revisiting vdrum snake design

[mudyax]

Vdrummers,

I've searched out the threads to this effect, but cannot seem to find what I need. I'm guessing it may be a keyword issue. At any rate, sometime back, a vdrummer was gracious enough to send me some pics of a snake he built for his vdrums. Unfortunately, I lost the pics and the email and, worse, forgot the gentlemen's name. It was a nice design using braided sheathing to contain the cables. I would like to reproduce it. If you're out there, could you help me out? And while I have you all here, I would love to hear more about all of your custom vdrum snake designs. I cannot deal with juggling 14+ cables each setup/breakdown any longer. Thanks a bunch! And my apologies if this is somewhat redundant.

[This message has been edited by mudyax (edited June 10, 2002).]

[This message has been edited by mudyax (edited June 10, 2002).]

[clymore]

I thought that is what all those neat velcro tie wraps are for. I have all my cables bundled and attached to the rack as organized as possible. They are always exactly where they need to be and hardly noticeable. I hate having cables draped everywhere on the rack.

[jayafisher]

A few years ago I bought a car stereo and it came with this spiral cut tubing to be used for wire/cable management. I wonder where you might be able to buy that type of thing in bulk. It seems like that would work pretty well.

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>>-FiSh*>

[mudyax]

Thanks guys,

Yea clymore....I like the neatness concept too. And, like you, have tried to neatly fix my cables to the rack. But, invariably, given different gigging/rehearsal/transportation environments, I usually end up having to strip the rack down and I am back where I started. Some have reported fixing all their cables to the kit and leaving enough slack so that the rack can be folded up/broken down without moving the cables. An interesting proposition. Seems that one unifying snake with the appropriate feeds for the different length cables required for the kit would be the way to go....nice and manageable....unplug/plug and go.

Currently, I have all of the cables of the same length bundled using velcro straps. It works ok, but I still have cable dangling all over the kit and it just does't look very professional....and it adds a lot of time to setup/breakdown. It also leads to tangling on the pad-end of the cables where you cannot really bundle them that closely.

So, given my trials and tribulations, I figured I would take to the vdrum community (as I often do) and get a feel for what was working for others. I have considered using a piece of that black plastic sheathing that you can buy at your local hardware store...and I actually bought a piece of it. But, even it has it's problems when you get into feeding different length cables out to the various triggers mounted along the rack. And it's kinda bulky too.

The guy who posted in response to my earlier question (way back when) on this sent me some great pics of his snake made of flexible (what looked like) polyethylene (or similar flexible polymer) sheathing like you might find at an electronics wholesaler...but, again, I lost the pics and his name. The idea seemed great though, because you could easily thread the cable ends through the sheathing at intervals to your liking. And the snake was so darned compact and flexible.

So, keep those ideas coming! Thanks again guys!

[This message has been edited by mudyax (edited June 10, 2002).]

[Rythmstik]

I have the V-Club with an additional dual zone Pintech SE102 DZ for ride and crash, and two additonal homebrew pads for a woodblock and cowbell or whatever additiona effects I want. I keep the cables attached to the rack with cable ties, with all the slack at the end where the TD-6 is. I have all the excess wrapped in a cable tie and I tuck it under the TD-6 after I set up. I marked the inputs on the TD-6 with different color dots, and also marked the corresponding cable tips with the same color dots (I use paint markers). The cables stay in place when I break down the rack, and set up is a breeze, even in poorly lighted stage conditions.

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[mudyax]

Sounds very cool Rythmstik. This sounds like a very economical solution too. And you say you have no problems breaking the rack down with the cables attached?

At the risk of asking too much of a fellow vdrummer....you wouldn't have any pics of your rig you could post (or beam to me directly), would you? Even if you don't, thanks for sharing your experience with me. Very helpful.

[Arriguy]

Muddy,
I sent you the pictures before. What specifically did you want to know about it?

[mudyax]

Arriguy, there you are! Sorry man....all the names and data and stuff that fly around on here, I simply could not remember! My bad. Hey, thanks for chiming in.

Basically, of all the ideas to date on this subject, yours stuck out in my mind as being the most practical. Thus, I wanted to explore the idea a bit further. The pics you sent me showed the material and what looked like cables you had threaded through the sheath. If you still have those pics around, I'd love to see them again.

Also, at the time, I don't recall whether or not you had any intel on where you got the sheathing from. That would be quite helpful. Otherwise, a good description of the material etc. will do nicely. Hey, thanks again man! Sorry to be a pain. Computers....solving all the problems we never had before we got them

[Rythmstik]

Originally posted by mudyax:
Sounds very cool Rythmstik. This sounds like a very economical solution too. And you say you have no problems breaking the rack down with the cables attached?

At the risk of asking too much of a fellow vdrummer....you wouldn't have any pics of your rig you could post (or beam to me directly), would you? Even if you don't, thanks for sharing your experience with me. Very helpful.

I've had no problems leaving the cables on the rack, and I move the set around a lot between gigs and rehearsals. I don't really have any shots of the kit, though I guess I should take some. Maybe 2nite, before I break the kit down for rehearsals...



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[mudyax]

Rythmstik,

That would be great! I'd love to see how you have the cables configured. All things considered, leaving the cables attached to the kit could be quite adventageous for a number of reasons. Thanks again!

[Arriguy]

Mudy,
I no longer have the pictures. I got a new computer recently and I didn't save them. The product is made by a company called Coleflex, as far as I remember it's just called flexible tubing. I got it at a store here in Atlanta called ACK Radio. You can probably find it at any electronics supply house. Not Radio Shack. Some place that supplies repair houses and engineering types. Good luck.
Paul

[GRRAVEE]

electrical suppliers,alarm suppliers,they all have cable management systems in all kinds of colors.like for prewiring homes...or home audio solutions.it's out there.keep looking you will find it.

[Billonakona]

Hi Guys

Another solution.....

Buy a premade 8 / 12 / 16 way Jack-to-Jack loom (whichever), strip away a good proportion of the outer covering at one end to make the tails longer, trim each tail to the appropriate length to reach your pads and re-solder new jacks at the appropriate points.

The other end should be okay as your only going into your rack unit, brain etc.

I haven't tried this on my e-drums but have on my studio racks where the desk end of the multi-core is okay, but the racks are quite large and widely spaced so have had to trim and tail the cables accordingly.

Same thing in theory.

[clymore]

On one of my drum sets I have a HOSA CSS802 8 way multi-color stereo snake tie-wrapped to the rack. I have enough slack at the ends to allow folding the rack. Some of the cables had to double back, since I didn't shorten them to each location. It still looks a lot neater than 8 individual cables bundled together.

This drum set is at the music store where I teach. The owner insisted it look neat.

[Rythmstik]

Originally posted by mudyax:
At the risk of asking too much of a fellow vdrummer....you wouldn't have any pics of your rig you could post (or beam to me directly), would you? Even if you don't, thanks for sharing your experience with me. Very helpful.

I Emailed you a couple of shots, today...


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