Please clean up my rig(s): Help with tidy cable & pedal options that are easily inter-changeable.

[obxa]

Seeking amnesty and advice. My rig is ugly.  Just saw some pics from past week shows.  Have a couple of different setups I go out with.  No roadies. 

 The usual time crunch between day of gig group travel,  limited setup time, then soundcheck/rehearsal.   Followed by tiny window to eat/shower back at hotel or tidying up my rig before showtime.   You can see which I often choose.  What are folks doing these days?  Reusable cable or Velcro ties and plastic tubing?   Custom snakes?    Many thanks in advance!

 

Below:  Sunday's gig in Greensboro SC wtih the Drifters,  Coasters & post gig tear down.  Stereo rig: Usually two keyboards, 3 Ctrl pedals, 1 sustain, 2 footswitches, Bluetooth page turner, 2 Ipads, IEM mixer. K&M Stand, Bluetooth Midi Router.  AC, Audio & USB  cables. Occasional Mainstage/Laptop.

 

 

 

[jpgxk3]

Hi Chris, my simple advice would be to have a nice black 3 sided drape made up cover up pretty much all the "eyesores"from the NES2 to the floor. I'm sure you'll get better advice for the logistical end of it, but I'm in the keep it simple camp these days. Nice shows too! Joe

[cphollis]

EDIT: @jpgxk3 beat me to it.

 

I'd be thinking along the lines of a simple black drape or similar to hide the plumbing.  A few pieces of velcro, a nice hunk of velvet -- you'd be set.

 

I've seen guys on stage acts use them, they don't look half-bad.

[Reezekeys]

My setup is nowhere near as crowded as yours but I think my method would work well: velcro strips to bundle cables together, then gaff taped to the underside of the keyboard and down the stand legs. Gaff tape is easy to tear away at the end of the gig and leaves no residue. Having wires bundled turns them into quasi-snakes that can be deployed quickly for setup and coiled quickly at teardown. I'm not too keen on drapes – looks like they'd have to reach to the floor to hide everything, which would look strange to me, and still leave you with a tangled mess of cabling to deal with, albeit hidden from view.

 

Here's the best pic I could come up with that shows my simple cabling setup - four cables bundled together coming out the left side, gaffed to the bottom of my board and down the stand. Other than the four plugs protruding from the keyboard, the cabling is invisible to the audience.

 

 

I bought a 35ft roll of velcro at Harbor Freight, but might have gone for the 20-pack of ties if I had seen them. Pretty sure I will not need another roll ever! Unfortunately gaff tape isn't cheap but I'm lucky to not have to buy any, since our tech guy carries a roll - and many venues' crews have gaff tape they always share.

 

 

 

[AUSSIEKEYS]

7 hours ago, obxa said:

 What ever you do dont loose that great "flying carpet"

[stoken6]

I have a "golden rule" for tidy cables - run everything up and down to your pedalboard. It's the "grand junction" for all your cables. 

 

Then use split sleeving to loom your cables together. My rig is a little simpler than yours (two boards, one expression, one sustain, one footswitch, ipa d, Rolls monitor mixer/headphone amp, power), but you can see in this pic how it can look:

 

I have a power cable that splits into 2xC13+C7, one loom to top board, one loom to bottom board, one to mixer.

 

Cheers, Mike.

[Dan32]

Can be a challenge. I don't have any extra gadgets and I use two boards in stereo. 

The four signal jack leads are in plastic spiral wrap so that's just one snake to connect. No DI boxes as I go straight in to the QU16 FOH mixer that I operate.

I don't use IEM's, just a Yamaha DXR10 running from a mix on the QU16. That cuts out the need for a submixer.

 

Keeping all sounds within the keyboards keeps it simple. No laptop/VSTi's needed so keeps the clutter down.

Maybe you could have one power supply that could run both iPads and any other low voltage items.

 

I've yet to find an easy solution for footpedals. Unless you midi the boards together so one pedal can control both, a seperate set is needed for each keyboard.

I use 2 control pedals, 2 sustain and one latching sustain for Leslie effect. A bit time consuming to plug them in and I did have them all mounted on plastic board at one point.

Quite large and awkward to take to gigs so I have them loose now.

 

I guess if the 'rig for the gig' requires extra tech and add ons, then it can get a bit untidy quickly.

If it's regularly the same show, maybe clamp power supplies to the stand so they're ready. 

Maybe install units in a rack if possible.

 

[obxa]

Thanks all!!   Great ideas.

