Members Ryan. Posted June 2, 2010 Members Share Posted June 2, 2010 I just bought a snake, and I have a max range of 100ft with it. But I realize now that with my monitors tying up the four returns that I have nothing to come back to the HPR181s with. What is my best bet to travel 100 ft using the stereo outs of my mix wiz to the xlr inputs on the subs? Can I connect 4 25ft cables and use them as a single without loss of anything? Where should I buy? Why do I have a feeling audiopile is going to be in my future? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Rezrover Posted June 2, 2010 Members Share Posted June 2, 2010 You can get Audiopile snakes with 12 returns if you need. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Barisaxman2000 Posted June 2, 2010 Members Share Posted June 2, 2010 A couple of options: 1) get some 100ft XLR's from audiopile for your mains. 2) sell your snake and get one with 6 or 8 returns 3) use gender-change adapters on extra channels (if available) to convert them to returns Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author Craig Vecchione Posted June 2, 2010 CMS Author Share Posted June 2, 2010 Yes, you can string together shorter cables for a return, but I'd advise against this, as the connections are a failure point, they might be trod upon in the venue, and it's generally uncool. Get a 100ft cable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Axisplayer Posted June 2, 2010 Members Share Posted June 2, 2010 Buy a return snake. It is a snake with XLR fantail on each end (or TRS or whatever you need to do the job.) Get a 100ft length like your snake is. You can get 4 channel or 6 channel or whatever. Never hurts to have a few more channels than you need today. It also means you could decide to have your DR or whatever at FOH and have enough sends for all the bands if that is something you want to have at FOH. ( I don't like my processor at FOH but some folks do.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ryan. Posted June 2, 2010 Author Members Share Posted June 2, 2010 Okay, so can I just buy two 100ft cables from Audiopile, like these: http://www.audiopile.net/products/Mic_Instr_Cables/MBQN/MBQN_cutsheet.shtml and velcro them to my snake line during shows? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Coaster Posted June 2, 2010 Members Share Posted June 2, 2010 just build a 6 or 9 channel drive snake. then you have enough for more as you expand. trouble with typical 100' xlr cables is they likely wont last you too long. unless you are very judicious and careful about coiling/storing them every time you will end up with a f***ed up cable quickly. this is more a user issue than cable issue, but a major issue for a lot of folks. a 6 channel drive snake OTOH is easy to coil, easy to store and is a lot tougher than a plain XLR cable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ryan. Posted June 2, 2010 Author Members Share Posted June 2, 2010 Coaster can you linke me to a drive snake? I only need two sends? Just to go from left and right out to the inputs on the subs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Axisplayer Posted June 2, 2010 Members Share Posted June 2, 2010 Your preferred vendor has them, but the smallest is 4 channel return snake (drive snake, whatever...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Coaster Posted June 2, 2010 Members Share Posted June 2, 2010 Your preferred vendor has them, but the smallest is 4 channel return snake (drive snake, whatever...) ewi sells them? cool. subs- drive snakes (or return snakes, same thing just different jargon) are oftne custom jobs. if ewi has them then thats cool. i have always made my own. i bought an ewi snake with 8 returns so when i made a drive snake for that it is 16' of 8 channel to go from the snake head to the amp racks. i've never found 8 channel snake lately so i cut some channels off. if you get a drive snake you could gaff it to your main snake and run it alongside, just like it was one snake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ryan. Posted June 2, 2010 Author Members Share Posted June 2, 2010 I can only find snakes that are send and return. Not just a return snake? How annoying. I think I may just go with the two 100ft XLRs. I'll just try to keep them in good shape. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Coaster Posted June 2, 2010 Members Share Posted June 2, 2010 stop thinking of cables as having direction - they dont. you can change the ends on the cables. i wont speak for mark but i believe he will change them for you if you ask nice and pay a little more. i guarantee you if you use plain old 100' xlrs you will be sorry. also, if your newer snake is more than 2 channels - i also guarantee you will grow into them. the smallest pair count i can get locally is 6, so surprise i have a number of six channels snakes doing various things. i love them. i can also get 9 and 12 channel snake cable. and of course the larger counts are easier to come by. i highly recommend the 6 pair snake, its really easy to work with and store. learn how or find someone who will solder for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Rezrover Posted June 2, 2010 Members Share Posted June 2, 2010 http://www.audiopile.net/products/Stagelink_snakes/PSX-8/PSX-8_cutsheet.shtml Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Axisplayer Posted June 2, 2010 Members Share Posted June 2, 2010 Since you said EWI, I will give you an example of theirs: