Project studios are moving targets. Technology advances, priorities shift and locations change. They're reflections of personal habits. As such, what works for one person may not work for another. Even what works for someone at one time does not work for the same person at another time. Keeping that in mind, here are some simple, unglamorous tips, I find useful around the studio.

Little things that make studio life more organized

Swifters In a word: disposable dust cloths. They're soft and they trap dust. They also come in a 'wet' version that I use for serious cleaning and during the rewiring process. Paint Brush I keep a large, very soft bristle paint brush handy to gently dust items with knobs. While this procedure simply moves the problem to another location, it does a good job when used in conjunction with an air cleaner. If you grab the dust from flat surfaces with a Swifter, and keep dust covers on when/whereever possible, it is possible to keep your studio fairly dust-free. Plastic Freezer Bags Like the kind they sell at the grocery store. Again, buy in bulk. Freezer bags are stronger than normal sandwich bags and come in a variety of sizes. Small cables, or groups of cables (optical cables!) can be stored together, neatly coiled. Odd items can be stored with all their sundry components and labeled. Instead of "What the heck is the oddly shaped piece of wood?." you'll say "Ah. Those are the wood end cheeks and screws that I took off my Virus so it would fit on my rack shelf."

Sharpie Pens The indelible labeling pen. Indispensable for CD-Rs, draft tape, or uh, plastic freezer bags.

Hooks These were found at a garden shop. I use them to hang patch cables and headphones. The hooks themselves can be hung off a rack ear, provided the space above is empty. The wire metro rack I used a a computer desk has a multitude of places to hang these.

Wicker Basket 1/8" modular patch cables are too short and numerous to hang over a hook - they don't get tangled, anyway. These go in a wicker basket than I can keep next to me on the floor while I'm patching. I got the idea from studios with TT patchbays. Wicker. How strange and utterly perfect. I feel like I'm in Martha Stewert's project studio.

Spiral Wrap Spiral wrap is a plastic spiral that can be wound around a collection of cables to create custom snakes. Spiral wrap can be found at Radio Shack. Pictured is a snake for the Frostwave Fat Controller. Snakes can also be bundled together with nylon tie wraps. I don't do this for snakes that I handle because trimming the excess tie wrap results in sharp, uncomfortable edges. Plus, the outer surface of the snake is not uniform, due to the tie wrap bumps - and this makes it easy for the snake to catch on things. Nylon Tie Wraps Buy in bulk. Mainly I use these for cabling my rack, but you can make snakes and prevent small boxes like USB hubs from jumping onto the floor. Split loom tubing While we're on the subject of taming cables, I need to mention split loom tubing. This is a simple, flexible corrugated tube with a split down the side so you can stuff cables inside. It can be purchased in a variety of diameters below 1", but the 1.5" and 2.0" diameters which are most useful for project studios can not be found easily. Err on the side of being too big. I went with 2" tubing. When I received it, my first thought was "ohmigod what have I done?" It looked too big. In practice, I'm very happy - it was perfect to manage bundles of power and XLR cables. I even had space for doubling back to take up cable slack. 2" tubing can also be placed around the rails of Metro shelving to gobble up cable clutter there as well. In addition to making my room more attractive, the tubing consolidated cables to the point where I was able to push my computer workstation back to the wall an additional nine inches which magically added several square feet of floor space to my studio.

Velcro cable wraps If you can't find two-sided velcro spools, buy velcro on adhesive strips and join the sides together to form a home-brew cable tie. The velcro is cut in half lengthwise after the glue has cured to double the number of cable ties. Audio cables don't normally require such thick strips of velcro. When I first started doing this, I attached the velcro directly to the cable. BAD idea. If you have a bunch of cables with velcro attached in a rack, it makes fishing a single cable out extremely difficult. I have a designated cable tie area in my studio. If a cable gets unwrapped, the cable tie goes right into the box. When coiling cables, I always know where to find a cable tie. Without a designated area for cable ties, it becomes too easy not to use them. Also, a misplaced cable tie becomes a cat toy in seconds. Same goes for microphone wind screens. Pipe cleaners make decent tie wraps as well. These are actually better for smaller cables. Plastic ziploc bags are good for small cables too.

