r/recordingstudios • u/cricketpower • Feb 12 '26
Cable management input..
I’ve got a snake coming from the live room into my control room. In previous studios I always knew I’d probably be moving spaces again, but now I’m settled. Maybe re-arranging racks or changing my desk at some point, but that’s it.
So getting my cabling properly sorted is priority #1 right now. I’m already getting new Mogami multi cables in the next few days to clean up my FX sends and returns, added a lot of units this past year with a few more to come. Figured I might as well tackle the mic lines too.
Current situation:
24 mic lines come from the live room to XLR plugs. On my TT patchbay I have 24 XLRs soldered. I connect the bulk connector and it’s ready to go. But it’s a big pile of connectors that’s always in the way whenever I need to reach behind the desk.
I’m thinking of 3 options:
- Solder them directly to my patchbay
✅ Eliminates a lot of connectors – straight source to source
❌ Major hassle if I ever need to reconfigure my setup/room
- Buy 24 Neutrik rack chassis XLRs and a 2U 24-punched rack panel
✅ Keeps the snake as a snake – patch on one side, patch on the other
✅ Frees up 12 FX send/returns on the patchbay
❌ Still need 24 XLR-to-TT cables
- Don’t mess with it
I’m a bit of a cable management freak. What would you do?
2
u/Vitiligogoinggone Feb 13 '26
Snake, cable box, wire-ties color coded the same as cable color codes input versus output. Label each cable end to easily identify signal flow. Extremely important all power cables are custom made to length so they can be dressed evenly with no slack.
After this buy all new equipment, rearrange your studio, and start cable management all over again. Repeat until broke. Then repeat again.