June 13, 2015 editorial: comments

What a Mess!

I’m not the most organized person in the world — far from it actually. Unfortunately for me, my home studio reflects that. The current incarnation of my studio is not even that old. It’s only been a couple of years since I moved to a new house, and in the process had to tear down my old setup and rebuild it in the new space.

When that occurred, I was bound and determined to make the setup less haphazard — less like a work in progress that’s constantly evolving — and more like a well-thought out recording space. I figured it wouldn’t be that hard, as I was setting up a studio with a lot less hardware than my previous one. Gone was the giant rack. Gone was the power amp. Gone were the outboard synth modules that had been sitting in the rack gathering dust, as well as the multiple patchbays that I used to connect everything together with.

Still, I do have some hardware that I was (and still am) using, like an audio interface, a summing box/monitor controller, a few mic preamps, a MIDI controller, and a couple of sets of monitors. And they all required cables: AC cables, audio cables, mic cables, MIDI cables, USB and FireWire cables, etc. I was determined to set the cables up the right way, with audio cables perpendicular to the power cables wherever possible to minimize signal interference. I even used a lot of cable ties and organizers, and labeled my cables.

When I finished my new setup, I was pleased. Although it still didn’t have the perfect neatness of professionally installed studio, it looked a lot better than in its previous incarnation.

But alas, that didn’t last. The back of my rack now looks like a licorice spaghetti factory, and there are stray cables and small accessories all over the studio. For me, at least, being creative and being neat don’t go together very well. Part of my problem is that as a gear reviewer, I’m constantly setting up and taking down new equipment, and thus connecting and reconnecting stuff on the back side of the rack. But that’s just part of it, when I’m in the heat of a recording project, I’m pulling out instruments, setting up microphones, looking for capos or slides or 1/8”-to-1/4” adapters or whatever — and creating a mess in the process. Sure, I clean up when I’m done, but the level of organization seems to diminish incrementally over time.

I suspect that there are others like me with “neatness” problems in their studio. I bet we can all benefit by sharing tips on keeping organized. How do you manage your cables? How do you store your accessories? Where do you keep your mics and cables?

I’ll get the ball rolling with something that has actually worked well for me organizationally: I bought a bunch of inexpensive plastic storage boxes, and use them to store extra accessories like spare cables, connectors, adapters, DI boxes, guitar strings, and so forth. I organized the boxes into categories, labeled them, and keep them on a shelf. They have helped me keep my studio clutter from really getting out of hand.

So, how do you keep your studio organized and uncluttered? I’m looking forward to your ideas and suggestions.

Have a great week.