# Cable Management suggestions for Live Rig



## concertjunkie (May 15, 2015)

Looking to optimize my live rig in a way that I can easily identify cables, keep similar cables together and speed up my setup/teardown process. I've been using cable clips and velcro straps to minimize clutter, but sometimes it takes me a minute to find what cable goes where! 

Would bright colored duct tape be best or just replace cables (XLR and instrument) with bright colored versions? If I go the bright cable route, what brand/who makes them?


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## cwhitey2 (May 15, 2015)

concertjunkie said:


> Looking to optimize my live rig in a way that I can easily identify cables, keep similar cables together and speed up my setup/teardown process. I've been using cable clips and velcro straps to minimize clutter, but sometimes it takes me a minute to find what cable goes where!
> 
> Would bright colored duct tape be best or just replace cables (XLR and instrument) with bright colored versions? If I go the bright cable route, what brand/who makes them?



This is what i was going to say.


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## Sumsar (May 15, 2015)

Having colored duct tape is great, used it last time I recorded drums (13 mics = 13 identical cables all over the place) and it worked pretty well. 
As we only had 8 different colors we made combinations and marked each end of the cable such that the mic with the Red+green running into channel 8 on my interface was easy to identify as say the left overhead mic. ofc you start with single colors and then use combinations to cover all cables. The only drawback was that the interface was quite hot / warm so the XLR jacks got hot and so the glue on the tape kinda melted and made the cables very sticky and the tape came off, so the lesson learned is to put the tape a couple of inches / centimeter down the cable and not directly on the jack as cables usually run into amps and stuff that get fairly hot.


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## Alex Kenivel (May 15, 2015)

Yeah, bright colored duct tape rings or paint on the cords near each connector and little pieces of the same color on your gear where they plug into. Be sure to use different colors for the different cables/inputs/outputs.


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## Blasphemer (May 15, 2015)

This is an older picture, but the idea is still the same - Make a loom for your downstage necessities (pedalboard/pedals, footswitch, etc) coming from your amp







Mine is now done up on my SKB stage5 pedalboard, and it takes ~15 seconds to plug and be ready to go. Then at the end of a gig, all I do is unplug from the amp end, coil the loom onto my pedalboard and get off stage asap. 

In terms of color coding - DO IT. It makes everything SO much faster and idiot proof. I like to use colored electrical tape, and my bassist likes to use colored cable ties on the end of cables, just to make a little ring right next to the connector. 


Hopefully in the next week or two I'll be doing a rig rundown with my band which will explain all of this in more detail. I'll post it here when it's done.


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## TonyFlyingSquirrel (May 20, 2015)

You can also look into the Trailer Trash pedal boards with the Pedal Snake options. 
Another option is to custom order a multi pin connector so you have everything mounted accordingly.

Rack components in the rack, pedalboard up front, one single connection linking the two.


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## eyeswide (May 22, 2015)

Monoprice is great! We just recabled our rig with a bunch of mini snakes. They are inexpensive and handy as all hell. I fully recommend them!


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## Aion (May 23, 2015)

eyeswide said:


> Monoprice is great! We just recabled our rig with a bunch of mini snakes. They are inexpensive and handy as all hell. I fully recommend them!



Just be careful with monoprice, they sometimes do a terrible job soldering their cables. There's a reason they're the cheapest ones out there.

As for cable organization, it depends on what you're trying to do. If you just need to know that cable A has an end here and there you can just get a piece of tape, put a small strip on each end, and label what you want each end going into. If you want to be able to follow the entire length of the cable down the line then you can get colored cables.


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## sage (May 26, 2015)

I prefer using braided wrap sleeving to split coil loom or taping my cables together. It looks nicer, wraps easier, protects my cables better, and doesn't catch on everything when you're packing up. 

For marking cable ends so you know what goes where, nail polish works really well. You can mark the cable ends and the inputs on your amp/board. I also really like coloured electrical tape. Leaves less of an edge to get caught on everything than duct tape does and a pack of 5 colours of electrical tape will probably cost less than one roll of coloured duct tape (and in my case, you need three).


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