Best mic cable storage solution?

[hornplayer]

+ another 1

 

over/under wind, velcro the loop, toss in appropriate road trunk

[StratGuy22]

If someone offers to help do up cables after a gig, I usually just get them to undo them all, and separate them into separate little "piles" then I over/under them, or if they are on the ball, I teach them to over/under.

[Axisplayer]

+1 Help seldom is.....

[agedhorse]

Even large snakes are easier over/under into a trunk than messing with a reel. Our splitter snales (40 pair x 200') travel nicely in the back of the splitter rack. Same for 100' distro feeder in the back of the distro rack.

[bigjd]

RoadRanger posted the video on the over and under method.

Someone posted a video of how to do it a while back... I tried a few times... couldn't do it. If at first you don't succeed... start drinking I guess.

 

[Marko]

Those dang Velcro ties are expensive on-line, but I found them at Home Depot, fifty in a roll (actually two rolls packaged together) for $4.46 or something like that.

 

First I found them in the electrical dept, since then the tool dept.

 

they're like these, package looks like of two of those rolls, fifty total. In fact these are about the same price.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Velcro-Reusable-Self-Gripping-Inches-91140/dp/B001E1Y5O6

 

 

 

 

Guitarist uses the fold in half again and again then a big knot on the cables he brings, but I over/under Velcro wrap everything.

[StratGuy22]

I do the half half and tie in a knot for 10' XLR's speaker cables and guitar cables. 25', 50' Mic cables, snake, and power snake are all over under. That's a good idea about the Velcro at home depot. I just grabbed a 50' reel of nylon accessory cord from walmart (similar to a work boot lace) and cut off pieces of that.

[NUSound]

All of my 15'+ cables are Over-Undered, and have tie-line tied onto the male end of the cable. A nice easy square knot and they're ready to travel.

 

And if anyone ever offers or tries to help me tear down, I politely refuse.

[agedhorse]

Tying the cable end is aninvitation to broken down cables as JR indicated IME.

[Mutha Goose]

Those dang Velcro ties are expensive on-line, but I found them at Home Depot, fifty in a roll (actually two rolls packaged together) for $ 4.46 or something like that. .

 

+ 1 on these.. over-under... thrown in a tub.

[tuchan]

Over under for me then some velcro to clean it up and hold it together. 4 water resistant tubs with lids- mic cables speaker cables AC power patch leads and gender benders plus DI's. Multi core goes in a tub of its own also under over, takes some time but it works.

[madjack]

Again, over/under with velcro ties. Storage - for my wife's karaoke rig a 3-space rack drawer holds all she needs. For me, a trunk on wheels for most and a duffle back for personal cables. Snakes over under in the bottom of the foh rack which is now mostly empty due to the 01v96.

[SpaceNorman]

I do the over/under and tie thing with my mic cables. Speaker cables get the over/under treatment and tied with some fancy velco cable ties were gifted to me by some buddies who work in the data cabling industry.

 

I use several of the small plastic rolling storage cases shown below to store them in. I have three of them - 1 gets combo use with the tote tray holding miscellaneous PA odds and ends, and all my mic and miscellaneous PA cables stored below it, 1 (with the tote tray removed) carries all my speaker and A/C cables, 1 is dedicated to my keyboard rig and carries all my pedals, spare instrument cables, etc. - while the tote tray gets a microphone, flashlight, a couple of tools, etc. They cost me less than $30 each at Lowes more than 4 years ago and are still in great shape. They've fit the bill for me needs just fine.

 

My two 6 channel "drop box" snakes live in the open space at the bottom of my PA "FOH" rack - along with the 25' signal snake that runs to my AMP rack. Everything that connects within the rack is prewired - so it's just a case of open the back door of the rack - extend and connect.

 

[Shaster]

Over/under for XLR's and then I join male to female ends (unless it's a 50'). Velcro tie with my name/intitials on the tie. Cable unwinds in a couple of seconds or less.

 

I use red ties for XLR, yellow for speaker, green for AC.... Some guys use the resistor code to denote lengths, but I like to separate cables by function.

 

I realize the big boys use rope not velcro but a "big boy" i'm not.

 

Anyway I usually use two rubbermaid like tubs unless it's a small gig. The tubs can also double as monitor stands for small 1' to 2' high stages.

[Mike M]

I use Home Depot orange cord reels http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xh3/R-100028177/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053. I use three of them: two reels of 25/30's and one for 50 footers. When setting up for a gig I line all three of them up and take what I need - super fast. When a gig is done I over/under the cords and put them in a bin.

Between sound gigs I redistribute the cords on the reels.

