storing cables

It all kind of crept up on me – the little things that either my guys or I failed to do when tearing down after a show, like working around a problem instead of fixing it. Unless you are an obsessive compulsive when it comes to gear maintenance, you know what I mean. All of those little things recently piled up and culminated in a really bad night.

My favorite touring band was playing at a street dance and the sound check had gone off without a hitch. About halfway into the first set, however, things started to go wrong. The levels bounced around on the monitor mixes for the guitar and keyboard player and then the monitors for the horn players lost all the highs. I immediately started running back and forth between the amps and the mixing board, testing and fixing things, all the while trying to catch and mix all the solos and vocal lines in the song. I finally got everything back to working order, though I must have worked off at least ten pounds in the process!

Let’s see what went wrong, and how the problems can be fixed or avoided, hopefully sparing you (or your sound guy) all that pain.


Condensation
Whether we realize it or not, microscopic condensation forms on connections all year round. Sometimes it is very obvious, and is generally related to humidity, temperature and dew point, but often we don’t see any signs at all.

When my keyboard player complained about erratic monitor levels – his vocal would pop in and then fade out – I traced the signal path through each cable and gain control to find the source of the problem. I finally found that the vocals popped back in when I touched the XLR send connector. The quick fix is to spray it with contact cleaner or exercise the jack (plug it in and out repeatedly – with the amp off, of course). Since the connectors were 20 years old and gray from years of light corrosion, I opted to bring them to the shop and solder on a new connector after the show was over.


Bad cable ends
The monitor problem for the horn guys was a bit harder to pinpoint. It was an intermittent connection that decided to become permanently bad. I would touch or adjust something and it would work for a bit before going out again five minutes later. I checked the connections, changed out EQs, changed the send lines, and even checked the line voltage, all to no avail.