Coiling Wires

Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 10:47 pm

Cheers guys!
Much food for thought. It seems coiling with the natural twist would be beneficial when a band mate goes to uncoil something. Having boat loads of knots would be fun for only the briefest of times.
However, the over-under style seems to have it when you need to throw the cable out.
The faster I can pitch/strike the more time I can spend in the alley.

Edit: When I say "to throw the cable out" I don't mean into a bin. Smile

Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 10:51 pm

BeNt SaId:

Quote:

The industry standard for xlr is the over-under wrap.

And now he's done said it again!

Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 4:35 am

People that can't coil or over/under cables & snakes drive me crazy! That was one thing you had to learn how to do correctly & quickly at NBC. Anything less wasn't tolerated. And what really blows my mind about most folks that go to recording schools. The inability to do that. Coiling cables is recording 101.

Knots to you!
Ms. Remy Ann David

Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 7:15 pm

Remy told you:

Quote:

Coiling cables is recording 101.

Exactly!!!!!

Don't hand me your resume if you can't coil a cable!

Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 9:29 pm

bent wrote:

Don't hand me your resume if you can't coil a cable!

I see you're rather passionate about this.

Now I have to practice.

Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 9:46 pm

Greener wrote:

bent wrote:

Don't hand me your resume if you can't coil a cable!

I see you're rather passionate about this.

Now I have to practice.

You know. It sounds extreme but I heard a lot of that working the Jazz fest and Music festivals out here. It's not just the cable coiling. It's about standards. If the basic standards aren't met, chances are you're going to fail again and again on down the road. When you can trust someone to maintain a simple standard, work just flows that much easier. You don't want to be checking somebody's work every ten minutes to make sure he's not screwing something up.

The alley can wait till the show is over and the gear is packed.

Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 10:25 pm

10-4!

Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 4:52 am

Hardest thing to teach a new student or intern. They all want to do it quickly and use the hand/elbow method. When you catch them and have them do it the correct way they look at you like you are from another planet.

I learned how to do this in the 50's from my junior high school AV director. We did not have Velcro back then so every cable had a piece of thin rope, black in color, tied to one end of the XLR cable. I further learned in college how to do the ABC and the NBC over under method and this is the technique I try to get my students to use today.

When I worked for a sound company on the road my boss was a real stickler for doing this correctly and would take time to instruct each of his employees on the proper method of coiling and if he caught you doing it incorrectly he was not above yelling at you in front of everyone including the artist. You learned fast or you got yelled at.

We use to have cable parties when I worked at the local college and we would take all the cables stretch them out on the floor in the hallways get all the kinks out of them by twisting and correctly coil them up. This was always done at the end of the year to get ready for next year. Usually a case of beer was involved AFTER the coiling session. It was fun and everyone got to start off the next year with freshly coiled cables.

Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 7:33 am

Words of wisdom, thanks TWB.

AS Hueseph put it, it's about maintaining standards.
I'm down for that, things become standard for a reason.

Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 10:49 am

See, this is what I get for working for a living when I should be reading recording.org. Favorite topic of mine. Always hate the end of a gig when people who don't know over/under want to "help." Lifting a 150# amp is helping. Turning my cables into a spool of knots isn't.

I didn't know the PARC wrap. I'll try it out.

Never studied any knot theory as a mathematician. (Yes, Virginia, there is a branch of mathematics called knot theory.) Probably a very inefficient way to learn to wrap over/under.

Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 11:09 am

I resisted using over/under for a very long time simply because interns or part timers never seemed to be able to grasp it and they would always make the cable wraps much bigger than a traditional loop coil. It was annoying for sure. My current intern (new as of March) learned the over/under very quickly and I haven't had to worry about it since.

The biggest trick with him is to make sure he uncoils (or tosses) it correctly. I've had to untie cables a lot.

I agree with Bob - it's annoying as hell to have people volunteer to help and then screw everything up. Worse, I hate seeing "volunteers" to the elbow/palm wrap. I always politely state to volunteers that I appreciate their offer to help, but we have it down to a near-science and that we can get the take-down handled quickly.

Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 2:40 pm

Seeing as just about every big name here at RO has weighed in now, I'm starting to see a pattern emerge. Razz

My only cable, a 10' XLR, has been wound up that many times...

Seriously, thanks everyone.

Any other skills a newbie with an inability to keep his mouth shut should have to make himself more attractive when looking for an internship?
I can get coffee.
I can coil properly now.
I can listen, though I ask a million questions.
What else?

Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 2:59 pm

Learn not to ask questions. Write them down and only ask the questions that you can't learn from watching.

Always take legible notes. I don't know how it is now but in the past, half of the assistant's job was documenting. That may not be so much true anymore with on screen settings. Hone your sketching skills.

Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 3:58 pm

Pat Armstrong...uuughh...Molly Flaccid...UGHHHH!!!!!!!!! They ripped me off many moons ago. Does PARC have some 451's,M500's, 421's,and a U87 with my SS# on them???? Smile

Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 6:11 pm

Greener wrote:

Seeing as just about every big name here at RO has weighed in now, I'm starting to see a pattern emerge. :P

My only cable, a 10' XLR, has been wound up that many times...

Seriously, thanks everyone.

Any other skills a newbie with an inability to keep his mouth shut should have to make himself more attractive when looking for an internship?
I can get coffee.
I can coil properly now.
I can listen, though I ask a million questions.
What else?

Be observant but try not to get in the way of people working. It maybe appropriate for you to watch someone plugging in microphone lines to a splitter but get too close and you and the person plugging could butt heads if they stand up too quickly.

Ask questions when appropriate but only when you are sure the person has time to answer them, i.e. not in the middle of a sound check or tech problem solving. Know when to talk and when to shut up.

Keep your wits about you and make sure you are not adding to the problem. Watch were you walk and look up as well as strait ahead so someone does not lower a speaker cluster onto your head. Learn how things work and what plugs into what. I worked for a sound company that used XLRs for speaker cables and if you were not watching you could plug a speaker cable into a microphone splitter or console. The same goes for 1/4 inch plugs that are used for speaker cable as well as line inputs.

Learn the lingo of the company you are working for. There are some universal terms like XLR but also some sound companies have very different names for the equipment and setups. I have been at shows where the FOH area is referred to as control central and the FOH engineer as Big Daddy. I have also heard various names applied to different setups for different venues like Galaxy and Star Trek for the way lighting trusses and speakers were hung. Every sound company is different and every engineer likes things done his way. Learn quickly how to set things up. Find out who is in charge and do what they want you to do. If in doubt ask question BEFORE you do something. Nothing is more devastating to a sound company than to have their FOH console or the Monitor mix console go out because someone did not know what they were doing and plugged the console into a dimmable circuit.

Have a good attitude and don't get uptight.

Best of luck!

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