I am in the midst of throwing together my first "proper" rack, and was curious what people use here. Need professional appearance, durability, mobility, etc. I dont just need transport, but something to wheel in and use on the job, holding my preamps and converters, and power conditioners, maybe the odd limiter..

teddy

Standard Calzone or similar quality ATA-approved shock & non-shock racks here. I have some really nice custom wooden racks in the studio, next to the 20RU ATA flight racks as well. I have a couple of SKB cases but they have provided less than stellar results when shipping or flying. The ATAs weigh a ton and cost even more but protect the gear the best. YMMV-

Oh- Take a look at Steve Remote's gear pics. Shows off how nicely he takes care of his really sweet stuff...and makes me green with envy!

JvB

Hey Jim,

My gear is your gear my man...

You got to come by and see the new things we have done to Elroy and the Bread Mobile!

Awwwww, you make me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside!

When I finish this weeks series of disasters (gigs at Lincoln Center & the NY Armory) plus a stupidly large Democratic convention in CT, I'll try and find a window to see if you're around! Would love to see how the shop and truck(s!) are doing, but even more to see you, my bro. thumbsup thumbsup

we're feelin' the love!

Here are some of our racks.
Most of our racks have heavy duty road case shells.
The small racks are heavy duty "lift off" cases.
A fair amount of our stuff is in SKB cases -- Some pres, comps, and such.

I also have "theme" racks in road cases that are a complete system in one box. Don't have any pictures handy right now.

Keep in mind; most of these cases are friggin' heavy.
I mean some of those cases weigh 150 to 165 lbs. without gear and panels.
It isn't a one person system.
That's why we have some stuff in SKBs

I got to tell you -- IMO, the rear of the racks look a lot hotter to me.
I love the custom panels and wiring harnesses we have built for these puppies.

I got to look for those pictures...

There are some rear rack shots lingering around these parts.
I think the thread's titled "show us your racks" or something like that.
There also maybe another thread or two showing them

Try searching all forums since it may not be in this forum. Extra work but not impossible.

Post me if you have any questions?

How do you keep the patchbays in order when you have so much gear moving around all the time? What I mean is.... do you have connectors on the back of all units then hook them up to the patchbays? They cant be hardwired all the time!

I'm the only one on my remotes so the weight of the racks is important to me. I've abandoned all my large and shock mount racks and now have everything in SKB 4 space roto racks. The racks aren't good enough for shipping in (they are transported in my Honda CRV) but they protect the gear and are light enough so I can survive the job. A fold up wire dolly allows me to stack four of the cases and roll them in.

We have MASS W4 and ELCO multipins wired to Tiny Tele patch bays points. This system is wired utilizing Full Normal, Half Normal and No Normal bays.

Mics to preamps are Full normal. I/O from consoles and multitracks are all Half Normal.
Tie lines to all the ancillary equipment are No Normal.

The patch bay must be set up and struck for each project. On small recording sessions the bay is pretty manageable. We don’t take the bay on large one night dates unless it’s already setup in some sort of vehicle. Some folks wire their bays within the equipment rack to help reduce the amount of external patching.

Yes, we have XLR and multi pin connectors on the back of the bay and equipment racks. When we decommission “Jethro” I plan to take that bay and build a moveable mega analog patch system . There shall be chassis mounted connectors and umbilical harnesses on this unit. This will minimize the cable traffic jam at the back of the rack. dB attenuation Pads, transformers, DAs, monitoring, test equipment shall also be part of this new patch bay system.

Just like Rick said, we also use the SKB Roto racks for “one person” dates. Light weight racks are a must. It’s the only way to go.

Here’s a picture of Paulie’s Awesome Retro Rack.

Here's the rear of Orofino's Killer Retro Rack. Notice the TT patch bay in the center of the rack.

Ease of use and mobility are important to me too! I load all this stuff myself. Although once there 9 out of 10 times there's a small crew to help with set up/tear down, it's getting it in/out of my van that is the issue.

I have a 6 space rack that houses my pres and interfaces/convertors. I might break that down to smaller racks justr because even that 6 is a bear. But I like the convenience, on the other hand, of having a simple set up. Just plug in and go, kind of.
So it's a trade off.

Steve your set up is awe inspiring!

I use SKB's for most of my work. Then again, I'm the one that has to load, unload and transport single-handedly. Most of my pres and outboard interfaces go in SKB's (ie my Digi002R, Preamps, Lexicon300, etc...). My computer is in its own custom built ATA case and the monitor/keyboard is built into an ATA briefcase. Mics usually go in a Pellican case... I transport everything on a folding cart. So far seems to work pretty well.

When I fly, I have ATA shock cases for everything. But as Steve said, they are really heavy.

--Ben