AudioBanter.com - View Single Post - Studio wiring advice for newbies by newbies

On 25 Jun 2004 13:37:31 -0400, (Mike Rivers) wrote:

In article am writes:

I just realized I'm at that early stage in learning to wire a medium ambitious
home studio where I'm experienced enough to have some advice, but not so
experienced that I forgot one even needs to mention these things, so it's a
great time to share.

Good list. You've obviously been thinking about it. It sounds to me
like you may be ready to take a major step and not wire things
with off-the-shelf cable assemblies, but rather, buy some two-pair,
four-pair, and eight-pair cable stock, a couple of big boxes of
connectors, patchbays with solder connections rather than
jacks-on-the-back, and some good tools.

One "rule" that I didn't notice in your list was that you should wire
everything with two-conductors plus shield, even if it isn't going to
balanced inputs or outputs, and use patchbays with two-conductor
(balanced) jacks. That way, you'll be ready for balanced gear when it
comes in the door, and you'll have more flexibility in "one end only"
shield grounding of unbalanced equipment if it's necessary to reduce
hum.

I like to cut out paper dolls - a pad of 3x5 Post-Its, one for each
piece of equipment (stick some together for mixers since there are
lots of connections) and stick them on a large sheet of paper, drawing
lines between them with a pencil. That way, you're sure you don't
forget anything, and you can easily move the blocks around to make
your drawing neater and easier to follow.

Label every cable at its end. This is easy if you're making your own
because you can print a label on your computer or with a label
printer, stick it on the cable lengthwise, slip a piece of clear heat
shrink tubing over it, and it's done. Label individual cables in a
snake, and give the snake a descriptive name (Mixer Direct Outs) as
well.

Think about how you're going to secure your cables so there's no
strain on the connectors. You don't want the weight of an 8-channel
snake hanging on a 1/4" phone jack, particualry one on the back of a
patchbay.

Thanks, you've got several things I didn't already know in that list.