Cable Management in the Music Studio


This is Video #3 of my Music Studio Reassemble Series.
I want to talk about cable management in the home studio, and some things to think about.
Being an electrician, I dealt with cables ALL the time.
If cables are hidden behind a wall, visual presentation does not matter as much, just as long as things work.. But when wires or pipes are “surface mounted”, or visually seen, it’s important to make sure things are straight and clean looking..
In the home studio I understand we like our studio’s looking clean with good cable management, and I’ll talk about cable management tools in a moment, but I first want to clarify some bad things when you’re TOO CLEAN with cable management.
- Hard to manage
- Hard to add new cables
- Hard to remove cables
Going TOO Intense with Cable Management
We all want that super clean studio look..
But have you ever thought how hard it’s going to be to add just a single cable to your tie-wrapped bundle?
From years of dealing with cables on the jobsite, understand workflow is more important than a super slick setup.
That means doing what’s easier, not what looks nicer..
If you buy a new audio interface for example, and want to remove the old USB cable, and add the new USB cable.. will you have to undo every single tie-wrap!? Don’t forget, you’ll also have to re-wrap the cables AGAIN once you take it off!
Now.. for most of us, once we’re setup, it’s not too often we buy new equipment, so we don’t have to add and remove cables too often, but I hope this got you thinking that.. yes cable management is important.. but there’s a difference between spaghetti wires (all tangled), easy to manage, and neat-freak!
Tools for Cable Management
I’ll quickly share some cable management tools in the home studio from this video:
Cable Management Tie-Wraps (Velcro)
Velcro tie-wraps are awesome because they’re reusable, and you don’t have to make them overly tight.

Electricians often use plastic one-time-use tie-wraps because they’re quite cheap when buying a pack of 2,000!
But for the home studio, we don’t need tons, and these Reusable Velcro Tie-Wraps are actually pretty affordable.. and are amazing for cable management!
I’ve used them inside my music production computer, and as you saw in this video to keep things a little neater!
You can always cut them down to length, if needed, as the pack comes with like 50!


Hooks for Cable Management

I used the Screw-In Hook Type in this video, but there’s also the sticky adhesive hooks type.. (I just had the hook screw-ins handy for this cable management).
Hooks are great to attach your cable to a desk.
Here’s a picture of cables running through the hooks for cable management:

Wrapping Up – Studio Wire Organization
There’s some things to think about in the home studio for organizing wires, audio cables, and power cables!
Usually best practice is separating power from low-voltage.
Power would be from the wall outlet, so the wire that powers your computer, your computer monitors, or that powers your reference monitor speakers..
Low-voltage would be your USB mouse cable, USB typing keyboard cable, MIDI Keyboard, Audio Interface USB cable, etc.
You can continue watching this Music Studio Reassemble Series!