 

I think I'll incorporate a combination of velcro and tubing when I have time, and the skirt when there isn't.  When we don't do the upright shell, my church gig does the skirt thing- always joke that I can then play without pants. 😀. The Motown show I do usually rents a Grand shell and that hides a multitude of sins. 

 

I've been doing more shows with just hardware,  but for upcoming travel I may have to go to a full Mainstage rig.   Done it before, but means still having to bring a bunch of pedals and Midi adaptors for backline roulette. I miss the days of standing and my old Apex stand., but they always look weird in seated position.

[Dan32]

2 hours ago, obxa said:

I miss the days of standing and my old Apex stand., but they always look weird in seated position.

Yes, have always thought that with those column stands. Good ol' dual X stand here. Great for standing or sitting.

[DanL]

Zip tie or velcro strap all your audio cables together- plug them in, then start tying them together as you work down the length, so it looks like 1 cable going to your boards. Do the same with power, and again with foot pedals. Stow the extra cable in a neat bundle where its not as visible. If you can use the mesh tubing, even better. I have all my stuff running into a rack so I stow the extra length there. It makes for a faster setup/teardown as well. All the cable ends are labelled to avoid confusion on what plugs in where. 

[U.Honey]

18 hours ago, jpgxk3 said:

Hi Chris, my simple advice would be to have a nice black 3 sided drape made up cover up pretty much all the "eyesores"from the NES2 to the floor. I'm sure you'll get better advice for the logistical end of it, but I'm in the keep it simple camp these days. Nice shows too! Joe

 

Agreed, that's an easy way to improve the visuals of the rig. Like this:

 

[Reezekeys]

I like the short velcro straps to tie cables together, rather than the mesh, because if a cable goes bad and needs replacing it's much easier to temporatily undo a few strips of velcro.

[retrokeys]

The split tubing you can get in  the auto store for engine wiring harness works well, In my x stand days I used it to consolidate the cables and then strapped the bundles to the stand legs with velcro straps. Made things neater looking and easy to disassemble for loadout.

[Stokely]

I use split sleeve (the soft flex stuff) for custom snakes (stereo pairs, FOH runs) and some really small diameter sleeve on the dreaded wall wart cables (stiffens them, makes them easy to coil and they don't tangle).

If you get the flex (assuming that's the "mesh" talked about above), get the split stuff FOR SURE.  I've never had a cable pop out though I do gaffer tape or velcro around each end where the cables leave the mesh...not really sure that's necessary though.  If you don't get the split stuff, be prepared for the old finger torture game to get cables in and out.

My two stands--K&M spider pro and K&M Omega pro--are pretty different in how I deal with cables.

Omega pro--I run things along the back of the keyboard, around the "knee" on each corner (under the keyboard) and then down each leg, where I have K&M cable holders to hold them tight. 
Spider--everything runs to the middle to the gap between the column and each keyboard, then along the front of the column away from the audience.  At the bottom they then go where they need to go but it's pretty much out of sight.
 

[JoJoB3]

Paint the top keyboard black and call it a day. It's the only problem here.

[Iconoclast]

If you have an ever changing keyboard rig and stands it can be a challenge. These aren't perfect but they sure look better than spaghetti. They're cheap and super flexible to different setup configurations gig per gig.  They fold up very small and light. Not a perfect solution, but a very flexible and workable solution.  There's a lot of different similar products in varying lengths. And if you don't like them, you're only out a few bucks.

https://www.amazon.com/Management-Sleeve-JOTO-Computer-Entertainment/dp/B015HWXG4M/ref=sr_1_3?crid=JRTO17EM9TY1&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.xJTvFr_LeEc3495rJ-IOJrpx7C6s5fQXB30QwiMLBrz9T8zJM4rcyeQ8fzYzP_nHeVDEdqEx4rUUcD6pvHTjwaTmNNC7V0wsqMrNmB5Fn6Vgw9SNjCxjR6oLz9sSb0qPJxWADnmDRTf1YGwtPMAg4JQN0MCD-mQ3JJ7UbCX0VapdcdKCAhA0XoZcOro3PzQNxIsQpo3NaP2Rut5HgE6a8vRyb1Lw631iTgMAmGvZLV4.IzS9ODNlrd1_w8GgYmFFrsrxJUF_yHqLnCk6315IRwY&dib_tag=se&keywords=zip%2Bup%2Bcable%2Borganizer&qid=1726872077&sprefix=zip%2Bup%2Bcable%2Caps%2C783&sr=8-3&th=1