Article

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Church Sound System Tune Up: Cable Wrapping 101

Protect your cabling, give more durability, avoid tripping... A look at the over-under wrap.

One of the most important things a church sound operator/technician learn is how to properly wrap cables for the sound system.

A properly shop-wrapped cable will not only lay flat without any loops to trip your musicians, but the wire itself will last longer since there’s less stress on the conductors.

And that means fewer sound failures during a worship service, something we can all aspire to.

Wrapping and laying cables for a worship service may seem to be a lowly job, unappreciated by most of your congregation.

But know that in the professional world, the A1 (lead engineer) expects and appreciates when a stage crew rigs the stage properly.

Perhaps the most common method is called an over-under shop wrap. This procedure pre-twists the wire clockwise and counterclockwise with each loop, so the cable will lay out without any twists.

More about testing on the next page…

Testing
As a final test, hold onto the male XLR end and throw out the female end.

The cable should extend to its full length and lay on the floor without any twists, loops or humps.

Note that proper cable wrapping and laying is one of the basic job interview skills needed if you’re going to work as a stage hand at any serious audio gig.

You’ll be asked to wrap and lay out a mic cable before you get to work on the stage. If you wrap it over your elbow (you guilty ones know who you are) you’ll be fired and asked to leave the gig.

If you show real skill at it, then you’re hired and may be asked to work more shows. It’s that simple.

Do it right!

Just like the proverb, “For want of a horse… the kingdom was lost,” so it is with cables.

One improperly wrapped or laid cable can bring down an entire audio system for a worship service.

Always wrap and lay your cables as neatly as possible. It will pay off in the long run. 

Mike Sokol is the chief instructor of the HOW-TO Church Sound Workshops. He has 40 years of experience as a sound engineer, musician and author. Mike works with HOW-TO Sound Workshop Managing Partner Hector La Torre on the national, 36-city, annual HOW-TO Church Sound Workshop tour. Find out more here. 

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Climbing The Sound Mountain, Part 3: Starting At The Bottom

Our fictionalized - but instructional - series on making it in the sound reinforcement business continues

(See Part 1 and Part 2 of this series.)

Ben had gotten the gig but had some doubts about what he really did and didn’t know.

Frank’s comment in the interview about killing someone with improper AC grounding had prompted him to order a book and study up over the weekend to help get a handle on things.

But overall, he was psyched, and now it was Monday morning, the start of his new job.

Ben entered the lobby at FSC, encountering the same slightly haughty secretary who had greeted him less than a week ago.

“Good morning Sonya,” he said.

She looked up at him without a trace of emotion on her pretty face and replied, “OK, thanks” as she took his tax form and placed it in a tray on her desk.

She added, “Frank isn’t here yet, but he let me know that you should report to Jack, in the shop.” With that, she pointed down the hall and Ben set off to meet his new boss.

Jack Dean looked up from his bench at the back of the shop when he heard Ben enter and silently motioned for Ben to head his way.

Jack looked kind of old and maybe a little bit hardened, some gray in his hair and beard, and lines on his face. But there was a friendly, knowing look in his eye. “Sit down,” he said, pointing to a stool next to his. Ben took a seat and peered at the guts of an amp.

“OK, Ben, why don’t you tell me something about yourself.” Ben started to talk about his experience with sound systems, but Jack abruptly cut him off with a wave of his hand and said, “No, I asked you to tell me something about yourself.”

Ben was at a loss for a minute then finally came up with “Well, I don’t really like beer.”

Jack roared with laughter and said, “That’s what I’m talking about. I like you already! But if you don’t like beer, you might not make many friends in this industry.”

He laughed again as if this was an inside joke. Ben was a bit uncomfortable at this point but Jack’s warm smile settled him.

“Let’s get started,” Jack continued, and nodded at an empty spot on the bench against the adjacent wall, next to another guy. “That’s David. You two will be repairing all the bad XLR cables, and he has a head start. So go ahead and grab some cables from that case over there, cut the ends off and then re-solder them. If you see a connector that’s just not going to hold up any more, throw it in there,” gesturing at a five-gallon bucket against the wall.

“No problem” Ben replied as he sauntered over to his stool and sat down next to David.

“I’m Ben,” he said, looking at his new work mate. Without looking up, David half-grunted “hey.” Ben wasn’t sure how to take that, but decided not to press it. Jack nodded at both of them and then headed out of the shop.

Ben pulled out a handful of cables and started cutting off the ends in preparation for re-soldering. It was tedious work, and by lunch break, he’d only finished about 20 cables. But it was also strangely satisfying, even though the work resided at the very bottom of the totem pole.

After lunch, Ben set out to complete 30 cables, and by 3 pm, his hands hurt and he had a headache. David hadn’t said one word to him, which was a bit unnerving, but he stuck it out and reached his goal before it was time to head home.

For the remainder of the week, Ben fixed more bad cables, put together some new 100-foot XLR cables at Jack’s request, and made sure his bench stayed clean and neat. He felt a certain pride in his work even though it was tough going and his hands were sore and dirty all the time.

The only thing that bothered him was that David had said very little, other than to nod and grunt when he came in every morning. David was always there before him and left at about 3:30. By the same token, Ben had not really pushed David to talk with him, figuring that the right time would come.

