Studio Snake Question

kessel

kessel

The Dancin Outlaw
I am building some new isolation booths for my studio and to save some money I'm building my own snake. I am considering using some gepco 22 gauge single pair shielded cable to make the runs...it's cheaper than buying multipair cable. Anyway, my question is will mic level signal make it 150 feet without serious degradation? Thanks.
 
kessel said:
I am building some new isolation booths for my studio and to save some money I'm building my own snake. I am considering using some gepco 22 gauge single pair shielded cable to make the runs...it's cheaper than buying multipair cable. Anyway, my question is will mic level signal make it 150 feet without serious degradation? Thanks.
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Yes, but how is single cables cheaper than multi? How many cables are you running to each box? If it's four or more, I suspect your life would be much easier with multi. Remember you need headphone returns too.
 
I am running 8 mic lines plus 2 returns for headphones. I'm buying 1000 foot bulk. All the multpair cable I could find with prices on the net appeared to be more expensive...maybe I'm missing something. Another question just occured to me. Will the higher level of the headphone returns bleed over onto the mics?
 
No, especially if you are using shielded cable. How much did you pay for that gepco? Im thinking multipair would have been cheaper too...
 
kessel said:
I am running 8 mic lines plus 2 returns for headphones. I'm buying 1000 foot bulk. All the multpair cable I could find with prices on the net appeared to be more expensive...maybe I'm missing something. Another question just occured to me. Will the higher level of the headphone returns bleed over onto the mics?
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redco 16 channel snake cable is $3.14 /foot

redco single channel bulk is .31 /foot x 16channels is 3.16 /foot

snake's better. less hassle
 
I can get 1000 ft bulk reel of gepco from BSW for $125. That's 2000 feet for 250 bucks which is 13 150' runs. 150' of 16 channel snake cable at 3.16 a foot is 474. I've got no problem putting some zip ties on cable to bundle them.
 
kessel said:
I can get 1000 ft bulk reel of gepco from BSW for $125. That's 2000 feet for 250 bucks which is 13 150' runs. 150' of 16 channel snake cable at 3.16 a foot is 474. I've got no problem putting some zip ties on cable to bundle them.
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cool! sounds like a good deal.
 
kessel said:
I can get 1000 ft bulk reel of gepco from BSW for $125. That's 2000 feet for 250 bucks which is 13 150' runs. 150' of 16 channel snake cable at 3.16 a foot is 474. I've got no problem putting some zip ties on cable to bundle them.
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Make sure you know what you are getting. Gepco and Belden both make an install mic cable that is very inexpensive. It has a thin PVC or PE jacket that does not coil well, and will kink and tear very easily. Even putting an XLR connector on it is likely to tear the jacket, if you can actually get it tight enough to grab. It's meant to go inside a wall and stay there.
 
brendandwyer said:
redco 16 channel snake cable is $3.14 /foot

redco single channel bulk is .31 /foot x 16channels is 3.16 /foot

snake's better. less hassle
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Ummm, maybe I'm crazy, but .31x16= $4.96 - but hey, I'm old school, I don't understand the "new math". :D
 
boingoman said:
Make sure you know what you are getting. Gepco and Belden both make an install mic cable that is very inexpensive. It has a thin PVC or PE jacket that does not coil well, and will kink and tear very easily. Even putting an XLR connector on it is likely to tear the jacket, if you can actually get it tight enough to grab. It's meant to go inside a wall and stay there.
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i tend to agree here. The gepco i looked at didn't really stand up to even the lower end redco cabling.

I just bought 200' of the redco TGS mic cable. It's rugged, but the outer jacket is pliable so it's easy to coil and won't get "flumpy" (no it's not a word).

I also bought 30' of 24 channel redco TGS snake cable to wire my inserts and the shit is TOUGH. i'm very happy with the purchase. With the price of copper these days, i wonder about any mic cable at $125 for 1000lf. But, yeah seeing the specs would definately help.
 
I should note that this snake is for install purposes. The jacket on the cable is of no concern. However, I agree, if the cable isn't going to be installed the jacket is very important.
 
kessel said:
I should note that this snake is for install purposes. The jacket on the cable is of no concern. However, I agree, if the cable isn't going to be installed the jacket is very important.
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FWIW, my in-wall snake was made with Belden 8451 installer cable. It's very flexible and I've never see it split or anything. However, its ultra-thin nature makes it a bit too flexible for heavy use as a single cable---you could kink it (with a lot of effort) if you use it singly---but in a bundle, it would probably be okay.

It's about $130 for 1000 feet, and it's probably a good choice for you because you can at least use the extra wire for making cables for light duty use, unlike a hard plastic coated installer cable.

BTW, PVC != brittle. I suspect that nearly every wire or cable manufactured in the last several decades is PVC coated, as are most garden hoses, etc.
 
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