snake question

W

Walter Tore

New member
My detached 2 car garage which is being converted to a recording studio is scheduled to be completed this week. I am wanting to run my mic cables to a snake box (because I am not running cables into the walls) then to my preamps, and from them to my delta 1010 soundcard. I have standard 20' mic cables and some will not reach the preamps in my new set up, thus the need of some sort of snake. I will also be doing live gigs out in the yard in warm weather and will have to run the mic cables into the studio. I am totally ignorant on if your basic stage snakes are a good idea (signal wise) for recording situations. If so, what ones are the best bang for the buck? I will be recording 4-8 tracks at once. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks. Walter
 
Some state that they are for Stage/Studio use. I had one. I used it only for recording and don't believe that my recording suffered from it.

It was ProCo brand. I think. I sold it in a Guitar Center parking lot...after hours of course. ;)
 
If the connections are good at both ends...it will be OK...it's a balanced line, and they can go long distances without real issues, but I would suggest just getting some additional/shorter individual mic cables and use them for extensions only where needed, rather than running some signals 20'....and others 100' (or whatever length the snake is).
I personally wouldn't want that much a of a mismatch from mic to mic signal.

Plus, with audio signals, shorter paths are always the better way to go.
 
We've used snakes in recording with fine results, no worries.

The most common snake is a 16X4 (16 "sends" or signals from stage/studio to the board- usually mic or instrument signals, and 4 "returns" or signals from board to stage/studio- usually speakers.) The most common length is about 100 feet.

You may be tempted to buy a 8/2, but give it good thought. A 16/4 gives yo expandability, which will probably come in handy soon. If you DO buy an 8/2, even when you find you "need" and buy a bigger snake, the 8/2 will be handy for things like sub-mixing the drums, or such. If you KNOW you will NEVER record in more than eight tracks, and will never stage anything that requires more than 8 channels/mono FOH and one monitor channel, the 8/2 will last you years.

100 feet of thicker-than-your-thumb cable is a PITA to coil and store when your board is less than 100 feet from your studio or stage, but good cable stretchers are impossible to find.

Cost wise, you will be spending far less money just buying enough XLR cables to extend your mics/etc. the distance. XLR is reported to be able to run 200 feet without problems. That said, I love my snakes, and can't imagine being with them (all three- the two I use on stage and the one I keep in my pants...)
 
thanks for all the responses! I actually record with 4 tracks and was thinking 8 to accomodate when I ocassionally play with a real drummer instead of my 1 man band setup. I didn't realize that mic cables go so far without ruining the signal. I will need about 40 feet total lenght and will definetly look into just buying longer cables. Walter
 
Are you looking for a snake with a box on one end or just the XLR's on both ends?

The reason I ask is becasue in my opinion...the box on the recieveing end SUCKS! That is why even my 25' snake I sold was such a pain in the rear to store. Though it looks like the Ghost Busters ghost trap from a far. Which is nice, but a pain to roll up and store. Plus you have people walking around them kicking the cables and such. "Come on Bro your are going to kill channel 3 if you keep doing that!".

So the next snake I get is going to just have the XLR's on both ends. And be 50'. Which will still probably be a pain to roll up and store, but less of one. I hope.

-end snake rant-
 
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