Hello all,
One of my favorite things about Elektronauts is how open people are about sharing information. It’s a great way for everyone to learn and develop their craft and it is also nice to help someone with your expertise (I don’t have much expertise to share but I imagine it would be nice to share if I did). In that spirit, I was thinking it would be nice to have a thread dedicated to helping one another organize, simplify, and generally improve our studio spaces.
A couple such questions have arisen for me recently. Has anyone locked into a great system for organizing and storing their cables? Not just the cables you use everyday but also the more esoteric cables you need every once in a while (headphone extensions, outdated USB cables that are needed for one old external hard drive, etc). I’d love to have a tidy one stop shop with all of my cables neatly identified and filed away.
Another question I have is about mic storage. I have been taking an assortment of mics to a friend’s studio space to record lately and I’ve been thinking it would be great to have one case where each individual mic had its own place that was safe and secure during transport. Has anyone had success with a particular case?
This is all the stuff I don’t really want to think about when creating music. I usually just want to get down to it. But, especially as I get older, I find more and more how much these QOL considerations improve the overall enjoyment and end result of making music.
So what’s been your biggest eureka moment with organizing and refining your space? Or what issues do you want to hear other’s solutions for?
I don’t have a massive studio, but I do have a lot of cables, and my organization of them works best when I use self-gripping cable ties (these are found under a lot of different names) and ziploc storage bags of various sizes that I label (get the big variety pack). These are best for storage, though, and not necessarily for the stuff you’re grabbing on a daily or weekly basis.
Bendable gear ties are also really useful if it’s cables I’m carrying around…
I just stick with the dreaded cable box. For the most part I keep all of mine coiled with twist ties so things stay tidy and they don’t get tangled. It’s a small bit of extra work upfront but it saves me a lot of work when I actually need something. One box for audio cables, one box for USB, one for power, one for midi, etc. Anything particularly esoteric (old hard drive cable, weird plug for an ancient electronic) generally gets stored with the thing - taped to it, rubber banded, whatever. If for some reason I can’t do that then it gets a little cable tag as a label, goes into whatever the most applicable box is and I pray I remember where later.
I hang some of my most regularly used cables on hooks on the wall.
All the others go in a box of cable mess joy. I revel in its black tendrils of confusion every time I open that box.
USB cables dont really feature very much in my studio at all. As I dont use them for anything except the laptop to octatrack sample loading thing. Which happens rarely.
The odd bits of gear that do use USB scrooge is the only one I can think of, sit contently when non in use, then rise up in anguish when I cant find a usb cable because I dont keep them anywhere in particular, I let them roam free, unfettered by any impression of mine that I actually can influence any sense of organisation into the world at all.
Microphones go in there weird pencil cases that they came with, in a cardboard box labelled ‘mics’. To discern it from other cardboard boxes filled with other crap.
I dont travel with mics so no need for fancy cases.
I’ve got stackable boxes for each type of cable (when I move in a week i’ll keep the working ones separate).
For the non snakes (audio & MIDI), I label them with a number so I can trace long/complex runs easily.
Cable grips down all sides of my desk, and along the skirting boards.
Heavy duty velcro so I can stuck things like MIDI merges on racks and on the bottoms of tables.
I maintain a Google Sheets file for all patchbay connections (and keep it updated)
I use Milwaukee Packout drawers for most of my cables, power supplies, tools, etc. The boxes are modular and lock together.
Then I have some clear stackable Rubbermaid bins that are roughly the same depth as the packouts. The clear is so I can see what pedals or long cables are in them.
So I have two stacks in a clothing closet, since my studio is in a spare bedroom.
I got one of those over the back of a door shoe organisers with 20 or so pockets. Can stuff different cables in different ones and they don’t take up shelf space.
One small ish tote for cables and power supplies. My trick is that’s all I’m allowed so I end up going through at least once a year and purge things no longer needed.
The few mics I have live in their storage they shipped with when not in use. I don’t travel with them but I’d assume that would be fine.
@BlankFlag please don’t give me any more reasons to jump into the packout ecosystem! They are awesome!
In addition to the various cable ties already mentioned, I have found reusable/releasable zip ties are very useful for managing the larger/longer cables.
I keep my organizational approach as simple as possible because everything constantly changes and I prefer ease of access over neat and tidy. For smaller cables the previously mentioned ziploc bags approach may not be the most elegant, but are economical, flexible, reusable, and get the job done well enough. I tend to group them by purpose (e.g. midi cables, TRS cables, TS cables, power cables, USB, etc).
Larger unused cables are coiled and zip tied.
I then toss all of this into the smallest box I have on hand that will hold all of them. Whenever I need a cable it is a bit of a dumpster dive, but is faster for me than going through a gazillion boxes neatly stored in a closet and the box is easily moveable.
The shoe organizer suggestion @chrismcg shared is a good one as well.
I have a few of the Harbor Freight knockoff Pelican cases that store mics and assorted smaller gear. They’re great for traveling, cheap, and the largest can fit larger Elektrons (not sure about AR/A4 MKII). I made a 3D printed cable hanger for patch cables, all the instrument/power/psu cables are in a duffel bag, and mic cables have their own backpack. All instrument cases are up in the attic as I don’t intend on playing out with them (at least any time soon), and then all the rest of my gear is pretty much plugged in ready to play minis a few small items that can be routed through a patchbay.
