Splitter snake trunk length advice needed

[warlockII]

I'm looking to buy a splitter snake for when my band is having a soundman run our sound with their board. Typically we use our X32 for both FOH and our IEM's, but occasionally play on other peoples' rigs. My thought is to keep the splitter snake permanantly mounted in the rack with our X32 and attached with a short trunk. How long does the other trunk (leg what ever you want to call it) to attach to the house system? I'm thinking 10' should be more than long enough, but is there a reason to carry the extra weight/space of a longer run?
Thanks as always!!!

 

[NeverTooManyGuitars]

Really depends on where your X32 is going to be at those gigs. I'd always consider a plugin card for your X32, e.g. I use a Dante card in my M32 to network my studio and live gear.

But if the venue has Midas or Behringer gear having a 100ft Cat5 STP (must be shielded twisted pair) can link via AES 50 that's built-in to your X32.
Or you might consider a Cat5 STP cable and a Behringer stage box to feed the Alternative FOH. This would also give you flexibility for where you setup the X32...

My days of wrestling with a 16x8 50 to 100ft snake are hopefully a thing of the past... so a strong preference for the digital snakes and then hauling a 100ft cable is nothing.

Edit: If you do want to stay analog with the snake, you might consider the D'Addario Modular snake gear which seems pretty reasonable and would make longer runs easier with lighter than the usual cables.
Cheers
Robin

 

[warlockII]

Unfortunately the places we've not used our PA haven't run an X32 variant. Additionally, the bummer of the digital snake is that you don't have independent control of the input volume...if the FOH person changes the input gain for some reason during the gig, it will change your mix.
I would hope I'd be able to place the rack near the FOH snake, but am trying to come up with a solution that would allow for most any situation that would come up. I'm leaning heavily towards 2 ART S8 units since they have the built in transformers, etc.

 

[NeverTooManyGuitars]

Got it.
I was suggesting the stage box in reverse e.g. providing the FOH feeds via the stage box from your X32, although as I think of it, if I were the FOH engineer I'd prefer the splitting via the ART S8's. FWIW I like the ART gear I've used, tho I've never used the S8's.

 

[unix-guy]

We use 15' with 2 ART S8 splitters.

Although we need more channels now and I'm thinking about grabbing the Seismic Audio with built-in trunks of 5' and 30'.

15' doesn't really go that far so depending where you are with the rack onstage could be a problem. Of course, a good stage setup probably has a long drop snake box or two anyway.

 

[warlockII]

We use 15' with 2 ART S8 splitters.

Although we need more channels now and I'm thinking about grabbing the Seismic Audio with built-in trunks of 5' and 30'.

15' doesn't really go that far so depending where you are with the rack onstage could be a problem. Of course, a good stage setup probably has a long drop snake box or two anyway.

Please let me know if you decide to part with the ART units

 

[unix-guy]

Please let me know if you decide to part with the ART units

Will do.

 

[warlockII]

I know there are lot of people running IEM's...anyone else with recommendations on the length of their splitter snake or what length they wish they went with?

 

[Vhalen50]

My group uses a BTPA multi pin splitter. 3' internal and a 15' multi pin trunk with a 16ch fan tail. I honestly wish we went 25' at least. Mainly that our drummer uses a custom 12ch snake that i reversed the direction of 3 cables to put sends on, and that limits how far our x32 rack can be. I carry a 25' 16ch fan tail snake just incase we have to extend further.

We previously used the seismic, and its great, but the shows you dont use the FOH Y split, its a large trunk of cable you have to carry and make room for. The benefit of multi pin, it can stay stored until you need it, making the main rack lighter. Buuuut then you run the risk of some goon not lining up the pins and breaking that.

 

[unix-guy]

My group uses a BTPA multi pin splitter. 3' internal and a 15' multi pin trunk with a 16ch fan tail. I honestly wish we went 25' at least. Mainly that our drummer uses a custom 12ch snake that i reversed the direction of 3 cables to put sends on, and that limits how far our x32 rack can be. I carry a 25' 16ch fan tail snake just incase we have to extend further.

We previously used the seismic, and its great, but the shows you dont use the FOH Y split, its a large trunk of cable you have to carry and make room for. The benefit of multi pin, it can stay stored until you need it, making the main rack lighter. Buuuut then you run the risk of some goon not lining up the pins and breaking that.

You have a link for that? I'd like to investigate that option.

 

[Vhalen50]

You have a link for that? I'd like to investigate that option.

This is their site. However ill warn you, its not cheap at all. Consider about 5x the cost of a seismic counterpart. But its all hand wired and custom built to your needs. For us it helped greatly because I got our entire PA rack (X32, 4 PSM300's, Combiner, Snake splitter, patch panel, power iso, router) all into a 6 space rolling rack. Previously if we did plug and play/fly date type deals we had to sacrifice someone trying to get a 16 space rolling rack into their car, or truck bed.

