Topic: How Do You Use/Protect Your Remote Cables?

[mattmiller]

This just dawned on me as I was organizing my bag in advance of some shows this weekend.  Since I purchased my SKM140 kit last year I've been fumbling around with the remote cables.  On a couple of occasions I mounted the full bodies (in less-than-ideal configurations) just to avoid the hassle of dealing with their length, their remarkable ability to tangle no matter how careful I am, and my general fear that, in the dark, I'm going to damage the connectors trying to screw on the bodies and caps.  Currently, I have them separated and coiled individually in little bubblewrap baggies inside by bag.  My questions:

1.  Do most of you have your cables tied together somehow?  A wrap of gaff tape every couple of feet?  Electrical tape?  Zip ties?
2.  Any words of advice on how to manage the extra 6, 8, or 10 feet of cable that I've just been shoving inside the bag during the show, and then struggling to untangle after the show?  I imagine tying them together would be half of that battle.
3.  How do you protect the connectors when not in use?  The pins seem delicate, and I'd love to have something to slip over the connectors when not in use.  Or are they more rugged than I think?

[Patrick]

You can join your cables with techflex, or just a tiny strip of gaff every 18" or so, depending on how long your cables are.  Even when the cables are taped together, you can still neatly coil them up (oevr/under) and store them in your bag in front of your recording deck.  Better yet, chop your cables down to a length that is suitable for most open taping situations, and use the remaining cables to make extensions for when you need a little extra length. 

The pins for active cables are usually small and delicate, I think the best way to protect these is to usually leave them always plugged in if possible.  Constant plugging/unplugging will wear out your connectors quickly, so leave them plugged into your mics/pre/deck when you can.  This is more important when you're dealing with proprietary connectors (microdot, dpa, schopes kc5, etc) when replacing the cables is prohibitively expensive or impractical.