Suggestions on a snake for my studio?

Many studios are wired with snakes or even permanent in wall wiring with just a connector plate on the wall to plug into. 

As musician's friend is owned by Guitar Center, stop in and check out what is available at the local Guitar Center (looks like the Ft Myers GC is closest to you).

You may want to consider one that also has headphone jacks, too, if you have to string them from your board.

Hi Chuck,
 If you are really concerned about sound quality you can do several things.

 1) Order a snake that is not much longer than you need.

 2) Make sure the snake you get has good name brand connectors that fit and match your cable connectors well. 

 3) Make sure the mult cable has good shielding... for example a wire braid shield for the complete assembly and foil ribbon shield on each channel wire will be standard for good quality.
 
 4) Investigate the capacitance/foot rating of the mult cable and compare it to other choices.


 I don't use any of the snakes, that I own, in my place. I have a bundle of Canare Star quad cables running through a port in the wall and when the cables are unused they are coiled and stored right at the portal while  the connection is maintained in my rack in the other room.

 When I need an extra channel I select a cable by considering which preamp it's hooked up to and I lay it out.

 My drum kit is semi-permanently set up and the mics are set and wired up... so the extra cables are laid out for guitars, vocals, keys, etc.

 

 It seems impossible to avoid having some sort of cable mess... so I work at making the housekeeping aspect of it a bit easier by keeping it as neat and tidy as possible in between making messes.

 It doesn't seem like a snake actually helped me do that any better than the practice I follow now and so I have avoided having to worry about how my snakes' cables compare to top of the range audio cables such as I am using.

 For me the big break through was when I decided to dedicate a place to coil up and keep the cables, that aren't in use, in a neat and orderly collection where they are more or less immediately available. It provides all the convenience of the snake with none of the drawbacks.


 best regards,
mike

 

This is a popular, and seemingly accurate, description that explains when, why, and where it is useful to lift a shield connection:

http://www.rane.com/note110.html


best regards,
mike

Not all ground loops introduce audible hum.

That is why audio cables are commonly supplied with shields that are connected at both ends.

Not all will have a ground loop hum, but the potential is there for that.  The engineer I worked with is a retired senior Engineer from WSB-TV in Atlanta and an engineering consultant to NBC for the Atlanta Olympics.

Well my studio is only about 11' x 15' and it seems like the snakes are a minimum of 50' long. If the beast exists a 12 channel one at about 25' would be perfect for me.    Well I'll see what I can find... more digging to do.

mike_mccue


Not all ground loops introduce audible hum.

That is why audio cables are commonly supplied with shields that are connected at both ends.

I don't think I said that all cables with grounds connected at both ends would cause hum.  just for clarification.

Just a note: 
Mike cables use a heavy outer rubber coating because they get stomped on. The Beldon install cable is about the size of a telephone cable but actually can out perform a lot of standard mike cables. Foil is good stuff I guess. So If you can get your hands on a roll of this stuff, you can easily make your own custom snakes, Just keep it off the floor or protect it with a outer coating, that's all a snake is.  
Per lin. foot it's very inexpensive. 

I have a 100' Reel 16x4 thats nice and great connectors.  Love their craftsmanship

Heres some info on their short snakes

http://www.ewisound.com/pro/pro_11.html

Looks like good stuff Mike but I can't find their price lists?

Here is the USA Rep for them

http://www.audiopile.net/


Here is what your looking for in a 20 & 30'  

http://www.audiopile.net/products/Stagelink_snakes/PSX-12/PSX-12_cutsheet2.shtml

Thanks Mike, that looks great.

Eric, Nice set up man!

Nice looking setup Eric.

I love nice neat setup like that.

I understand Chucks setup as well which is about what Im running in a 16x20' room.  Cables can get to be a mess and a simple short snake will really clean things up while keeping it simple.


In our situation Id recommend a GOOD 30' snake to account for 2 different wall lengths and 1 corner to get the box somewhere around the center point for connections depending whats going on.  That way if it does get tripped over or yanked it wont get back to the main connections  

Nice looking setup Eric. I love nice neat setup like that.

Thanks! It was a labor of love ... :-) 


We had twins in the oven and we needed another bedroom, so the wife said, "Maybe you should convert the shop under the garage into a music space to free up a room?". She didn't fully understand what she'd put int motion as I moved at the speed of light to make it happen ... ;-) 

eric_peterson

Nice looking setup Eric. I love nice neat setup like that.

Thanks! It was a labor of love ... :-) 


We had twins in the oven and we needed another bedroom, so the wife said, "Maybe you should convert the shop under the garage into a music space to free up a room?". She didn't fully understand what she'd put int motion as I moved at the speed of light to make it happen ... ;-) 

NICE WORK!!!!!


Congrats on the twins too.


:-)