also your friend. :D
 
Modern_Talking said:
Hello to all . . .



I'm thinking of getting rid of all the single cable's and getting some snakes to connect all my sound modules, effect racks, patch bays etc etc . .
Click to expand...


nuff said.......
 
I picked up a couple of snakes to run between my mixer and patchbay, and to hook up the k2500 which has a bunch of outputs. They saved me a lot of messy wiring. For everything else, I use velcro straps to tie up cables, and I mounted various tie points onto my rack cases / stands / desk / etc to route the cables and keep audio separate from power. Got a few large hooks from the hardware store for the wall to put extra cables on so they are out of the way and not tangled up in a box.
 
Another vote for Velcro straps! :D

.........and make sure to keep signal wires away from power wires.
 
1) Place Related equipment as close to each other to reduce cable length
2) Use Snakes where posible
3) Route Power Cords away from Audio Cables
4) Zip Tie Audio Cables
5) Zip Tie Power Cords
 
Zip ties are best if you know you won't be changing your setup often. If you tend to rearrange or rewire all the time (gear slut!) go with velcro, or a combination as appropriate... Also don't cinch your zip ties super-tight on wires, it can damage them.
 
cable ties

I guess lot's of people are using velcro and those plastic ties. . .

Well, I went and got some heat shrink tubing and have made a few snakes out of those single 1/4" cables that I had been hooking up to the mixing board and patch bays etc etc . . . .

By combining the appropriate cables I needed to make snakes for my all my stuff that were on the racks and desk, now they are pretty much all snaked up. . . NOw I guess I will use velcro to tie up all those power cords and when i need change setup's it can always be opened up and used again . . .
 
Zip Ties and Velcro Ties
The velcro ties I use say on the bag "Hook & Loop Wire Ties", that might help your search on google.
 
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