How To: Timpani Loom
This How-To Guide helps you to create a custom cable loom for micing Timpani. The benefit of having a cable loom for this makes setup, performance, tear down, and transit MUCH easier for the timpani performer and sound engineer.
ITEMS NEEDED
○ Electrical Tape
○ Sharpie
○ 1" Techflex
(smaller can be used for fewer mics)
○ Zipties
○ Velcro or Tie Line
STEPS
○ Setup your mics, placement, and angles. Tape / mark the placement for consistency.
○ Plug in your cables (starting at the drum furthest from the snake / mixer) and make sure they are labeled on both ends. This will make it much easier to make sure that you are plugging in the correct cable to the right channel once the loom is made. You won't be able to see the individual cables at the end.
○ As you are plugging in each cable, run your cables straight down to the floor / ground, then around the kit close to the wheels / bases.
○ As you get to the next mic in your sequence, tape the cables together where the next mic hits the floor. It's just a tab marker that will be used as we add the tech flex to the line.
○ Once you get to the last drum (closest drum to the snake / mixer), coil and collect your extra cable by the wheel.
○ Collect the male ends and run them to your connection point as you would for the performance. Pull the extra cable back to your collected coil at the wheel. Secure this coil together with zipties.
○ Measure from tab to tab, add 4-6 inches, and cut your techflex. Definitely keep track of which piece goes with which section of the loom.
○ Temporarily tape the female ends in line to the rest of the cable. You want to do this as straight as possible to make running the techflex easier.
○ Starting from the collected coil / the drum closest to the mixer, take that section of techflex down the line and tape the tab side first. Then tape the opposite end. You'll feel like the tech flex is a little loose and baggy. This is correct.
○ You'll repeat that process down the line, undoing the temporarily taped ends, all the way to the last mic line.
○ Now with that extra techflex in each section, you'll pull it over that tape to protect it and smooth out the look of the line.
○ On the snake / mixer side, temporarily tape the male ends in sequence from buckle to buckle to make it easier to pull through the techflex. You can add extra to this side also to have the male ends come out smoothly like the rest of the loom.
STORAGE / TRANSIT
○ Zip tie the collected coil to a frame leg of the timpani closest to the mixer. Then coil the loom and collect it in the same place with tie line or velcro. This will make it very easy to deploy once the timpani are in place.
This solution works best / easiest if you are building custom cable lengths, but still works well with standard sizes. Consider getting longer cables than you need and tiering the lengths to your snake / mixer (Drum 1 and 2 at 25', drum 3 and 4 at 20', etc.) to make sure you have enough to make adjustments without piling up a bunch of cable in one area.