 

[unix-guy]

This is their site. However ill warn you, its not cheap at all. Consider about 5x the cost of a seismic counterpart. But its all hand wired and custom built to your needs. For us it helped greatly because I got our entire PA rack (X32, 4 PSM300's, Combiner, Snake splitter, patch panel, power iso, router) all into a 6 space rolling rack. Previously if we did plug and play/fly date type deals we had to sacrifice someone trying to get a 16 space rolling rack into their car, or truck bed.

Thanks...

If you wouldn't mind posting some pics when you have time, I would love to see what your rig looks like.

We've got a very similar situation with a big rolling rack with a DL32R, 4x Audio Technica works wireless units for IEM, headphone amp for drummer (and options for others) plus 2 ART S8 splitters and a wireless mic receiver.

To make matters worse, we rehearse upstairs at my house and moving that beast up and down 1 1/2 flights of stairs is a pain!

 

[Vhalen50]

Thanks...

If you wouldn't mind posting some pics when you have time, I would love to see what your rig looks like.

We've got a very similar situation with a big rolling rack with a DL32R, 4x Audio Technica works wireless units for IEM, headphone amp for drummer (and options for others) plus 2 ART S8 splitters and a wireless mic receiver.

To make matters worse, we rehearse upstairs at my house and moving that beast up and down 1 1/2 flights of stairs is a pain!

Sure. These are all I have on me currently as our rack lives in a trailer. But I can get you others if you have questions.

Inside I have a airport express tied into a small 4 port network switch because the x32 doesn’t like to be directly connected to the AP. Patch panel on the back I did myself and are to serve our PA tops and bottoms and then 3 sends to my drummer. (Stereo ears and a porter davies throne). I store the powercon and 16ch multi pin whip in the lid.

It’s nice to be compact but troubleshooting sucks because of how cramped everything is inside. But it beats a heavy road case.

 

[unix-guy]

Sure. These are all I have on me currently as our rack lives in a trailer. But I can get you others if you have questions.

Inside I have a airport express tied into a small 4 port network switch because the x32 doesn’t like to be directly connected to the AP. Patch panel on the back I did myself and are to serve our PA tops and bottoms and then 3 sends to my drummer. (Stereo ears and a porter davies throne). I store the powercon and 16ch multi pin whip in the lid.

It’s nice to be compact but troubleshooting sucks because of how cramped everything is inside. But it beats a heavy road case.

Perfect - that multi-pin connector then attaches to a 16-channel box for FOH?

One down side to the DL32R in this type of setup is all the connections are on the front, so I have to route cables from the back thru the front via an empty rack space.

But I guess I could mount it in on the back rail.

This gives me some stuff to think about

 

[Vhalen50]

Perfect - that multi-pin connector then attaches to a 16-channel box for FOH?

One down side to the DL32R in this type of setup is all the connections are on the front, so I have to route cables from the back thru the front via an empty rack space.

But I guess I could mount it in on the back rail.

This gives me some stuff to think about

Correct. The multi pin is only connected and used when we need to send an isolate split to FOH. I have 2 stage snakes. one 12ch to the drum riser which gets pinned directly into our rack. Then a front snake we use unless they already have one up front or its an extra large stage. But everything gets pinned to us first, and then I hand the guy a stage plot. They can add extras to the drumkit if they want, but rarely do.

 

[Moke]

The last few times doing bigger shows, we use our stereo Mains and 3 front monitor wedge mixes from our XR-18. The drummer (wearing headphones) gets his directly from our mixer. FOH can EQ the stereo main mix to fit the room, kind of like playing pre-recoded music, as well as make any suggestions during soundcheck. Our three monitor sends get routed to the existing house wedges and their existing feedback EQ.

Worked like a charm. Our situation is a little different since everything is direct. Guitar, bass, electronic drums, backing tracks, etc...

FOH was not into the idea at first (I completely understand), as it could have been a train wreck if the mix was bad.

 

[Tom Morris]

I have the Seismic audio 16 channel 15"x30" rack mount version that I made a box for. Has worked out real well thus far aside from having another box to carry around. Reel out how much cable you need and the rest stays in the box upright. Last group I was in the bass player owned and ran the pa but had no monitors so I bought an XR18 and the split snake so I could mix what i wanted to hear in a single TurboSound column speaker. Nice sound small footprint. But the intention with the split snake and XR18 was going forward to the next group with all in ears and no live amps. I have 5 P-16 personal monitor mixers for the group. Still a work in progress but coming along.