Keeping track of connections

[nojj]

Like a lot of home studio owners, I have a fair amount of gear,
and don't want to spend significant amounts of time switching cabling behind the desk.

Have several patchbays and many connectors.

But how to keep track of all that stuff, especially for gear or configurations that are rarely used?

What I do is keep dated templates of the back/fronts of all the gear
with more than a couple connections.
Clipboard hanging by the recorder holds that,
another holds stuff like track sheets.

But sometimes that still is too time consuming,
so I made some 1RU masonite spacers for the studio racks,
and use a dry-erase marker on them,
detailing the connectors on the bays and mixers.
I do tend to reconfigure stuff periodically, handy to just wipe off the marker,
and IMO looks more professional than gaffer's tape.

Anybody else have some tips or solutions?

 

[Dave Martin]

Everything in my room goes to a patchbay, which is labeled (actually numbered, but the principle is the same - each piece of gear comes up to the patch bay, where I connect as necessary for a particular session.

A number of the engineers who work here will, when patching in outboard preamps, EQ's or compressors, will stick a piece of console tape on the gear to remind them what it's for. For example, the guy who worked in my roon over the weekend had a piece of tape labeled "GTR" stuck onto a preamp and also on one of the compressors. And, of course, console tape is used on the console.

Look for 'Artist Tape" at an art supply house or Staples; that's console tape....

 

[bkbirge]

Get enough patchbays to wire every single i/o of your gear. Then label the patchbays. If you are using non-solder type bays (1/4" or xlr i/o) then label the patchbay end of the back cable as well as the gear end of the back cable. Keep a notebook or piece of paper handy with the patchbay connections also, sometimes it's hard to see a patchbay label when it's stuffed with cables.

 

[nojj]

Nice tip on the art tape, I've been using painters tape.


I've enough patchbays to go around,
but I'm hoping to upgrade to having all of them normalized.
(Only two of mine are capable of setting thus)
That'll cut down on the number of patchcables.
Also built support harnesses for the cables on the back.

Also would like a digital patchbay or switcher of sorts,
a fair amount of gear here takes S/PDIF and or optical.

 

[seamonkey]

Mark the cables with colored tie wraps or tape.

On the smart phone take a picture of everything and give the filename a good name.

It sure is nice in the virtual world all this is saved in presets.

 

[Dave Martin]

I've enough patchbays to go around,
but I'm hoping to upgrade to having all of them normalized.
(Only two of mine are capable of setting thus)
That'll cut down on the number of patchcables.
Also built support harnesses for the cables on the back.

Also would like a digital patchbay or switcher of sorts,
a fair amount of gear here takes S/PDIF and or optical.

None of my outboard gear is normalled to anything, including the outboard preamps; though a basic signal flow (mic input to console pre to Pro Tools input) is half-normalled, none of the fun toys are part of that signal path. All of my mic inputs are on the same patch bay as my outboard preamps, and all of the outboard stuff (compressors, eq's) come up on the console patch bay. where I can insert it either on the way to Pro Tools, coming out of PT for a console mix or as an insert for an 'in-the-box' mix.

I don't mind using lots of patch cords - it ultimately gives me a lot more freedom to choose my tools to suit a given application.

 

[nojj]

most of my normalled connections involve the monitoring system, or the house PA.
For example, my audio computer is normalled to the Altec computer speakers and is rarely changed,
but sometimes I like to send it to the HR824s.
Some of the recording mixer, sub mixer, and the house mixer are normalized as well.
I look on it as sort of a template.

So how often does everybody spray out their patchbays?
I usually hit mine a couple times a year with some deox.

 

[bkbirge]

So how often does everybody spray out their patchbays?
I usually hit mine a couple times a year with some deox.

Never. In 30 years. The constant patching takes care of cleaning the contacts for me.

 

[Dave Martin]

So how often does everybody spray out their patchbays?
I usually hit mine a couple times a year with some deox.

Not here, either.

 

[nojj]

Most of the guys I know around here (at the home/rehearsal studio level) do have to clean them periodically.
Must be the air or something........

How does everybody handle strain relief?
I bundle my cable runs in velcro where they come up behind the rack side of the desk.
Then attached some coat-hanger loops to help support the added weight in the back.

 

[Dave Martin]

At Java Jive, all of the patchbays are wired wtih multi-pair harnesses - the console has 8 channel harnesses (lots of them) on D-Subs that are broken out into (mostly) 4 in 4 out pairs, other than the Pro Tools interfaces, which are D-Sub to D sub. On the mic patch bay, 8 pair harnesses are hard-wired into the patch bay with enough spare cable inside the rack that there's no strain on the patch bay itself.
Admittedly, this was a custom design, so the layout was taken care of before the harnesses were built.