Dear Fellow Anklebiters, I had a small gig last Saturday. I had several friends helping me setup. The problem was no one knew what to do, so I had to direct all of the activities. When I fired up the system there were many problems with things plugged into the wrong places. Help!
Chris Russo Prescott, Arizona
Paul: I have had this happen a few times as well. I have since tried to fool-proof the system, but I still have some things I need to change. Is it possible to make the connections all different so they won't fit on the wrong place/connector? In my case, I have all NL4 Speakons but I have some marked Low and some marked High. The Lows have a red color on them. I should at least make all Speakons the same so they will fit anywhere on the amp racks or the back of the speakers. The color red is a problem as well. I use red to denote the input for Highs from the drive snake. The color scheme that I use is Blue for Lows, Purple for Mids and Red for Highs. I need to standardize on a universal color scheme for my drive snakes. Brian, what do you do? Brian: The closest thing I know of to a standard color scheme for a drive snake is the color code Belden uses in their multi pair cable. On the twelve pair version, the individual jackets are colored as shown on chart below.
Some folks may recognize that this follows the resistor code up through 10. Using a color code like this makes work efficient for those of us who are familiar with the color scheme, but that doesn't help when we have friends and others who are unfamiliar with our systems helping us to set up. The only real way to totally stupid-proof a system is to use different connectors everywhere that can't connect where they aren't supposed to. The problem with that scenario is that you would then need to stock lots of lengths of different style cables, and suddenly you can't simply grab an XLR cord to extend something. There is a reason that our industry uses XLR connectors for almost everything. Let's just try not to use any of those Edison to XLR adapters, folks.
In my system, I have my drive (or return) lines running to my amp racks via a 37 pin connector, which handles 12 lines. Now, this happens to be the same cable I use for my on-stage subsnakes, allowing me to stock just one style of cable. As long as the cable is connected both at FOH and to the amp rack, I'm guaranteed that I have the correct signal going to the correct amp. From there out to the speakers, it's not quite as simple. I have considered using an NL- 8 for my full range box, and an NL-4 for my subs, but again, I don't have the money or the space to store yet another style of cable. Where's that new warehouse I asked for last Christmas?
Paul: My input snakes use the resistor code for the XLR tails. It is a very good system. The drive snakes that I use are: a 12 channel for the main drive snake and then three channel XLR snakes to get the Low, Mid and High from the 12 channel drive snake to FOH amp rack on stage left and another 3 channel snake to the FOH amp rack on stage right. I guess that I must make a consistent color code for these XLR snakes. As of right now, the XLR jacks on the amp racks have Low, Mid and High. I need to mark the snakes with the appropriate labels and take the colors off or come up with a color scheme. As you can see, cabling is fraught with problems. A class in basic reading probably would help our new helper friends find the right way to plug in cables. You should always check their work before turning on the system. I haven't always done that and it has burned me more than once Brian, what have you to say?
Brian: Checking the work of green helpers is a definite must, but sometimes conditions onsite put you in such a time crunch that you don't feel that you have the time to look over everything. My experience says that you don't have the time to not check everything. What if your helper plugs a sub cable into your top cabinet and you blow a high frequency driver with the first stomp on the kick drum? Oops. Now even if you have a spare driver on hand, are you going to spend the time to swap it out onsite? I doubt it. Frankly, there are times when I am working on a new rig and I'll ask the systems tech to double check my work and make sure I haven't misunderstood his labeling or instructions.
I think clear and concise labeling can go a long way toward making sure that the correct cable connects to the correct speaker. I have even seen a system where the speaker cables lived in the back of a rather deep amplifier rack. They were assembled as two looms, boldly coded with red for right and white for left. The amplifier end was terminated directly to the back of the amplifiers and strain relieved in the back of the case. When you uncoiled the looms, each connector was labeled with text such as "FULL RANGE ONSTAGE" or "SUBWOOFER OFFSTAGE". Each cabinet had a big stencil next to the connector plate announcing whether it was a subwoofer or a full range cabinet. With this system, all that the tech needed to do was read the labels and know basic stage directions, which can be taught in about 30 seconds. Eliminating the need to connect the second end of the cable saved time and made it faster to check or troubleshoot a helper's work.
Paul: Good idea! The problem with my racks is that there isn't any room to store cables. I guess then the next best thing is to color code things to the point that all someone has to do is match the colors. I did that on one set of racks but no one follows it, and it has turned out to be a big can of worms. I will have to enforce the color codes and have someone else check the work. A few minutes of checking can eliminate many problems. I have color codes for House Left and another set for House Right. Even my son, who is color blind, was able to follow the colors. He just thought that Red was really Brown. Helpers who might not read too well can usually follow colors.
Brian: If people can't follow a color code, we've got bigger problems with this world than I thought. Maybe our stagehands can watch a couple episodes of "Sesame Street" before they get to the gig. Just for a little refresher course.
Many of the big tour guys that I've worked with will have the stage hands run all the cable and walk around behind them to do all the terminations. It's one way of assuring that all your connections are made properly, but many times I need to be building FOH while someone else wires the stacks and the stage. I really got spoiled for a while. A friend of mine named Andy worked with me consistently for about four or five years. It was a real luxury that I could trust him to wire the system up right every time, and even send him out on his own with a system occasionally. Unfortunately, at our stage of the game, most clients don't pay enough to add an extra paid tech to each show. But that's really the ticket… having a second person with you that knows your system well enough to wire it up properly. If you have tons of time for load-in, it might not be necessary, but if you know you'll be in a crunch to get it all up and running, it may be a good opportunity to bill the client an additional fee to cover that extra man.
