I bought my first organ in about 1986 and since then I have upgraded several times and added quite a few peripherals. All of these things have wires to connect to the mains, stereo line out cables, midi cables, USB cables, HDMI cables etc. The end result is a horrendous spaghetti junction as multi plug socket extensions trail across the floor to more multi plug socket extensions and the other cables create their own even more complicated mayhem.
A month or so ago I was sitting playing in my music room in the midst of all this entanglement when I had a thought. My music room was the third bedroom and contained nothing but my computer and music dedicated equipment. Although it was a decent double bedroom size it was a nightmare of wires. Next door was the guest room. A larger room and pretty much wasted space so why not change rooms? I managed to sell the idea to her who must be obeyed and plans were made. Priority number one was to get rid of the mess of wiring and number two was to have plenty of storage for music books etc. that would be behind doors thus leaving the room looking tidy.
My Roland AT800 is my main instrument and this is connected by midi to the Roland BK7M and then on to the Roland Fantom which is loaded with Theatre Organ In A Box samples and also European Organ In A Box samples. A midi cable is then taken to the Korg PA900 keyboard from the Fantom so that when I get it set up properly I can access all of the Korg voices from the organ. The Korg PA900 is supported by two Rokit Active speakers or the Roland Cube if being used for recording purposes. All of these instruments have line out leads running to a stereo mixer which is easily at hand on the top of the organ. The mixer has two stereo line outputs. One goes to my Roland Cube amplification system with the subwoofer next to the organ and the stereo speakers on the top of the organ. The other line out goes to the “work” computer for recording purposes. My “music” computer runs MusicReader software to display my music on the organ and also on the keyboard when necessary. My “work” computer should be available for recording purposes. The “work” computer is on a purpose built workstation housing the cheap Zoostorm “music” computer base unit, my printer, scanner and back up drives. You will appreciate why my room was a mess of cables.
The way to achieve my first priority of tidying up cables was to install dado trunking running around the three walls which would house my equipment. The central section of the trunking contains the mains cabling and 24 switched power sockets. The top and bottom sections of the trunking house all of the other cables.
The existing bedroom furniture in the form of a low corner drawer unit and a corner wardrobe and large drawer unit were retained. The wardrobe unit still house clothes etc. while the corner drawer unit is ideal for paper, blank cds,etc. Joining on to the corner wardrobe unit I have added three large cupboards for music etc. Low wattage adjustable spotlights were moved from the old music room to provide excellent lighting (7 x 4w LED spots).
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words so these may make things clearer.
Keith