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[Mike Santarelli]

Depending on cost you may be best grabbing a whirlwind drum drop. They make a standard and multi-pin version.

It has become one of the best pieces of gear I’ve purchased.  I can do the whole drum set and usually backline off of it.

http://whirlwindusa.com/catalog/snakes-splitters-and-multiwiring-systems/snakes/drumdrop

The 25ft wired version starts at a little over $400 and will give you 8 tails with an additional 4 inputs on the box.

Mine has greatly reduced setup and tear down times. I can’t recommend them enough.

[Tom Roche]

I agree that those proposed lengths are LONG!

I bought a fully functional, used drum loom that has each channel labeled.  It didn't take long before I switched to using a 25' stage snake and short 10' and 15' XLR cables.  I no longer use the loom and can make available at a nominal cost if you're interested.

[Bob Cap]

We have pretty much standardized our stage setup with sub snakes.

3 - 8 channel subs across the back. Stage Right, Center Stage and Stage Left

1 - 8 channel sub downstage center.

Plenty of inputs and quick setup and changeover.

Bob Cap
Advanced Audio Inc.
Gilbert, MN

[Matt Vivlamore]

I went long on the lengths because I don't know where the drop snake/stage box/mixer will be positioned at every show.

[Jay Barracato]

I went long on the lengths because I don't know where the drop snake/stage box/mixer will be positioned at every show.

Hey Matt,

My compromise to have some flexibility is to use 3 cables looms. They leave me a lot of flexibility for changing kits/setup, but cut roll-up time by 1/3.

Usually 1 loom handles kick in, kick out overhead, a second loom handles snare, hat, pad, and a third loom handles Tom, Tom , Tom.

For a really large kit , I can add a 4th loom

3 cable looms are also handy for each side of the backline.

[Mike Monte]

I’m wanting to build a drum loom that plugs into a stage box that sits next to/near the drums.  I'm gonna bundle a few XLR cables together.

Instruments:
Kick - 25’
Snare - 25’
High-hat - 35’
Rack Tom 1 – 25’
Rack Tom 2 - 25’
Floor Tom - 40’
Overhead (single, floor tom side) - 50’


What are your thoughts?

In my local shows I use a 25' x 8 channel drop snake for drums; kick, snare, tom (x3), Hat, OH, and one for vocals if needed.  I set it near the kit and use short cables to wire.   It makes for a neat stage.

FWIW: I have a 5 channel (labeled A through E) home-made "loam" that lives on a reel.  The lengths are: 60, 50, 40, 30, 20, 10 feet.  I leave my digi mixer (it had been the snake stagebox until I went digi a few years ago) on the corner of stage and unroll the loam across the front of the stage for mostly vocals - easy & neat.

I have used my A-E loam on nearly every band gig that I have tech'd since I put it together 10+ years ago.

[Tim Weaver]

I like using multi core cable for this. I have a couple of 3 channel snakes right now, but if I were to build one today I would do 2 four-channel snakes. Make the female end about a 4 or 5 foot fanout.

The Hat side could be:
Kick 1
Kick 2
Snare
Hat

Then the Ride side could be
Tom 1
Tom 2
Tom 3
Ride or Tom 4 or Click or whatever

Both snakes can be run to the rear meaning no cables cross in front of the drums. I feel like 25 feet is plenty long for drum snakes. I'm usually fine with 15 feet or so.

[Matt Greiner]

I like using multi core cable for this. I have a couple of 3 channel snakes right now, but if I were to build one today I would do 2 four-channel snakes. Make the female end about a 4 or 5 foot fanout.

The Hat side could be:
Kick 1
Kick 2
Snare
Hat

Then the Ride side could be
Tom 1
Tom 2
Tom 3
Ride or Tom 4 or Click or whatever

Both snakes can be run to the rear meaning no cables cross in front of the drums. I feel like 25 feet is plenty long for drum snakes. I'm usually fine with 15 feet or so.

I do something very similar, except I use 8 channel subsnakes per side.

Kick in
Kick out
Tom 1
HH
OH
Drummer VOX
Drum Aux/DI/Spare
SL guitar/Bass

Tom 2
Tom 3
Tom 4
Ride
OH
SR guitar/Bass
Aux/Spare
Aux/Spare

I just have extra backline channels available.  On a larger stage this may not work, but almost all the shows I do are on stages that are not very wide (32' or less) so everything is pretty close together.

[John Schalk]

The band I work for uses a Whirlwind 12 channel mini sub-snake to the drum riser, and then a custom loom for the drum kit.  Obviously, the custom loom part works for us because we are using one of two kits always.  We recently made a new loom with brand new, and fairly short, mic cables.  It's much easier to work with than the old loom and the short lengths are a big part of that.  Simply a lot less time spent untangling the coil.  So if you do build a drum loom out of separate mic cables, I would keep them as short as possible.  There are 9 drum mic channels, and the 3 other lines in the sub-snake are for SR guitars and the drummer's yack back for the In Ears.

[Steve Litcher]

Depending on cost you may be best grabbing a whirlwind drum drop. They make a standard and multi-pin version.

It has become one of the best pieces of gear I’ve purchased.  I can do the whole drum set and usually backline off of it.

http://whirlwindusa.com/catalog/snakes-splitters-and-multiwiring-systems/snakes/drumdrop

The 25ft wired version starts at a little over $400 and will give you 8 tails with an additional 4 inputs on the box.

Mine has greatly reduced setup and tear down times. I can’t recommend them enough.

This.

The Whirlwind Drum Drop was/is a life saver. The fan outs are all wrapped in tech-flex, so no binding of cables. Everything is clearly numbered, and the stage box (which has 4 additional inputs) can be easily tucked near the kit. Whirlwind has several lengths of cable trunk (back to the stage box/mixer), so you can manage excess cable easily, and it doesn't matter where the stage box may be.

I've built my own looms in the past, but never again. The Drum Drop is/was money well spent.

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