Members moody Posted June 9, 2007 Members Share Posted June 9, 2007 I'm consolidating my PA system at the moment as I'm going to be running it for the new covers band I'm in. I've been in this forum for a good long time now so I know most of the standard questions, but I rarely see discussion on how best to keep cabling neet on stage and what the best way about it is? I'm currently running 2 mains, 2 subs and 4 monitor wedges, all from side of stage where I have the amps and mixer etc. Mixer is 8 mono channels all of which are used (3 vox, 2 gtr, bass, kick, snare). The FOH is mono with subs and there are two monitor mixes each running two wedges. 3 wedges are across the front with one of the wedges daisy chained back to the drummer. Currently I have several very long speaker leads (30ish feet) and some of them at least are going to be made shorter since the amps are right next to some of the speakers. But how long do I need to make the lead to the other side of the stage? What's the widest stage I can expect? I'm also in the process of making mic leads, i don't have enough and i have a heap of cable that I inherited when an old band split up years ago. What lengths should I make them to be most useful without being ridiculous?? Should I look at getting a small snake say in front of the drums just to keep mic leads neat on stage or would that be overkill in my situation? None of this is exactly of life threatening importance but I'd like peoples opinions of what I should do before I start hacking up cables. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TimmyP Posted June 9, 2007 Members Share Posted June 9, 2007 As to mic cables, I've arrived at 40' as being a good length for everything but the kit. The extra stays coiled next to the mic stand, so no messes anywhere. (40' is hardly ever too short, and it is not as much of a nuisance as 50'.) Definitely get a drop snake for the kit - you are sure to add channels, and you can also run from the drop to the backline amps. (For best results you should sidewash your amps instead of pointing them out front). Just make up a selection of speaker cables in a few different lengths, so you are always ready for anything. (Hopefully all of your gear takes Speakons instead of 1/4".) I believe that most folks give the drummer a mix of his own, but if what you are doing works, don't fix it I guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members moody Posted June 9, 2007 Author Members Share Posted June 9, 2007 Just make up a selection of speaker cables in a few different lengths, so you are always ready for anything. (Hopefully all of your gear takes Speakons instead of 1/4".) I mentioned this a few weeks back, I'm in aus which seems to be speaker cable backwards land... Virtually all my speakers are XLR female, the two that aren't I'm considering making XLR female rather than speakon just because it would standardise what I have. (opinions). Of my amps, the two that I will be relying on have Speakon on one and binding post on the other. The two older (backup) amps are either binding post or XLR female. I know this may sound weird, but a few big aussie speaker and amp manufacturers were doing this for years and in my experience the majority of older aussie gear (which is what I have) is xlr. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members J. Posted June 10, 2007 Members Share Posted June 10, 2007 They did the same for a little while here in the States too. For a year or so in the early/mid 90's, a few companies were putting XLR jacks on their speakers. My church back home has a Carvin powered mixer and two Carvin 15/horn boxes from then. The package came with a set of XLR speaker cables (and naturally the speakers and the powered mixer have the corresponding jacks). Once Speakons starting getting big it was all over for the XLRs though. The 1/4" jack has been around far too long for it to disappear quietly into the night, however. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members boomerweps Posted June 10, 2007 Members Share Posted June 10, 2007 I strongly recommend you make up an I/O panel for your amp rack and run banana plugs to speakon (or the jack of your choice/convenience). Then swapping out amps doesn't change your speaker wiring. I only have a few same length speaker cables and most of those are shorty jumpers. The length needed partly depends on if you run the cables straight across the stage area or route them behind the stage. It's good to have a 50 & even a 75 footer in larger GA/cm diameter. We routinely use a 10 or 15 footer on one side and a 35 or 50 feet on the other, routing dependent. Boomerweps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members moody Posted June 10, 2007 Author Members Share Posted June 10, 2007 I strongly recommend you make up an I/O panel for your amp rack and run banana plugs to speakon (or the jack of your choice/convenience). Then swapping out amps doesn't change your speaker wiring. I'm actually looking at retrofitting all my amps with speakons. The peavey already has speakons, the zpe's are ancient so they shouldn't take much work to retrofit and the yamaha has stuffed binding posts and needs to have the speaker connections replaced anyway. As to cord lengths, people seem to be recommending longer lengths than I would have thought - maybe I will keep the really long lengths and just get more if I need them (for speakers I have several 30 foot lengths and 2 x 40foot and was considering two 30s's and the rest as 10 or 20, it seems I may be wrong). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BillESC Posted June 10, 2007 Members Share Posted June 10, 2007 The Patch Bay or I/O panel is an excellent idea. Going all Speakon would be my suggestion. A locking connector with excellent mechanical properties. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members boomerweps Posted June 10, 2007 Members Share Posted June 10, 2007 Another "joy" of speakons is that you can buy a locking cable connector and hook a couple speakon ended cables together to lengthen them. Of course the speakons snap in and lock but there is a additional sliding lock on the cable connector that locks it further on one side. Boomerweps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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