On Monday morning of his third week at FSC, he arrived at 8:55 as usual. David wasn’t there, but Jack was. As Ben was about to sit down at his bench, Jack motioned for him to come over. “Ben, listen up. Earlier this morning, David and I were testing some of the cables you guys repaired and we found a bunch that had pin 2 and pin 3 reversed. David looked at them and said there was no way they could have been his, so this falls to you. I’ve put them on your bench to fix. I like you, Ben, but we can’t have that kind of error. You really need to pay attention and be careful, OK?”

It wasn’t a harsh reprimand, but Ben was embarrassed. He nodded, sat down and started fixing the first of the two dozen or so miss-wired cables.

After he’d opened up a few of them, it was obvious that these cables weren’t his work. The way the wires were stripped back didn’t look like his technique - after doing hundreds of them, well, he just knew. He debated about saying something to Jack, but decided against it. Ben was hurt, though, and believed that David had sold him out - not a comforting thought. He pushed on through the rest of the day, correcting every cable.

At home that night, he called his favorite former teacher from school, an electronics guru. The teacher listened to Ben’s story quietly, then responded with sage advice: “Ben, listen. I understand how that must feel, but remember that each and every situation is an opportunity for learning. It might not be obvious yet what you’re supposed to learn from this, but in time it will become clear.”

Ben resolved to stick with it, even going so far as to envision eventually finding out more about David and possibly becoming friends.

Either that, or maybe David wasn’t long for the company and Ben might move one small notch up the sound mountain. It was a lot to think about.

Next Up, Part 4: Mentors – The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Taylor Jensen is a freelance pro audio writer.

(See Part 1 and Part 2 of this series.)

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Building The Best Product You Can, Whether It’s Motorcycles Or Recordings

Drawing from theory and techniques that will pretty much insure a good translation of the artist's intention

I’m regularly asked about my choices of favorite microphones.

The answer is really pretty easy every time: my favorite ever made is the Shure SM57.

You can point a ‘57 in the general direction of a sound and you’ll get a pretty decent representation of that sound that can be recorded and pounded to death later.

Everything else in terms of microphones is pretty much open to negotiation. I do mostly unsigned artists, which often means that the “A List” gear isn’t an option.

In a past life, I headed a retail audio operation, and there was always a ton of stuff that I’d be checking out, so it wasn’t all that uncommon for me to be in the position where I was working on a project with nothing but tools I’ve never seen before.

So, I’d be in the studio trying to define uses (or reasons why I’d never use them again) for stuff that was a total and complete mystery to me.

A lot of times I’d hit on a piece of gear that I absolutely thought was great, only to get to the mix or mastering and find that it wasn’t all that great - so then I’d have a self-imposed problem to try to work out of.

The only things I really stress about in terms of the whole recording process are the sounds I’m recording. You can have all the $10,000 mics in the world, but if the sound you’re recording is crap, the recording is going to come out like crap.

If you have great sounds with great performances and can use whatever tools you have at your disposal to capture those sounds, and those performances are of a manner that compliments the musical statement, then you’re sitting in a damn good chair.

Having access to some of the hardware I have access to will often make the job a hell of a lot easier. It can often make the product maintain the emotional content that was the artist’s vision of how the product should be presented.

But, it’s never a means to an end. The whole goal is to be consistently “upper mediocre.”

Nobody is a genius every day, nobody is lousy every day - O.K, some are indeed lousy every day, but they’re destined for failure in anything they do. The idea is really to be a little better than average everyday, and genius when you can, and try to avoid being totally lousy always.

In real life, I’m a mechanic by hobby while many of the people that might read this are “recording engineers” by hobby. When I go to a custom motorcycle shop and see the tools they have at their disposal, I drool.

We have a moderately well set up shop that we play in on weekends. I’m like the little intern. We have some pretty cool stuff. A lot of the tools run on compressed air, we have lifts and bead blasters and some specialty tools.

We can build a scoot pretty much from the ground up, but we don’t have the CNC stuff that a lot of the “real” shops have - and we never will, because it’s a hobby and not a profession.

By the same token, I like some of the stuff we build in our shop way more than some of the custom bikes that sell for $50,000.

If you’re drawing the parallel, it’s all about making the best product you can with the tools at your disposal whether you’re building motorcycles or recording music.

After building a few motors, I’ve learned some tricks to make it easier to build motors and I’ve learned some tricks that make the motors come out better.

After approximately 35 years of being an audio engineer I have a pretty good grasp of theory and a repertoire of techniques from which I can draw that will pretty much insure a good translation of the artist’s intention.

At the end of the day it ain’t how you got to the finishing line, it’s that you got there at all. I don’t think there are a dozen things I’ve done in my career as an engineer that I’ve sat back and listened to and said, “Holy crap! That’s good.” I’m the same way with a bike. I’ve never owned one that’s been “finished.”

There is always something I’d like to change. There is always something where I feel I could have done better. There is always something I wish I’d done differently.

I just take that to the next gig, and the gig after that, and so on.

Recording is a medium because it’s oh so rare that it’s ever well done.

Fletcher moderates a popular REP forum here on ProSoundWeb.

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