Drum Snake

J

Jeff Grocki

Freshman
Apr 3, 2011
24
0
1
Northeast, CT
Hey friends,
Always looking to build a better mouse trap. In that quest I have come to my practice of running the cables to the drum kit. Current practice is an 8x4 drop snake. Drummer has recently changed sets and added more inputs. The easy fix would be to change out the drop snake. However looking for ideas or solutions to remove the stage box and go right to xlr's. Thinking maybe just a custom breakout with snake skin or some such similar product. Not really a fan of the mic cables and tie wraps. So if any of you guys have tips on a nice solution that also saves time please share.

Thanks in Advance!
 
Re: Drum Snake

Jeff Grocki said:
Thinking maybe just a custom breakout with snake skin or some such similar product.
Click to expand...
Yup, that's common practice for a dedicated-to-one-band drum snake. Neater and faster than using a stagebox. You can make each breakout exactly how long you need. PITA when the drummer changes something though. BTW I've a 12x4x50 if you have any interest - I just "upgraded" to a 5x1x50 :)~:-)~:smile: . You can also re-connector your 8x4 as a 12x0 (or whatever) pretty easily.
 
Re: Drum Snake

I've always found a drum loom to be a PIA. I simply keep a set of cables with labels on each end. Works well for me since you can mic up the kit and toss the male end of the cable in the general area of the drop (or mixer if sidestage). Looms seem to find a way to get twisted and tangled.
 
Re: Drum Snake

Bingo. We have drum looms in every work box. The last time I used one was to hook up a playback rack, not drums. Unless you're building a loom for the same band, same drummer who will not be changing his kit frequently, it's better with single short cables and a drum sub-snake.
 
Re: Drum Snake

I have a few "universal" 8 channel drum looms that I made. They actually work quite well for 90% of the kits I come across. Overheads get their own cables, but the rest of the drumset really can't vary THAT much! Saves me from wrapping 8 cables at the end of the night, so I'll take it.

For the touring aspect- multipin fan is the best way to go!




Evan
 
Re: Drum Snake

Evan Kirkendall said:
I have a few "universal" 8 channel drum looms that I made. They actually work quite well for 90% of the kits I come across. Overheads get their own cables, but the rest of the drumset really can't vary THAT much! Saves me from wrapping 8 cables at the end of the night, so I'll take it.

For the touring aspect- multipin fan is the best way to go!




Evan
Click to expand...

I like looms but I am not sure drum specific ones are the way to go. I also tend to use them more for things like keyboards. Anyways a couple of 4 channel bundles with numbered ends meet my needs, but I am not sure I am really saving much time dressing the stage.
 
Re: Drum Snake

Hello

Gotham Cable used to have snake cable, that you could buy by meter/foot and it had individual color-coded cables inside outer sleeve. If you can find that, just peel off outer jacket for longest ( OH ?? ) lines and make the others shorter accordingly. If you are familiar with resistor-color-code, you don´t have to label anything - just plug in brown-red-orange-yellow-green-blue-violet-grey-white.

Of course - if the cables have to be black, then get something like this - Sommer Cable Quantum Highflex Multipair 8 - Thomann Suomi
With all black cable just get some clear markings on both ends.

But as Tim already mentioned - hopefully your drummer stays put in what he has - otherwise regular snake with short cables @ drums will be better.

Nuuska
 
Re: Drum Snake

Guys thanks for all the ideas and input thus far. I am in club land same drummer 90% of the time though he does vary his kit. Guess the sub snake is not horrible. Silas has a snake on the idea of what I am thinking such as the looms as you guys sharing I am gonna check out next time I am at his shop.
 
Re: Drum Snake

Jeff Grocki said:
Guys thanks for all the ideas and input thus far. I am in club land same drummer 90% of the time though he does vary his kit. Guess the sub snake is not horrible. Silas has a snake on the idea of what I am thinking such as the looms as you guys sharing I am gonna check out next time I am at his shop.
Click to expand...

For small shows I use an 8 channel fan to fan snake and add on XLRs as needed.

For large shows I drop a 10 or 12 channel stagebox at the drum riser and wire from there.

I don't have anything pre-wired since I do kits from 4-piece to around 10-piece, and everything in between.

Coiling ten 10' mic cables can be annoying, but that's what I pay guys for.

Jeff, I have an example of a snake with snakeskin, but not a drum fanout like you are thinking.
 
Re: Drum Snake

The problem with drum looms is the long, free ends get tangled (especially when they are uneven lengths). And you also have to read the labels on those free ends. So, especially for a drum loom of 8 or more cables, by the time you get it straightened out and sort thru the labels I can have that kit pinned with a subsnake and mic cables.

OTOH, the beauty of a drum loom is a quick strike to get an opener off stage during a changeover.

What we have is some 4 channel looms that are even lengths with plenty of fan to reach where they need to reach (OH's always get 10'+ jumpers anyway). It's easier to keep just 4 cables sorted this way. And excess cable can coil neatly just like it would if it were single lines hitting the toms. Then we just use whatever method makes the most sense depending on the gig. No law says every drum line has to be in one, large, unmanageable loom.
 
When I build drum snakes, they are usually tailored for a specific kit/drummer, but I also add in some future proofing (if there is space w/regards to channel counts).

Usually based on a 12ch or 16ch multipin, with a few of the lines that show up on both sides of the riser (for click/tracks/IEM), and use 5' (10' for OH) mic cables to do the actual patch.

The drum snake doesn't tangle, and the ends are always in the right spot.

On others people's looms, I usually go around and do a loop of obviously coloured ETape around the loose ends to where they exit and go within the loom, that way on the next day, you place it out, undo the loop (and discard), and everything is still nice and neatish.

BRad
 
Re: Drum Snake

Evan Kirkendall said:
I have a few "universal" 8 channel drum looms that I made. They actually work quite well for 90% of the kits I come across. Overheads get their own cables, but the rest of the drumset really can't vary THAT much! Saves me from wrapping 8 cables at the end of the night, so I'll take it.

For the touring aspect- multipin fan is the best way to go!






Evan
Click to expand...

what lengths are good generic lengths?
 
Re: Drum Snake

Evan Kirkendall said:
I have a few "universal" 8 channel drum looms that I made. They actually work quite well for 90% of the kits I come across. Overheads get their own cables, but the rest of the drumset really can't vary THAT much! Saves me from wrapping 8 cables at the end of the night, so I'll take it.
Click to expand...

Why is it that drummer #3 on a 5-band bill is always the one most likely to be left-handed?
 
Re: Drum Snake

Dave Barnett said:
Why is it that drummer #3 on a 5-band bill is always the one most likely to be left-handed?
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It CAN be worse.

The jazz group I work with not only is led by a left handed drummer but he sets up downstage right facing the rest of the band.

Festival stage crews HATE us :-( despite my sometime extreme efforts to warn them in advance. Promoters somehow don't think this is an important detail to share with the ground troops.
 

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Re: Drum Snake

Lee Brenkman said:
It CAN be worse.

The jazz group I work with not only is led by a left handed drummer but he sets up downstage right facing the rest of the band.

Festival stage crews HATE us :-( despite my sometime extreme efforts to warn them in advance. Promoters somehow don't think this is an important detail to share with the ground troops.
Click to expand...

At least it's just a jazz kit...
 
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