I mostly use Doepfer cables and all of them have a color/length relationship, so I know exactly what cables are longer and what are shorter. For me, this is the quickest way to manage the cables. Talking about unpatching, I tend to place them in order, by colors, in my cable holder (a gift from Ladik) so I have it all well organized. What’s your strategy for cable management of your modular synth?
Patch notes:
-Mutable Instruments Plaits in particle noise model
-Doepfer Noise and Mutable Instruments Ears for the random triggers
-ALM Pamela New Workout and Xaoc Devices Zadar for modulation
-Happy Nerding FXAid for reverb FX
-Xaoc Devices Praga and Befaco STMix for mixing
I have three cable holders, two for the big Synthesizers.com system and one for the Model 10. I keep my patches grouped by length in their holders, no more than five per slot. The holder for the Moog patches is also arranged by length, but with one slot dedicated to the S-Trig cables, and another for CV-S-Trig cables.
I always start with a blank slte. Every sound is patched pretty much from the ground up. Starting fresh each times makes it easier for me to keep track of the signal path(s) in my head. When I’m finished, I pull the cables, starting from the shortest and working up to the longest. This prevents snags and tangles that could potentially damage a jack.
I got most of my cables from the previous owner of the SV-1 which, along with three other modules is the humble total of my modular. If I had to purchase all new, I’d get three colours - one for clock and trigs, second for cv / modulation connections, third colour for audio. If I had to plan too much for cable lengths, I’d probably think my system was too big and I’d gone too far down the eurorack rabbit hole to the detriment of productivity and finances.
Those color code strategies are the ones that most intrigue me. The posibility of “seeing” better the patch and its structure is something I think could be very useful.
I alternate between a colour system of blue = audio, red = cv (maybe subdivide with yellow = clock, green = gates), which means many many cables of different lengths, and just patching everything with 90cm black cables if I’m feeling metal.
Ashamed to say i have none. I’ve tried at various times but the heat of the moment always gets to me and I just start patching with any cable within reach.
yeah the idea of one color for clock/gate and another for cv has intrigued me, but then you need multiple lengths of those colors. it’s easier for me to do similar to what the OP does: I have a few different colors and they’re length-specific. if I grab a blue or white cable, I know what length it is. I just throw my cables into a little basket; so when I’m looking into the basket for a given length, I just look for the color. (I’ve actually taken this to the level of storing away the “rogue” cables which don’t follow this paradigm. they’re ever so often busted out when I’ve got some extreme patch going which exhausts my cable supply, hahaha)
I typically will leave the same patch up for weeks. that usually means I’m working on a track with it. and then I just break everything down to nothing when I’m done. clean slate.
This way is easier and quicker to patch and this is why I also do it like you. But lately I am thinking of using different colors for clock/gate, audio and CV that will make you see and understand your patch easier I think. And you are right, you will need multiple lenghts for the same colors.
probably depends upon how you’re using it. if you need to understand the whole patch between sessions, and you’re plugging/un-plugging different voices and parts to create some structure within a track… yeah you might want to take that approach. me, I generally patch something up and more or less leave it as is for the track. I’ll experiment and remember which parts I want to tweak and change as the track progresses, and that’s all that matters. i.e. the modular is more texture for me and not the majority of sounds in the track
