Drum Kit Mic Snake Organizing

ottog1979

ottog1979

Senior Member
I'm looking for a better (neater/less time consuming) solution to managing mic cords for my kit at live gigs. I close-mic my 4-piece kit, plus high-hat and one cymbal overhead. Also use one Aux cable back from the mixer to my personal IEM amp. So, that's 7 XLR cables to/from my kit. Currently I use seven cables of either 10 or 15 foot length to run each directly to the mixer which is usually nearby the kit on one side or the other depending on stage configuration. I don't always use that same length cable for each instrument - it depends on which side the mixer is on (shorter cables on the mixer side). Anyway, the cable setup and take-down/winding for each gig takes more time than I'd like and I'm looking for ways to simplify the cable set up and have less spaghetti around/behind my throne.

I'm thinking of a snake with cables of different lengths for the different instruments getting back to a center point, say behind my throne and then a length (10' or so) that could get to the mixer whether placed on either side. One cable to wrap up & put away (with different length ends) instead of 7 separate ones. An easy & cheap way to do this might be just to zip tie my current cables and then maybe some plastic cable loom (https://www.cabletiesandmore.com/bl...Y5CwXEq6acmFOOEkbZDTZiysa-gEh9ahoCfJoQAvD_BwE) where all the cables meet.

Alternatively, I could buy a snake and cut some of the outer protection off in order to separate the different cables going to each instrument (although they'd all be the same length).

Anyone else come up with a neat and convenient solution to cables for close-mic'ing of the kit? Ideas & pictures would be great!
 

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Kinda... (Our sound guy has a couple of those.) But, then you still need XLR cables from the box on that to each mic. I'm tired of winding 6-8 cables up each night. I'm looking to eliminate the box and send the snake ends to each mic. But, I need different length snake ends to get to different distances around the kit. Or am I not seeing this correctly?
 
ottog1979 said:
Kinda... (Our sound guy has a couple of those.) But, then you still need XLR cables from the box on that to each mic. I'm tired of winding 6-8 cables up each night. I'm looking to eliminate the box and send the snake ends to each mic. But, I need different length snake ends to get to different distances around the kit. Or am I not seeing this correctly?
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You’re not seeing this correctly. This is just how life is. You can get away with shorter XLRs to your mics. With the snake right in front of my kit, all my XLRs are 6’, with one 20’ to use on the overhead.
 
Pretty good idea. If it were me I'd go with a mesh or braided loom because that plastic stuff is more for permanent auto and trailer wiring and has issues with repeated flexing. I tried to post a link but this site blocked it as spam. I'll post a pic. Look for the stuff that is a tube and isn't open on one side like that plastic stuff.
I'd mark the cables with numbers or color code them, too. Both ends. Vinyl electrical tape is good stuff. The plain white marks well with a sharpie if you don't want to color code things.
Just my opinion. I've done similar things in the past with good success. You'll figure it out.
 

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ottog1979 said:
Kinda... (Our sound guy has a couple of those.) But, then you still need XLR cables from the box on that to each mic. I'm tired of winding 6-8 cables up each night. I'm looking to eliminate the box and send the snake ends to each mic. But, I need different length snake ends to get to different distances around the kit. Or am I not seeing this correctly?
Click to expand...

I travel with two snakes: one that’s homemade and the other box-type snakes. The one that is homemade was actually made for me at a gig by a former sound guy from ZZ Top.

Anyways, run your mics like you normally do with the cables, and label both ends either with a number. After everything is run and labeled, then you can tape the mic cables together wherever they hit this ground. This way, no taped cables are suspended anywhere. Once I ran the mics and taped them up, I then spooled up all of the extra cables together and left some slack. When I gig, I lay this under the floor tom. Then, I have my regular box snake I plug all of the ends into. I bought a 50-foot snake so the board doesn’t have to be beside me every night. I spool up any extra of the box snake behind the soundboard.

This has saved me a lot of time and energy. It’s worth carrying two snakes around.

In this pic, you can see the homemade snake spooled up near the floor tom and the box snake nearby. Hopefully this makes sense!

I’ve not added overheads to my snake because I don’t use them every gig. I just run those separately every time for now.

1705412882440.png

You can always eliminate the box snake, but you are going to need a handful of really long cables to make it all of the way to the soundboard.
 
Make your own custom snake. Buy a spool of installation mic cable and XLR connectors. Then string out each line to its appropriate length, bind the cable bundle to each point a mic line splits out from the bundle, solder the connectors, done! Then it's perfect and custom to exactly what you need.
 
rocker261 said:
Make your own custom snake. Buy a spool of installation mic cable and XLR connectors. Then string out each line to its appropriate length, bind the cable bundle to each point a mic line splits out from the bundle, solder the connectors, done! Then it's perfect and custom to exactly what you need.
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This is where I'm going. Thanks Rocker261 & PorkPieGuy.
 
FOLLOW UP: A couple months after use, I wanted to share what I did for a solution for my frustration with mic cables. It was an expensive route ($500), but could be cheaper depending on how much you wanted to do your self (soldering your own ends, etc.). I keep all my band earnings in a Venmo account which pays for my musical gear and consistent lessons so the money was there and the trigger was easy to pull after the wife said "isn't that what the money is for?" BOOM, I ordered.

From Pro Audio LA I ordered a custom made 25' snake with 10 cables. This covers everything I use connected to the mixer going in both directions. Not only my mic lines but also my return aux/IEM and sub split that pushes my butt kicker. So, in total, 5 drum mics, two overhead mics, a trigger/sample pad line, return aux IEM and return sub mix for buttkicker - all in one cable. Ten of the 25 feet is taken up by 2 feet of cat tails at the mixer end and the other 8 feet are taken up with splits tails at the drum kit end. For me 8 feet was just enough to get around to all the mics at the kit from a central point basically under my throne. That leaves 15 feet of cable length from my kit to wherever this mixer is which is plenty enough for 95% of the gigs we do.