http://audiopile.net/products/Patch_snakes/MTFM/MTFM-04/MTFM-04_cutsheet.shtml They have this with various sorts of ends depending on what you need. You pick the connectors, channel count, and length, and you are good to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ryan. Posted June 2, 2010 Author Members Share Posted June 2, 2010 Lol, ok those sound like stern guarantees. Ok so currently I have a 16x4 100ft Snake. Since my mix wiz has 16 channels, I'm set as far as that goes. Also I have four pre-fader aux outs, which will be monitor sends, so that uses up my 4 returns. So now I just buy a small snake with XLR returns and use it as my way back to the mains. Arg. Maybe I should return the snake I got (from GC) and upgrade to something with more returns? Doesn't that make more sense than having two snakes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Coaster Posted June 2, 2010 Members Share Posted June 2, 2010 Since you said EWI, I will give you an example of theirs:http://audiopile.net/products/Patch_snakes/MTFM/MTFM-04/MTFM-04_cutsheet.shtmlThey have this with various sorts of ends depending on what you need. You pick the connectors, channel count, and length, and you are good to go. wow. i cant build them that cheap even just for parts, and they come with a grip on one end. impressive. subs - get those. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Coaster Posted June 2, 2010 Members Share Posted June 2, 2010 Lol, ok those sound like stern guarantees. Ok so currently I have a 16x4 100ft Snake. Since my mix wiz has 16 channels, I'm set as far as that goes. Also I have four pre-fader aux outs, which will be monitor sends, so that uses up my 4 returns. So now I just buy a small snake with XLR returns and use it as my way back to the mains. Arg. Maybe I should return the snake I got (from GC) and upgrade to something with more returns? Doesn't that make more sense than having two snakes? yes. also, are you using all 16 channels on your snake? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ryan. Posted June 2, 2010 Author Members Share Posted June 2, 2010 yes. also, are you using all 16 channels on your snake? I only have once, when a band I was mixing had keyboards and two guitarists and so on... but not often. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ryan. Posted June 2, 2010 Author Members Share Posted June 2, 2010 Actually, sorry, I haven't even used this snake yet. I thought you meant all 16 channels on my mixer. The snake is untouched at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Coaster Posted June 2, 2010 Members Share Posted June 2, 2010 well, in that case here is an option that is free or cheap - use spare channels to run back to your mains. you can get turnaround cables for this. in the event that you have to have 16 channels of inputs, you could run mono to your mains on one return and have three monitor mixes. again, just some options. remember this is all about compromise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members monthlymixcd Posted June 2, 2010 Members Share Posted June 2, 2010 3) use gender-change adapters on extra channels (if available) to convert them to returns I just watched an EWI 8 XLR (no returns) 100' snake go on eBay for cheap. (That MTFM is a good deal for new as pointed out... it WOULD be tough to build one for that price.) Either are options that you could use for extra sends or returns as needed. FWIW - I bought a 16x8 EWI snake to avoid this problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ryan. Posted June 2, 2010 Author Members Share Posted June 2, 2010 So basically, I buy some sort of converter, that makes the out of the mixwiz go into the fantail xlr, and then at the other end makes the in of snake box send to my subs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ryan. Posted June 2, 2010 Author Members Share Posted June 2, 2010 I'd like to get this: http://www.audiopile.net/products/Stagelink_snakes/PSPX-16-8/PSPX-16-8_cutsheet.shtml but instead of 8 xlr returns, have 4 xlr returns and 4 trs returns. that would be PERFECT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Coaster Posted June 2, 2010 Members Share Posted June 2, 2010 I'd like to get this: http://www.audiopile.net/products/Stagelink_snakes/PSPX-16-8/PSPX-16-8_cutsheet.shtml but instead of 8 xlr returns, have 4 xlr returns and 4 trs returns. that would be PERFECT thats the one i have, 150' version. the BOX has both XLR and TRS already on it. you could have the FAN end converted to TRS on some channels, or use adapter cables. but most eqs' have XLR outs, so your all set assuming your eqs are at FOH. p.s. no matter what you do, when you open up whatever snake you have be sure to discuss how to uncoil it on this forum. dont make the mistake i made and pull the brand new snake out of the coil i spent several hours untwisting it after that blunder. see the new snakes arent coiled, they are spooled. you have to unspool them before coiling them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ryan. Posted June 2, 2010 Author Members Share Posted June 2, 2010 DUH, you just saved me big time. I forgot I'll be going out of the EQs to the monitors so I don't need TRS. THANKS! Actually I posted a while back "new to snakes" and everyone game me really good tips on snake care so I'll be super careful with it. I think I'm going to take back my GC one and buy it from pile. SWEET! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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