The above streamlines the setup time for my sound gigs.

 

Mike M

[StratGuy22]

One thing I do, to mark all my cords as mine is this. I take a small plastic electrical cable zip tie, and I put one on my cord, near the female end, and trim it off. That way if for whatever reason, there ends up being multiple cords from multiple bands etc, I know which cables are mine...

 

 

On pairs of cords, say the banana plug - female 1/4" that my monitors plug in to, or the 1/4" - male XLR pair that my sub XLR cords plug in to, I put 2 cable ties on one of them. That way I can differentiate between left and right, (channel

1, channel 2 etc.) without having to trace the cord back to the amp etc...

[shrubber]

I'm struggling to concentrate on StratGuy22's posts! There are two obvious reasons for that.....

[Gadget]

One thing I do, to mark all my cords as mine is this. I take a small plastic electrical cable zip tie, and I put one on my cord, near the female end, and trim it off. That way if for whatever reason, there ends up being multiple cords from multiple bands etc, I know which cables are mine...

 

I used to work with a guy that did the same, but I couldn't stand them. He also put them on the femail end, which I could never understand. Why do you put them on the female end? I could take them better if they were on the male end of the cable. Although I didn't like the feel of them when wrapping cables, I do admit they are highly effective at being able to identify the cables. Color coded ones, on the male end, could also indicate cable length.

[boomerweps]

 

I used to work with a guy that did the same, but I couldn't stand them. He also put them on the femail end, which I could never understand. Why do you put them on the female end? I could take them better if they were on the male end of the cable. Although I didn't like the feel of them when wrapping cables, I do admit they are highly effective at being able to identify the cables. Color coded ones, on the male end, could also indicate cable length.

 

 

One, put them on the MALE end. The FEMALE end is what shows on the microphones and also what the performer may catch their hand on. Two, snip the end off at tight as you can AND run a fingernail emory board over the sharp plastic tip remaining. If you hold the end with the cable tie to start with when coiling, it's not too bad and doesn't snag you. And definately get them in color ;>)

 

Boomerweps

[Telecruiser]

One thing I do, to mark all my cords as mine is this. I take a small plastic electrical cable zip tie, and I put one on my cord, near the female end, and trim it off. That way if for whatever reason, there ends up being multiple cords from multiple bands etc, I know which cables are mine... On pairs of cords, say the banana plug - female 1/4" that my monitors plug in to, or the 1/4" - male XLR pair that my sub XLR cords plug in to, I put 2 cable ties on one of them. That way I can differentiate between left and right, (channel 1, channel 2 etc.) without having to trace the cord back to the amp etc...

 

Try these -

 

http://audiopile.net/products/Adaptors_Connectors/XLR_Cord_Ends/Colored%20Rings/XLR_Colored_Rings_CR_cutsheet.shtml

[Telecruiser]

 

Someone posted a video of how to do it a while back... I tried a few times... couldn't do it. If at first you don't succeed... start drinking I guess.

 

 

[YOUTUBE]yqbYyaUY5Sk&feature=related[/YOUTUBE]

[Unalaska]

I have cable trunks for everything. 1 trunk per gig carrries AC NL2/4 and xlr. All of it is over/undered, no exceptions. The trunks do weigh a lot, but that is why there are 4" castors and a lift gate. Colored electrical tape at each end is for length (XLR only one male end), most xlr is standard at 25ft, speakons are 5, 10, 20, 30 & 50. AC is 10', 25, 50 and 100.

[TheDoctorMo]

On pairs of cords, say the banana plug - female 1/4" that my monitors plug in to, or the 1/4" - male XLR pair that my sub XLR cords plug in to, I put 2 cable ties on one of them. That way I can differentiate between left and right, (channel 1, channel 2 etc.) without having to trace the cord back to the amp etc...

 

I do the same thing. I thought I was being unique.

 

When it comes to Left and Right cables, such as from a keyboard or guitar processor, I use white zip ties for L and red zip ties for R. I put them on both ends. It comes in very handy when tracing cables from the instruments to a snake box.

 

Eventually, I plan on replacing all of my generic cables with new cables that have Neutrik ends. At that time, I will color-code each cable.

 

mike

[Chickentown]

much easier to teach the alternating "Thumb Up, Thumb Down" version, kinda like this guy does at 2:00:

 

 

[StratGuy22]

I might redo them all, at the other ends. I only have 3 lengths of XLR's:

 

10' (half, half, knot)

25'

50'

 

So it's pretty easy to tell which is which. But yeah it makes sense to have them at the other ends, and filed smooth.