Slightly larger things I find useful

Keyboard Scooter This thing is so versatile I have two. One for my keyboard and mouse and another for misc functions like holding my laptop, stomp boxes or Fat Controllers. Height and angle are adjustable. As the name implies, they are designed to be 'scooted' to another location.

Strobe tuner The VS-1 Virtual Strobe tuner emulates the action of an old strobe tuner with a graphical display. This makes the VS-1 inexpensive, battery powered and portable. I got the VS-1 because tuning the Warr Guitar was frustrating with a normal needle tuner (sharp! no, flat! sharp! you just had it! okay flat now...) I discovered the VS-1 was ideal for tuning and scaling analog oscillators.

Lofttech tone generator It is very useful to have a dependable tone around when you need it. This really helps track down patchbay bugs. I use it in a creative context quite a bit - low frequency sine sweeps are quite fun. Likewise, a small speaker is nice to have around. Florescent lamp Studios build up enough heat with all the gear. Sometimes a nice cool florescent light it just what you need. The under cabinet type works great with keyboard stands or anywhere you need a little light for patching. Modern designs are cheap and can be secured with tie wraps. Sliding rack shelves You've already committed the floor space to a rack, make the most of it. Even if a device is not rack mountable, it might still be designed to fit inside a rack. Take the Oxygen 8 MIDI controller. This thing is begging for a sliding rack shelf. Why do I have a keyboard controller in my rack? Sound design. Much easier to twiddle knobs and press keys while I'm at the rack than rolling back and forth from my primary controller to the rack. Above are two models of sliding rack shelf. The Oxygen 8 keyboard is on a SSL low profile shelf which is cheaper and takes up slightly less space. The Virus is sitting on an SS heavy duty rack shelf due to the width of the unit. The heavy duty shelf surface is slightly larger because it sits on top of the sliding rails. The low profile shelf sits between the rails. Cable management arm If you have a rack drawer, cables can get pinched and the drawer will not close properly. The way around this problem is a cable management arm. The arm is hinged in two places and the cables are held in place with velcro tabs. Rack mounted servers use these, there is no reason not to use them with your audio gear. Rack doors Some models of racks allow you to add doors. If you have toddlers running around, slide the keyboard in, close rack door and lock. instant childproofing.

Remote MIDI interface I have a MIDI interface in my rack, plus a metro cart full of non-rack-mounted MIDI modules. I could run a snake of MIDI cables from the cart to the rack, but this is less than ideal for a number of reasons. In a situiation like this, it may be reasonable to consider a small, remote MIDI interface to that station and run a single USB cable. Small MIDI interfaces are quite cheap these days. This way, my keyboard cart only trails a power cable and USB cable (audio is patched on demand).

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Habits

Label power adapters As soon as you get a device that uses a wall wart or line lump, label that sucker. Most power adapters do not bear the name of the manufacturer. The next time you're staring at a box full of generic power adapters, you'll thank me.

Storage for cables I don't think anyone has come up with the ultimate solution to storing cables, but I have a system that works for me. I've dedicated a section of my basement with a shelf and a bunch of stacking plastic containers. Each container is clearly labeled and designated for a specific category of cable. Cables inside are, of course, tie wrapped or in bags. The downside to this approach is it requires a significant amount of storage space.

PDF Collection Most enlightened manufacturers *cough* make PDF files available for their products. Manuals tend to be reference oriented, so you want to keep them close at hand. However, you usually open them up every six months or so. I've managed to locate a fair number of PDF manuals for my gear on the web. Try it! I keep all the PDF manuals in a central location in my computer. They're convenient, and take up zero space in my studio. Banish clutter If you're not using it, find a place to store it. Only the items you use on a daily basis should be taking space in your studio.

Designated area for rack screws Like the designated area for cable ties, rack screws deserve their own, easily accessible place.

Project boxes Project data takes many forms. CD-R, dat, video tape, ADAT tape, notes, scripts, etc... There is the temptation to store all like formats together (all CDs in CD storage, all DATs in dat storage), but I find it is more useful to group media together on a project basis. All materials for a specific project get dumped in a plastic container like those I use for cables. If space is an issue and there are many small projects, place the materials in a large envelope, label that envelope with your Sharpie and place THESE in a plastic container labeled 'projects 6/02-08/02' If your storage are is humid, drop a package of silica gel or calcium chloride desiccant inside to keep your tape company.