Snake question

[btb&dr=tone]

What would be the best snake for my Mackie 1640?

 

I am trying to understand the 16x4 or 16x8 thing here.

[MrJoshua]

Either 16x4 or 16x8 would work, depending on how many returns you need.

 

The first number, 16, tells you how many signals (microphones, DI boxes, etc) you can send from the stage to your mixer. The second number, 4 or 8 in this case, tells you how many signals you can send from your mixer back to the stage.

 

Why do you want to send signals back to the stage? Because that's where the speakers are located. By sending balanced signals from the mixer (L and R out, monitor mixes from your Aux sends, etc) you pick up less noise and suffer less signal loss than if you tried keeping the power amps by the mixer and running speaker cables for long stretches. It's better to use the snake returns to get your balanced signals back to the stage, then hook up the power amps at the side of the stage.

 

So your signal path is something like this:

 

Mic -> cable -> snake -> mixer -> mixer outputs -> snake -> cable -> power amp -> speaker cable -> speaker.

 

Of course you might have an EQ and/or a crossover or something in there, but that's the general idea.

 

So you just need to know how many returns you want. If you run four monitor mixes plus the mains and a subwoofer, you should probably go with the 16x8 snake. If you run one monitor mix and one mono signal for the mains, a 16x4 is plenty.

[btb&dr=tone]

I see the light now.