Cables

The Lounge General Discussion
1

I really love elektron. in six months, without expected it to be like this, I changed from other equipment to AR, AK and OT. I even bought new monitor speakers to deal with the lovely sound… I started with ableton, after 5 years went to Maschine, after 5 years went to elektron, and I hope soon I will connect it to ableton again.

But…

These cables make me sick. Sorry to say, I love structure and I love emptiness… I love the lack of input, my house is empty, my table is empty, and suddenly my music equipment is a big mess of cables. When I make music, I love my head to be empty. A clean house is a clean head… for me…

I do want to be flexible. Love it only to have the AK in front of me, or to take it away and only see the combination of OT and AR…

What do you do with the cables? Or is it that you don’t care?

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Cables is a part of this lifestyle :wink:

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almost same here ! …

i kinda got the least problematic solution, all my toys have a almost arms length extra cable, so I can push and pull my machines from underneath my table (kinda 2 tier) in front of me … jesus, this would be so hard to explain, could take a picture, but I assume , you very well already know what too many cables look like …

now, I got it … it is the “out of sight” element that is key factor for me, combined with slight movability …


I hardly ever see the cables, because I can push my A4OTMMMN just underneath the top shelf, and whichever I want, I draw towards me, if it is the leftest (OT) and the rightest (MM) … I can push the A4 and MD just towards the back … handy to have some headroom and extra long cables (there is a mixer too, which you cannot see, and a midi keyboard, sherman is in closet at the moment, microphone not in picture…)

also: my power cables are all labeled, so I can easily take my MM with me to bed, without having to double check 3 times …

oh , yeah, back to the visual aspect … when my lids are on the toys, and they are pushed slightly back, I see no cable (almost) … yeah cables… went to buy a pair of balanced cables the other day, didnt really need them, just thought will upgrade 1 machine to balanced , like a happy bday A4, or something :stuck_out_tongue: …

oh boy, I love cables, btw, I could talk about them all day and night! …

needles to say , I have a beautiful daisy chain of midi cables as well …

tl dr: try to hide cables , cannot live without cables

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Cable management?..

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/categories/departments/workspaces/16195/

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http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fisual-2m-Zip-Cable-Tidy-2-Metres-Black/dp/B0073ELQLS/ref=pd_sim_sbs_office_17?ie=UTF8&refRID=0A4ZSRDM2MC2DFDDW64A

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^ THIS

krusty4president for president!

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^ THIS

krusty4president for president!
[/quote]
I don’t like it
I prefer an analog keys with a rytm integrated… All those equipement in front of me doesnt help me to focus. one thing that does it all is something I would prefer, although… I am not sure if I would have stepped in when I had to pay the price of all 3 for my first (and only) instance)

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[quote=““De wouzer””]

[quote=“joshEjosh”][quote=“krusty4president”]Cables is a part of this lifestyle :wink:
[/quote]

^ THIS

krusty4president for president!
[/quote]
I don’t like it
I prefer an analog keys with a rytm integrated… All those equipement in front of me doesnt help me to focus. one thing that does it all is something I would prefer, although… I am not sure if I would have stepped in when I had to pay the price of all 3 for my first (and only) instance)
[/quote]
Maybe you should get a modular synth? All cables, all the time! Then a few Elektron boxes won’t seem so bad. :wink:

Seriously though, I don’t really want Elektron to make one box that does everything. It would cost an arm and a leg, and probably would suffer from ‘jack of all trades, master of none’ issues.

9

i feel ya on that!!

i’ve got two monome grids, aleph, op-1, eventide space, rytm, octatrack & 9u of modular (don’t get me started on that!) so yeah cable spaghetti everywhere…

get yourself some hosa cables, they look nice and neat and uniform (trust me it’ll make a world of difference)

10

Although it actually means more cables (2 for every connection) getting a patchbay really simplified things for me and helped to eliminate some of the ugly cable clutter. I can route everything around to the back of the bay and never have to look at it. It isn’t perfect, but with all of my gear I now only have a handful of cables in view and have tons of flexibility in routing.

I do look forward to a day when everything can be done wirelessly.

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11

^ this x100, if you have a bunch of gear, a patchbay is a must IMO

i remember starting out with just one, wondering if I would use it, now I have multiple and don’t know how I would do without

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Two words…
Spiral wrap.
I use this stuff. You can get it from auto places or electrical stores.
It winds around your loom and keeps them looking neat (not tape, never tape).
One day i’d like to lay all my cables out and see exactly how many kilometres there are.
Always use the best you can afford and enjoy their connective beauty.

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[quote=“” subq""]
^ this x100, if you have a bunch of gear, a patchbay is a must IMO

i remember starting out with just one, wondering if I would use it, now I have multiple and don’t know how I would do without
[/quote]

Even if you don’t currently have a bunch of gear, I still think it’s a must, unless all you ever plan to have is a couple of synths and effects at any one time. I put together my first one at the end of 2013, and just recently hit the saturation point and picked up another one for $50 that will arrive on Tuesday. I plan to use one just for instruments, the other for effects, and it keeps everything nice and tidy and easy to patch around as I need. No more needing to pull something out, find the cables and desk space and the resulting rats nest-if I want to use something, it is ready to go in seconds. The only time I really ever deal with unsightly cable mess now is if I run the output of something into the OT to grab a sample.
Midi patchbays as well-no more dicking around with out/thru and latency along a chain. After the initial setup, it’s as simple as picking a channel and getting down to business.
Obviously none of this is without cables-sorry, OP-but given the nature of the beast it’s a little thing that goes a long way and can keep your workspace clean and your headspace focused.

14

Looking for a 6 way TR loom in the uk. Don’t want it anymore than 2m in length.

Anyone got any suggestions? I seem to be able to find 4, 8, and more but not a 6.

Ta

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I spent today cable managing my studio for my drum setup. I am micing most of the drums (none on kicks) and also layering them with triggers. Sending them out to the stage boxes then layering with EZ drummer and Elektron Rtym mk2.
I managed to hide most of the cables under a second carpet and I feed my stage boxes through the side of the wall into a control room.

image
B0386856-851E-441A-BB51-5D9B034276CE.jpeg4032×3024 3.06 MB

How do you guys manage your setups?

It will be another kettle of fish whenever I’m sorting out the live synth rig for my band but I’ll have a portable rack unit for that.

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I’ve seen dudes who got custom length cables made but the real answer is most people don’t and just embrace the spaghetti. I’ve tried again and again, even got some rack thing that screws under the table but there’s always more wires hanging out somewhere. For the real deal custom wires and patch bays are the way but that’s not a rabbit hole I’ve jumped down yet. Sticking with Ikea stuff till then

https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/small-storage-organisers/cable-management-accessories/

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Yeah. I did the same! I did live sound for a while however I cut them all to around 10m. Cabletied and taped them down. Spaghetti city.

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Cable management is basically nonexistent in my setup. :upside_down_face:

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going to mount all my rig on a drum rack.
in particular, it’s convenient for cabling. all cables will run along the rack tubes to the mixer.

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Cable management is why some of us like rackmount gear and why some of us get annoyed with table top units.

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