What does the back of your rack look like?

[Don]

So thats what its supposed to look like back there
Mines a mess..You've inspired me to do some "cleaning"

[Remoteness]

Hey thanks...

Correctly patched, but messy is perfectly cool until you need to quickly trouble shoot something.

[Jax]

Originally posted by faeflora
Power cords and audio wiring is mostly seperated. My power cords exit one place in my argosy desk and audio exits in two other places. They run parallel sometimes but when they do they're about 3-5 inches away from each other.

I swear to you, keeping audio and power cables away form eachother creates more problems than it fixes. IIRC, the specific term for it is a "ground area" noise, which differs from (but sounds the same as) ground loops. As I mentioned earlier in this thread, running them as close to eachother as possible actually reduces noise, as long as they are as parallel as possible.

I'll dig up the Muncy AES paper and quote the most relevant bits when I have the chance.

[Albert]

Jax, that's exactly the opposite from anything I've ever heard, and I'm sure interested in reading about it. Please do post that info when you ahve a chance.

Steve Remote, you've done a beautiful job wiring your racks. I copied your picture to use as a model for wiring my own racks, hope you don't mind. What is an "Edison" plug and where could I get more info about them?

The biggest problem I have with wiring my racks is that I get it all nice and organized, and then after swapping things in any out a few times it's a big mess again. Especially the main rack with all the patchbays. Then it seems like the only way to truly clean it up is to tear it all out and start again. Ugh.

[Remoteness]

Albert,

Thank you for the kind words. My crew and I take pride in the work we do for ourselves and our clients. I will pass the word to them. I'm sure they will appreciate it much.

I don't mind one bit. If I had more time, I would have posted more pictures. You got to see our new portable (mini) patch bay rack. It's a TT bay with W4 MASS & ELCO connectors packed in a 8 spaced rack. It also has built in XFMRs, pads, phase reverses, etc... I will post a picture or three when we finish it. We're trying to get it finished for a live recording date next Monday.

An "Edison" plug is slang for a three pronged AC plug.

I know what you mean when you have to swap stuff out. When I design a rack, I leave (plenty of) space for future use. If I plan to have multiples of one item, I leave extra space and holes in the patch bay for them. Also, when I swap things around I don't just move the unit. I change the tie lines for it too. It's extra work for that one time, rather then a lot of work every time I have to deal with the big nest of mess.

We usually individually wire our bays using Audio Accessories bays. They're the ones with the separate jack connections. If I need to move a set of connections all I have to do is unscrew the jacks, cut the tie wraps and remove the connection harness to another bay or system, etc. Ripping out a few (or all) of the connections isn't as bad as a total wiring redo.

I hope this helped.

[Jam]

Remoteness

That's ( the back of your rack ) art not science

[Albert]

Steve, thanks for the response and I will certainly look forward to more pictures of your artistically wired racks!

So you do cut the tie wraps every time you swap something in and out. That's been a major area of shortcutting for me, and probably one a reason why the racks end up getting messy. I've been wrapping new cables over old, which makes for a lot more cutting of tie wraps if I have to remove a cable that's in the original inner bundle. I'll sometimes leave the old cables in there too, unused (I'm embarrassed to admit that). Equipment that has an attached power cord is especially disliked around here because I've got to take all the bundling apart to get it out!

I'm going to try taking your advice about adjusting the cabling with each change instead of letting the changes add up over time. You've inspired me, it's time to get behind the rack and clean it up again!

[Remoteness]

Thanks Jam.

Albert,

As I mentioned before, more pictures will be posted as we complete each project. Finding the time is another story.

I do cut the tie wraps when applicable. But, I also leave plenty of extra tie lines, space and holes for future upgrades preventing the need to cut anything. When we use multicore cable, we change the ends to the gear with every swap. If I'm moving an item from the top of the rack to the bottom. The tie lines change too. In my world, everything has to be sequential (well, almost everything) and look perfect. If I got four Distressors in the first rack, they show up on the bay as the first points. If I moved them to another rack, I will NOT leave the same points for them in the bay. It's too confusing to outside engineers. Especially during live location recordings. We want things to be simple and easy to manage.

The Audio Accessories bays make life so much easier when swapping gear because you do not necessarily have to rewire the patch bay connection. You just unscrew the jack from the bay and move it where you need it and stuff.

