I'm trying to come up with the best way to position all of the input and output connections for an Etherwave-style, horizontal theremin enclosure.
I'm wondering what your preferences would be if you had a choice, taking into account ease of access, visibility for making connections, desire to hide a mass of cables from the audience, etc.
For a single audio cable this can be a pretty easy decision, but consider a theremin that might have MIDI and USB cables, a 1/4"pitch-preview cable, headphones, and earpiece cable, and maybe a cable for a pedal or two. And power, which is often a wall-wart with a light-duty cable that's too short and requires an extension cord right beneath the theremin.
Consider three options, or suggest your own:
1) Have all jacks located in a single row on a long rear panel. This would require right angle cables if you don't want all of the cables sticking straight out. The cables would either hang straight down under their respective jacks or be grouped into a central bundle and run down the mic stand. They would be ordered so that the most used (audio and power) would be near center, with the lesser-used further away from center.
2) Have the same linear array of jacks as described above except located on the underside of the theremin. This allows the use of straight cables but you have to bend over and look up to see the labels on the jacks. Here also a wide array of cables could be bunched together with velcro and run down the stand.
3) Do something altogether different and have most or all of the jacks located in a small interface box that rests on the floor and has only one connection to the theremin through a multi-conductor jacketed cable. All audio, midi, USB, power, and pedal cables would plug into the floor box. The idea here is that the appearance would be neater with only one cable to the theremin. The downside is that you need to have the interface box to make the theremin work.
I haven't considered the Etherwave design of having the primary audio cable come right out the front control panel. I have personally never liked that.
Your thoughts? Thanks.
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