Sledgehammer to crack a nut?

maltingsaudio

https://singularsound.com/product/cabli-instrument-cable-management/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=paidsocial&utm_campaign=conversion&utm_content=cabli_blue_black

octatonic

I use garden hose winders for XLR cables.
The XLR's connect to one another so you just coil as many cables as will fit on a reel.
Can usually find them for a tenner at a garden centre.

shufflebeat

Small problem with the ad - the guy doing "over/under" is actually doing "over/over", not a good look to start with... and he's very slow at it..

Two problems with the reel:

I would suggest the biggest problem for cables isn't "kinking" it's pulling and stretching which is exactly what you do to get the cable out of the reel, oops.

The best bit about "over/under" is that you can throw a long lead across a stage and it will fall straight. If you try to throw this reel it will land at your feet, eventually with broken filaments inside.

shufflebeat

octatonic said:

I use garden hose winders for XLR cables.
The XLR's connect to one another so you just coil as many cables as will fit on a reel.
Can usually find them for a tenner at a garden centre.

We did this with an old wooden cable reel for a while til some bright spark joined the two loose ends together. It took two of us an hour to get the cables off the reel and totally knackered the gig.

octatonic

shufflebeat said:

octatonic said:

I use garden hose winders for XLR cables.
The XLR's connect to one another so you just coil as many cables as will fit on a reel.
Can usually find them for a tenner at a garden centre.

We did this with an old wooden cable reel for a while til some bright spark joined the two loose ends together. It took two of us an hour to get the cables off the reel and totally knackered the gig.

Hahaha, amazing.

maltingsaudio

shufflebeat said:

Small problem with the ad - the guy doing "over/under" is actually doing "over/over", not a good look to start with... and he's very slow at it..

Two problems with the reel:

I would suggest the biggest problem for cables isn't "kinking" it's pulling and stretching which is exactly what you do to get the cable out of the reel, oops.

The best bit about "over/under" is that you can throw a long lead across a stage and it will fall straight. If you try to throw this reel it will land at your feet, eventually with broken filaments inside.

I don’t do over and under although might teach myself during lockdown for something to do. This other point about throwing a long lead across a stage I find very odd. I always lay my leads where I want them, if you throw it across a stage you still have to do this so seems unnecessary to me, added to the dangers of hitting someone or something, damage to the connector when it lands and damage to the cable as it flexes and extends during the throw. That’s my take on it.

p90fool

maltingsaudio said:

shufflebeat said:

Small problem with the ad - the guy doing "over/under" is actually doing "over/over", not a good look to start with... and he's very slow at it..

Two problems with the reel:

I would suggest the biggest problem for cables isn't "kinking" it's pulling and stretching which is exactly what you do to get the cable out of the reel, oops.

The best bit about "over/under" is that you can throw a long lead across a stage and it will fall straight. If you try to throw this reel it will land at your feet, eventually with broken filaments inside.

I don’t do over and under although might teach myself during lockdown for something to do. This other point about throwing a long lead across a stage I find very odd. I always lay my leads where I want them, if you throw it across a stage you still have to do this so seems unnecessary to me, added to the dangers of hitting someone or something, damage to the connector when it lands and damage to the cable as it flexes and extends during the throw. That’s my take on it.

This. Unless you can throw an XLR plug firmly into a socket from 20m away you still have to walk over there anyway!

ESBlonde

When I had my Rig we tried various things. In the end proper over and under was the solution. You can have a tie on one end to keep it together, but we just laid all the mic cables down flat overlapping like the olympic rings. They come out untangled as long as some jerk doesn't pull out one from several layers down without lifting off the uppermost cables. Easy with a small regular crew, bloody caos if a band decide to 'help' setup. I would haul out all amature winds and redo them before the trunk got closed, same with mains 4 bars that had the cable tightly wrapped around them...AaaaHhhh!

Definately a technique worth learning, it stays with you for life.

ICBM

ESBlonde said:

When I had my Rig we tried various things. In the end proper over and under was the solution. You can have a tie on one end to keep it together, but we just laid all the mic cables down flat overlapping like the olympic rings. They come out untangled as long as some jerk doesn't pull out one from several layers down without lifting off the uppermost cables.

Definately a technique worth learning, it stays with you for life.

This.

Over/under is still the best because it introduces no unnecessary stress into the cable at all - the whole point is that as you twist it slightly, the cable naturally wants to make a circle all by itself, and by alternating opposite directions the cumulative total twist is zero. Everyone who works with cables of any sort should learn this way to do it, it's like riding a bike - you may not always want or need to do it but you'll never forget how... I was taught it by an ex-BBC engineer decades ago. And I've still never 'thrown' a cable to unwind it - that isn't the point at all, it's to prevent the cable breaking by being constantly twisted internally.

Over/over is OK when you're winding it up, but the temptation is just to pull it out straight when you use it again.

shufflebeat

maltingsaudio said:

shufflebeat said:

Small problem with the ad - the guy doing "over/under" is actually doing "over/over", not a good look to start with... and he's very slow at it..

Two problems with the reel:

I would suggest the biggest problem for cables isn't "kinking" it's pulling and stretching which is exactly what you do to get the cable out of the reel, oops.

The best bit about "over/under" is that you can throw a long lead across a stage and it will fall straight. If you try to throw this reel it will land at your feet, eventually with broken filaments inside.

This other point about throwing a long lead across a stage I find very odd.

You're certainly in a minority, it is common practice.

shufflebeat

p90fool said:

...you can throw an XLR plug firmly into a socket from 20m away you still have to walk over there anyway!

Now that's being silly.

shufflebeat

ICBM said: And I've still never 'thrown' a cable to unwind it - that isn't the point at all, it's to prevent the cable breaking by being constantly twisted internally.

The point is not that you throw the cable to unwind it, you can do that any way that's appropriate at the time, sometimes that's laying as you walk, sometimes it's throwing across a large area, sometimes it's through a small gap in the roof supports - depending on the venue. Over/under wrapping stops the cable developing an accumulated twist that would make all of those more difficult.

Even then it's possible to muck it up, allowing the loose end to fall through the central 0 can result in a series of knots in your cable when you do unwind it, whatever way you choose to do that.