Equipment that has an attached power cord is not tie wrapped together with the main power cord bundle for the obvious reasons. We bundle all IEC power cords together and attach the non IEC cords on the outside of the bundle with smaller tie wraps (sometimes we use different colored tie wraps) that can be easily pulled when we need to remove that piece of gear.

Good luck on your wiring project!

[Albert]

Originally posted by Remoteness
Equipment that has an attached power cord is not tie wrapped together with the main power cord bundle for the obvious reasons. We bundle all IEC power cords together and attach the non IEC cords on the outside of the bundle with smaller tie wraps (sometimes we use different colored tie wraps) that can be easily pulled when we need to remove that piece of gear.

Now, why didn't I think of that? :-)

Thanks so much for your advice. I do have one more question regarding something you mentioned in an earlier post. If I understand correctly, you wire several pieces of gear into one "Edison". So, for example, that could be three IEC cables that are individual on one end and joined on the other end with a single power plug?

This would be incredibly useful to me, as I have a number of pieces of gear without front panel power switches, and I'd like to be able to switch them on/off in pairs as I need them. I'm currently using several rack mount power strips with individual switches, but they are all used up and I need more. There's really not space for another rack mount power switch unit, so it would be great to combine audio gear per switch. Two per switch would be perfect.

This thread has proven incredibly helpful, thanks so much!

[concentric]

We have custom built rack islands that sit in the middle of the control room behind the desk. We had power built into the floor and have surge protectors mounted on the inside of each rack (the racks have 2 19" bays and the rear is separated by a wall). We run the audio snakes (Elco) down the opposite side of the racks, then down through troughs in the floor. Fortunately, the back of the racks allows enough room for us to neatly stack any external PSUs near the surge protectors, keeping them away from the audio leads.

CJM

[Remoteness]

Albert,

Yes. we wire identical gear to one AC 3 prong plug.

Let's say we had 8 ATI PRO6s and 4 Midas XL42s and only a 6 outlet power strip. We could make 4 dual IECs for the ATIs and 2 for the XL42s.

Cool idea; rack mount power strips with individual combo switches...

Go for it!

[Jay Kahrs]

Originally posted by Remoteness
Cool idea; rack mount power strips with individual combo switches...

I've seen rackmount power strips with swtiches for each outlet in DJ shops for $30-50 each. I think they sell them as part of the lighting department, never seen them in audio.

[Remoteness]

Just found these pictures...

Here's a couple of shot of the wiring for one of the XTA active splitters we have before they got crammed into it's 8 spaced rack case.

[Albert]

Jay, that's correct, you find these power strips with individual switches among DJ and lighting equipment. Mine are made by a company called MBT. I'm not a DJ, but have found the strips very useful in my studio. It seems like more and more manufacturers are cutting cost by using wall warts and eliminating power switches. Not a trend I like! Also, some gear has the power switch on the rear.

Steve, I must say that your wiring goes beyond science into the realm of art. :-)

[C.Lambrechts]

...

[Albert]

Chris, you decided to bring this thread back?

Steve Remote is still my hero when it comes to cabling the back of racks. I have some racks of samplers that are pretty close to his level of work, and were indeed inspired by those pictures Steve put up. It's a lot easier to do neat and tidy things to racks that have a lot of the same type of gear in them.

[Remoteness]

Albert,

Thank you much for the kind words...

I asked, Chris to consider bringing back this and four other threads. He was very cool about making it so.

There are many other good threads that should be saved. I trust the Low End Mods will continue to migrate them over to this and other appropriate forums.

Wiring the back of your racks neat and clean is the first step to an efficient recording process.

Hey Albert, show us the back of your sampler racks!

All the best my man.

[Albert]

Steve, here's a picture of my akai rack of samplers. It was hard to get a good angle on it because of it's location, but I think you get the idea. Not quite up to your level of organization regarding cabling, but not too bad if I don't say so myself! As I mentioned in my previous post, it is a lot easier to deal with gear of the same model, since the power, audio jacks, and all other connections will be in the same place. The other nice thing about this rack is that I don't pull pieces in and out constantly, it stays the same.

That's the biggest problem I have with my other racks. I get them all neat and tidy, and then by the time I've swapped out a few pieces of gear they are a mess again. Very frustrating. How do you handle that, re-cable every time?

