Audio Snakes

April 13, 2024

Over the last month or so I built two audio snakes which will perfectly pair with the mixer I will eventually be upgrading to.

These snakes will dramatically reduce the number of cables on the floor by routing dozens of cables through a single multi-core line.

I used all Neutrik NJ3FP6C, NC3FD-L-B-1 and NC3MD-L-B-1 panel connectors with gold plated contacts.

After much spreadsheeting and drawing, I decided to label the connectors in alternating groups of 4.

One snake is 25 ft, the other 35 ft, which will run nicely between a mixer in the corner to each side of the drums.

To save money, I bought a used 100ft 24+4 channel snake and used the cable to create two shorter snakes.

There were 168 individual contacts in each box, each of which had to be tested carefully for continuity.

I then use a label maker with special heat-shrink label tape and clear heat shrink tubing to add labels to each connector.

I used Techflex on the multicore cable and individual lines and colored boots to match the label colors on each box.

Right now I still have a much smaller mixer, but was still able to start using the snakes.

My current mixer is has only 16 channels, so I am using an A/B/Y switch to put 2 mics on one channel.

For now I’m using the aux channels for headphone sends.

These boxes use locking TRS jacks, which should be much more common than they are.

The fan-outs have strain-reliefs on them, ensuring the cables and the mixer don’t get damaged from gravity or someone tripping over the cable.

Strain reliefs are very affordable, but unfortunately not very commonly used.

I still have some unbalanced cables running between the amps and pedalboards, but overall there are dramatically fewer wires on the floor.

Unbalanced high impedance guitar cables are far more susceptible to interference.

Also, having the mixer off in the corner makes much more space around the drums, although now I have to walk over there to make adjustments of course.

Thankfully the keyboard had balanced outputs, so no DI box was needed.

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