Audio Organization: Cables

[The_Guest]

What do you guys do to organize your XLR and other longer audio cables (TRS, etc)? Currently our XLR supply is sitting on top of a cabinet, it's not working out for us. I purchased two different styles of hooks just to experiment with what will work out the best. We don't have a lot of space so we can't have hooks allover the place. The XLR and long TRS supply almost all have velcro cable wraps on them. I bought more wraps this weekend, it should all be covered. All the short TRS, adaption, and patching cables are hung from there connectors these little hooks mounted on the wall to hand them.

[mbenonis]

A couple of years back we built a frame out of 2x4's and put a pegboard over it. Currently, it's positioned in the booth next to the sound console. We can have three rows of 7 columns each, and each hook can hold 2-3 XLR cables. It's organized like this: The top row has 50' XLR audio cables, and all DMX cables. THe middle row is exclusively 20'-25' audio XLR cables. Finally, the bottom row is any short XLR cables, TS cables, XLR-TRS cables, and any random cables. This system has really worked out well for us.

[SuperCow]

We use a pegboard for our shorter cables, but for the really long ones, we use somewhat sturdier coathooks. At one of the places where I worked, we just coiled all the cables tightly and tied them up, and then put them in those large totes, with labels on them, according to length. The latter option has the benefit of being stackable (it takes up less space) and also easily transportable.

[avkid]

i have a room with pegboard covered walls that is used to hold coax, xlr and all other types of cables, we also keep our backup system in that room, it consists of a Peavey xr-86 mixer a pair of beat up yamaha speakers and hopefully (i'll see this week) a newly repaired set of JBL speakers ( they are about 10 years old and were not used for years , until i saved from a life of siitng in storage ) they are almost in mint condition minus a few scratches.

[bdesmond]

Given a shortage of vertical space, I'd look at picking up some plastic containers with lids at your local Crate & Barrel, Linens 'n' Things, Contianer Store, etc. I'd imagine you probably have a good sized handful of cables in varying lengths. Take an inventory, and then logically group them by length and function into the containers. So long as the cords are wrapped neatly, you won't have any trouble getting them out. I'd also pick up a selection of rip-ties in various colors. Designate one color for each length. This will let you grab cables very quickly. If you frequently rent stuff, you might want to sync up your color scheme with theirs to save the confusion.

[Nephilim]

The warehouse has large shelves with cable classified by type and length; every single cable in use has a velcro strap. When pulled for rental or jobs; the cable is stored in milk crates by kind; and then the crates go in square-pack cable bins.

[Lightingguy32]

For XLR or Stagelighting cable, to easily make identifying lenght, near each connector end use different colors of electrical tape rings to ID lengths for instance a white ring would be a 25 foot cable, red would be 5, and so on, other wise i can't help you with the different 3, 5 and 6 pin configuration sorting

[Dillon]

The best system I've used has been a big steel bracket lagged into the wall. It was a custom build that we did -- welded 1x2 tube steel at about 30° to a second piece that went flush on the wall. We had 4 or 5 of these on the wall -- 2 for long XLRs (all of ours were 25-30 feet), one for speakon cables, and one for black extension cords. We had a couple smaller ones too for short patch cables. A great way to store bulk amounts of cable!

[bdesmond]

Coiled gaff-wrapped bundles in milk crates is/was how we did it at Payton. Worked well enough for quite a bit of cable, easy to load on a cart and haul whereever.

[Peter]

This is going to seem ... backwards... but it works really well. My college has several (3 or 4) bins that are about 2 foot cubes with hinged lids. Each bin has a (roughly) equal asortment of XLR and speakon neatly coiled and stacked inside. Each coil is held togeher with velcro straps that stay right on the end of the cable when unwound. Also, each cable is color coded by length, so you can just reach in and grab the color (length) you need. If you need a cable that is not on top, you lift the top ones out, grab your cable and lay the others back down flat. It doesnt sound like it would work, but it does. and it has the added benift of being super easy to bring arround to all the venues we work in. I think the real key is neat coiling so each cable lifts out without getting tangeled. If you can pull that off, it may just work for you too. (be warned if you have alot of kids who arnt great at coiling, or mic cables that are already bent in all kinds of funny ways, this may be hard to do!)