[bloodstone]

The back of my racks looks like cord spaghetti from hell, but the front of my racks looks oh so very organized.

[Remoteness]

Albert, That rack looks sweet!

[alphajerk]

wow steve, your wiring is just beautiful.

[Albert]

Thanks Steve! Now all I need to do is get the rest of my wiring as neat and tidy.

[not_so_new]

Originally posted by Jax
I swear to you, keeping audio and power cables away form eachother creates more problems than it fixes. IIRC, the specific term for it is a "ground area" noise, which differs from (but sounds the same as) ground loops. As I mentioned earlier in this thread, running them as close to eachother as possible actually reduces noise, as long as they are as parallel as possible.

I'll dig up the Muncy AES paper and quote the most relevant bits when I have the chance.

Okay anyone wish to comment on this. I am open to the idea but really this goes completely against anything that I have ever heard, read or witnessed in any studio.

???

Very interesting concept (and quite timely as I am about to rewire my whole mess) but forgive me if I am a little skeptical.

As to the original post, the back of my rack looks like an explosion in a Brillo pad factory. Scary thing is I like to clean it up but I would only do it if I can keep it that way and in my experience that will never happen.

**sigh**

[kidtexas]

Ok, so it's not quite and audio rack, but I do have to deal with it every day. To make matters worse, there are a number of intermittently bad cables in the mess...

[Remoteness]

Kid, please fix that mess...

Or at least hunt down the intermittent feeds.

Do it because you can.

[Dave Martin]

Steve, do you build your wiring harnesses, or does someone in your shop do them? A bunch of the guys in the chat want you do re-do their racks...

[Remoteness]

Both...

In the early days I mostly done all the wiring work. Nowadays, I specify (sometimes educate), then have my crew do the rest of the work.

In a pinch, I've been known to get in there and do the deed.

Dave, how serious are those folks? Schedule permitting, we may be able to help them.

[7rojo7]

I have some pictures on the way (just got my camera), I chose to use an 8 channel distribution scheme. Most of my connection are completely interchangeable if I like. I have 30 8 channel connections to make to my 5 unit patch bay rack which also houses my 32 in and 24 out of converters and 16xlrf 16 xlrm and 16 trs jacks for local ties, it will soon also house a multichannel line mixer and a universal disc player. I like the idea of the 2 space patch rack though and may implement that for my smaller setups, it would take me from mic tie to converter input in a small footprinton the left, on the right I can plug in some extras. Untill now I've just patched from the fanouts, if I don't have to change anything it works fine.
I have seperate empty racks to house my setup in smaller configurations with multicore fanouts or breakout boxes.
Most of the time everything stays in the studio in its "permanent" position, but everything is set to go out in a moment's notice. I disconnect 30 15 footcables and put them in their trunk, pop the lids on the racks (the covers for some of the racks double as a field workbench/picnic table and sitting bench that come in handy in the studio as percussion table and piano bench) Get it all in a truck and set it back up on location within an hour.
I'm currently designing 2 mic splitter and break out systems that I can use together or seperately a: 28 lines (24+4) and the other 48 lines, a comm system with its own snake for video, balanced audio, telephone and AC. UHF com inside wired to the remote CR, I've been in many venues here where walkie talkies don't reach from the performance space to the CR.
If I run the stage, I run 8 channel boxes around and connect them to a 6x8 to 48 (150 pin) break out box that goes to the splitters, if not I just take the split. It's important to keep the stage and the studio clean from mess as well as the back of your rack. It makes the musician more comfortable and they play better, one of the secrets of good recording. IMO
Here in Italy Stefano Grasso does my work, sub conracting for McLore.

[mattssons]

Is nowdays in quite good order, it used to be mayhem but since i changed patchbay.(Oboy did that soldering take weeks..) it's in good shape and i will try to keep it that way. Try fault searching in a cable mess during a rush session. Simply not a good idea.

Toby

[Dave Martin]

Originally posted by Remoteness

Dave, how serious are those folks? Schedule permitting, we may be able to help them.

Steve, they're mostly a buncha guys talking about how pretty your wiring jobs are... They'd love to have harnesses and such like the ones in your pictures, but not bad enough to do the work - and probably not bad enough to pay what it would cost ot have your crew do it. So probably not serious.