Quickly, I found out that managing the collective 8-foot ends without a tangled mess could be a challenge. Pro Audio LA didn't recomment going longer than 6 feet with the split tails (which I now understood why), but after finding out I was using it for drum kit and needed to get around to evertyhing on the kit, they said "yeah, that makes sense." So I ended up using zip ties to split the cable into two sections of mic lines - one going from my throne to the right side of my kit (bass drum, floor tom, right overhead and sometimes right rack) and the other to my left (snare, left rack, left overhead, sample pad, IEM aux, sub/buttkicker aux). Then, I used about 4 more loosely applied zip ties that can slide up & down the two split groupings to keep things in order when either wrapped up or when I'm distributing & hooking up the mic ends on the kit. Lastly, I color coded and marked each end for easy hook up.

In short, I LOVE THIS THING. Gigging a lot, it's one of the best gear purchases I've made in terms of saving time, making things simple and neat. I hand the mixer end to my sound guy who plugs in all 10 lines in one stop. No single line-at-a-time routing & plugging mixed in with other intruments/musicians also handing him single lines. For me, I get the cattail split to my kit, slide the loose zip ties down on either side grouping of lines and just plug in. One cable to route behind amps, etc. to the mixer and just one to wind up at the end of the night. Love it.
 

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Looks like an elegant solution.

I didn't see this thread when it was started initially, but the way I did it, on the cheap, was like this... We use a stage box to connect all the mics on stage, with one ethernet cable feeding the mic box back to the mixer. So no mic cable runs longer than 25'-30' are necessary. I bought 25' cables for all my needs, the ones mic'ing the drums having right-angle connectors on them. I made two home made snakes, of four cables each, one to address each side of the kit. On one side I have a cable for kick, floor tom, middle rack tom, and my monitor feed. On the other side I have cables for my snare and high rack tom, an overhead and my vocal mic. I simply used zip ties every 12-14 inches or so, bundling them all together. I have each connector numbered on both ends, for the drums, and the others labelled accordingly. I do have two 12' right angle cables that I use to connect the snake to the overhead and vocal mics, their stands being up much higher and away from the kit.

Each of those snakes coil up easily, and store in a tote with the mic box. Just have to be careful of the trimmed zip tie connectors, so I learned quickly to not run the snake thru my hands as I was coiling it, but that was a simple adaptation.

If I come up with a need for an additional mic/cable, I can snip the zip ties and start over again. I've started running the break music from my position, so I should have another feed, but I haven't gotten inspired to remake the snake for just that one extra feed, yet. ;)
 
BruceW said:
I do have two 12' right angle cables that I use to connect the snake to the overhead and vocal mics, their stands being up much higher and away from the kit.
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I found a recent solution to "overhead" mic-ing too. (I don't use a vocal mic currently.) I hated dragging around mic stands for the overheads. The gangly things didn't fit in my stand case and had to be dealt with separately. At some point, it occurred to me that instead of "over" I could mic "under". So I bought two of these https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/GFWMIC0501--gator-frameworks-gfw-mic-0501-desktop-mic-stand and attached old bass-drum mic stand arms and mic cymbals from underneath. The stands easily fit in my gear case, two less separate things to carry & deal with, and a much neater/better look of the kit without ugly, cluttering, overhead stands hanging around. The things you figure out slowly over time!
 

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ottog1979 said:
I found a recent solution to "overhead" mic-ing too. (I don't use a vocal mic currently.) I hated dragging around mic stands for the overheads. The gangly things didn't fit in my stand case and had to be dealt with separately. At some point, it occurred to me that instead of "over" I could mic "under". So I bought two of these https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/GFWMIC0501--gator-frameworks-gfw-mic-0501-desktop-mic-stand and attached old bass-drum mic stand arms and mic cymbals from underneath. The stands easily fit in my gear case, two less separate things to carry & deal with, and a much neater/better look of the kit without ugly, cluttering, overhead stands hanging around. The things you figure out slowly over time!
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I'm quite certain that my bandleader would not be willing to attempt that, he being a sound engineer himself, and as such, there are things that we will be doing his way ;)
 
BruceW said:
being a sound engineer himself,
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Funny thing is, it was our sound guy who came up with the idea. Some of my stuff up top (the ribbon crasher mainly) was overpowering the overheads. I've played a well-known local venue which also hosts national acts that has cymbal mics similarly attached (underneath) to each cymbal stand. But there's no way I'm dealing with a mic per each cymbal. This was my easy short-cut. So far, working well.
 
Luv4drums said:
Less cheap is to get your own sub mix for your kit, then you just have two cables R/L to send to the main mixer instead of all your xlr's.
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It might work but then the sound guy can't control the mix.
Unless you get something like a Behringer XR18 with remote control.
 
ottog1979 said:
Cheapest wasn't the primary goal. I gig a lot and was sick to death of routing & winding 8-10 separate xlr cords every time.
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I said it would be less cheap.
eric_B said:
It might work but then the sound guy can't control the mix.
Unless you get something like a Behringer XR18 with remote control.
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Do you want some sound guy, you don't know, controlling your levels? Typically they are not part of the band. Unless you pay a sound guy to be a band member. Controlling your own levels is ideal, The front of the house can mix drums on two channels, with the band on their own channels. He or She will love the band for such an easy night. It will still take some communication in sound check if you do not trust yourself. But the sub mix can be set with headphones and turn out to be exactly what you want. Sound person still has master drum level control.

Or you can get a snake, I am surprised there isn't one already at the venue. But in cases there is not, a snake would solve the problem. If you use any midi devices, I strongly recommend my first option.
 
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