Cable Management Madness

Gravity Jim

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Over the last year I've been divesting myself of gear I don't use or don't need. I sold a DAT machine (I know, you're thinking, "to WHO?"), just unloaded my Novation Supernova (a killer in its day, but with Omnisphere, I mean, c'mon), have my Kurzweil K2000R on the block.

I have a second Art MPA Pro II coming Monday, and just got a big thumbs up on on the last demo for Mika Mobile, and it's hotter than Hades in the North Bay this weekend, so I'm staying inside and fixing the rat's nest.

I have already reduced the number of behind-the-rack cables by half and still have runs to nowhere to remove. I completely redid my storage area/guitar isolation booth, sold a small black rack that I had emptied, and sold two pairs of headphones to our very own cmaffia.

I guess I'm posting this because I so enjoy the feeling of divesting, paring things down to their essentials. It was this urge that made me think about ditching my DM3200, but it's essential, so I'm getting rid of things around it. (Seriously, I hadn't turned on the Supernova in years, and I had been using the Kurz as a metronome.)

So, anyway, it feels good. Less stuff, more ready access to the stuff that remains. Less gear, more room in my head for music.
 
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Purging is wonderful sometimes for sure. I'm just getting ready to move to a new house and in the process have been doing a lot of the same thing ... lots and lots of older stuff, both computer and music stuff that I've been either giving away, selling on Kijiji (like craigslist, not sure if you have it in CA or not) or sending to e-waste. Man, I have/had a bunch of crap. I just did a HUGE electronics purge about 7 years ago when moving into this place but it sure does pile up.

Anyone want a nice dual G5 with a UAD-1 card? I haven't been able to give that sucker away as of yet LOL.
 
Dude, not even Goodwill will take a computer more than five years old. I had to recycle my kid's old blue MacPro when I finally got around to offering it to them.

You might see if a local school has a computer music program. They'll usually take whatever.
 
BTW, back it today. Now I'm plugging things back in. The ventilated rack panels came today and the second dual channel preamp does tomorrow, and that's the name of that tune.
 
Yep I know all about that, have even tried a couple of schools. No one wants a G5 even for free LOL. Next up I'm gonna put it at my curb on garbage day and someone will pick it up (probably a scrapper when they feel how heavy the case is!)

My recent purge also involved my DM24 (I replaced it with a DM-3200!), my Mac Pro, a pair of 30" monitors and my MOTU core system, PCI-424, PCIe-424 and a 2408mk3. It was surprisingly difficult to get rid of any/all of the above aside from the Mac Pro (which was a reasonably recent 4,1 and went to another muso/studio person who's iMac died an untimely death).
 
It is finished. Two rack synths and a DAT gone, four channels of delicious tube preamp, cables beautifully segregated and cunningly hidden. My studio is an oasis of clarity.

image.jpg
 
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Sweet! I so want to have a cableless look in the new setup and am working towards it ... or at least as cableless as I can get it.
 
It's a good thing. My gear sits on a steel-framed L-shaped desk I bought from Office Depot almost 20 years ago for $400. Still hasn't warped, screws still haven't stripped. Here's a pic of my work room just after shutting down last night. No under desk cables!

image.jpg
 
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I'm torn between springing for an Argosy 70 series or having something custom built for me (there's a guy that advertises on a local selling type site that builds knockoffs of studio desks and seems to do a good job for cheaper). I'm leaning towards the custom one because I want things a bit different than the way it is on a stock Argosy in terms of hiding things in the back, etc. I'll see how it works out when I speak to him about a quote. He basically says "send me a picture or 4 of the desk you want and I'll send you a quote).

I'm also thinking something along the lines of a Zaor Geo (but again with a couple of tweaks made to it).

http://www.zaorstudiofurniture.com/classic/geo/
 
Upscale furniture would be nice. But I almost never have a client actually in the room, and now my relationship with this desk is like an old Toyota pick-up truck: it was so cheap and has worked well for so long, I don't mind screwing cable hooks to the back of it or cutting a 1" hole in the top to put my VO mic arm exactly where I want it. Like those trucks, now I kind of want to see it if lasts the rest of my career! :) (I did pay a friend to build the white oak slant-face rack, but that's the extent of the customosity.)

I've certainly come close to pulling the Argosy trigger. But (for me), you know the thing about all those groovy looking Bridge-of-the-Enterprise desks? The displays end up way too far away. I'd want a 60" screen if it was hanging above the meter bridge.
 
I rarely have clients in my room either, I just want something nice that's designed properly for the job. My previous desk (for my DM24) was one that I custom built and it got the job done for many years. It was Argosy like but not quite there in terms of quality. My current desk is woefully inadequate for this big board and this time around I decided that I'm not going to spend my time trying to build something semi-inferior ... which leaves an Argosy or a custom build -- and I can get the custom build for cheaper, especially when you take into account shipping and duty/taxes at the border -- I'm in Canada. I'd rather have something built specifically to my specs if this guy is willing to do it.

Lastly if I had an "old Toyota" I'd be a happy camper :) As for the displays being up too high I have a workaround for that, I'll have both my 27" iMac and 27" thunderbolt display on monitor arms ... most of the time they will likely sit down in front of the meter bridge except when I'm tracking larger sessions and I actually need to see the bridge, then I can swing them off to the sides some or move them back up top. I also considered putting a HUGE monitor up there and I haven't ruled it out yet either, but I'd rather keep the monitors a bit lower so as not to hurt my neck. Been there done that with my old DM24 desk when I first built it, it was way too high up and required some serious modifications after doing some serious neck damage!
 
My recording / practise room has to be used once or twice a year for visiting family members as a bedroom. It forces me to remove everything and tidy up. Every time I rebuild it, something gets removed to the local garbage dump. Old speakers, bits of guitar builds, wires etc.etc. In 10 yrs time it might become tidy and clutter free.
 

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