snake box placement

[Unalaska]

On another thread peeps were talking about where they place the snake head on stage (assuming it's the generic 30' stage, under 24 channels kinda thing). What do you guys do? Put it by the drum riser? Side stage?

 

Fer me I always place it by the amp rack on one side of the stage. An 8 channel drop snake goes to the far side of the drum riser dor drums and geetar or whatever is over there. I do need 12 channel snakes though, 8 isn't alway enough (ug).

 

Why place the main snake there? Returns are on a custom 6 or 8 channel snake that's only 5-10' long. For you guys that place the main trunk on stage then how are you handling returns? Separate drive snake?

[boomerweps]

Main snake beside the amp rack, connected with an eight foot patch snake. Drop snakes to each side of the drum set. Inputs other than drums on the off side from the main snake go into the nearby sub snake, usually keys & one vocal. On side of the main snake, inputs go direct.

 

I do have a 8x100' drive snake for alternate positioning but I haven't used it yet. It WAS bought to increase channels along with the previous 16x4x100' snake for our new 24 channel mixer BUT I found a decent deal on a 24x6x100' that needed some repairs. Now the old 16x4x100' & 8x100' drive snake are kept separate to use as extensions for the main snake with a couple gender bender adapters. Another reason to keep a few 50' mic cables, snake channel workarounds ;>)

 

In an earlier band we just put the main snake by the floor toms which was off side from the amp rack. We almost always mixed from stage so the main snake was really used as a large sub snake. The returns weren't used. IF somebody wanted to place the main snake near the drums or center stage, I'd highly recommend a semi-short patch/drive snake to reach the amp rack(s).

 

Boomerweps

[InACanProductions]

I place mine behind the 2x15" drum wedge. I can wire the whole backline very easily against the backwall. For vocals and sending the drive lines to my active speakers (all subs, top, and front wedge monitors are active) I use 50' XLR cables that I lay around the parimeter of the stage. It's not a perfect way to do things, but it works for me. I've thought about getting a subsnake or 2 but every time I call Mark he's out of the 30' 8ch snakes.

 

When I was out on Warped Tour last year, I couldn't keep the snake on stage. The stage didn't have any kind of railings and it's a reel snake on wheels, it seemed better to keep the snake on the ground. The Amp racks had to be in the same spot every day for the speaker cables to reach, so the snake lived next to that rack. I "made" a snake of XLR cables for the drum mics with some electrical tape. I labeled the snake and the XLR ends with colored electrical tape so the stage hands could wire up the drums the same way everyday, while I tended to wiring up the speakers and the board. I was hired 2 weeks before the tour and had no input into designing the PA or staging, I didn't get to see the PA until 2 days before we left and I didn't pass any audio until the first stop of the tour, talk about scary! I made the best of I had to work with. On a side note, when I was hired I asked for an equipment list, which I didn't get until 6 days till we left, and it was missing tops. There were 8 subs, 8 monitors, 2 front fills, no tops. There was just enough time to contact the sponsor and get more gear shipped out. It was a mess, don't even get me started on how I had to rig up some 1/4" TRS to XLR cables in the hotel the night before the first stop with some terrible cables and connectors that we had to get at a Radio shack, but that's only because we didn't have a console until the day we left so I had no way of knowing what types of cables we'd need. Ok I'm done bitching.

[boomerweps]

If you're working the Warped Tour, you're working more "pro" than me ;>). But bundled mic cables, often used for a specific drum set, are most often referred to as a LOOM. This is to differentiate from a snake made with multipair wires with a single outer sheath.

 

Only problem with drum looms is that it works for ONE setup only, so usually good for one tour only. Many drummers (me included) like to alter their setup. I used spiral plastic tubing for a drum loom for a while. It was handy to split out cables along it's length but a major PITA (actually wrists) to change and had to be coiled in BIG loops.

 

Boomerweps

[InACanProductions]

 

If you're working the Warped Tour, you're working more "pro" than me ;>). But bundled mic cables, often used for a specific drum set, are most often referred to as a LOOM. This is to differentiate from a snake made with multipair wires with a single outer sheath. Only problem with drum looms is that it works for ONE setup only, so usually good for one tour only. Many drummers (me included) like to alter their setup. I used spiral plastic tubing for a drum loom for a while. It was handy to split out cables along it's length but a major PITA (actually wrists) to change and had to be coiled in BIG loops. Boomerweps

 

 

The drumset was backlined each day on this particular stage, so yes that's pretty accurate. The company that hired me produces concerts at the Sherman Theater in Stroudsburg, PA and they kept that loom together after the tour and used it at the theater for at least the next few months. I stopped working down there about 3 months after the tour so I'm not sure if they still use it. They backline drums for local bands at that theater also, so not too much changes in their set up from show to show. The loom was only 25' at most, and was only useful to keep the cables from being spread out on the stage. It was a pain to coil up each day, and we had one cable lose it's pin 2 connection at the FXLR connector, so for that day I had to run another cable along side the loom and solider the cable at the end of the day when we broke down the stage.

 

I loomed the speaker cables to the subwoofers also. We only had 1/4" connectors on the speaker cables, with amps that had binding post and speakon. We were running 4 subs/side so I hardwired the speaker cables into the binding posts, labled the cables and made 2 looms of 4 cables each to run to the subs. The cables got wraped every night and stored with the amp rack. Those cables were terrible, the connectors were god aweful, I luckily had saved all the connectors that I cut off to hardwire the amps, and before the end of the 18 dates our stage ran on the tour I had replaced every connector at least once, and the last couple days I had swap out some of the cables with the spares we were carrying. The whole PA was poorly put together by the sponsor, partially because the sponsor is a lower level MI grade manufacturer of "pro audio" gear.

 

 

I used to have a loom for the drums with my rig, but as you stated it became a PITA to change things around when needed. I also used some plastic spiral tube wrap to hold the loom together. I ditched that and just keep the snake closer to the drums now.

[Unalaska]

I have a cople of drum XLR looms as well: 6ch 25' and a 4ch 25'. They get used from time to time though sometimes it's easier to run single shorter cables if the drop snake is near the drums. It can be a pain to wrap, biiig loops make it easier.

 

(and mine are labeled with letters....)