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DIY Audio Snake

Audio snakes are a great tool for running a lot of cables from one room to another or from the stage into a mixer. They are ideal for applications where you need more than 50 feet of cable. When you make your audio snake, you can add as many inputs and outputs as you need, and only one ground cable is necessary. The audio snake eliminates the mess of tangled-up cables.

Things You'll Need

  • Soldering iron
  • Shielded microphone cable
  • XLR male and female connectors
  • Screwdriver
  • Colored electrical tape
  • Pocket knife
  • Metal ground
  • Ground wire
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Instructions

    • 1

      Decide how many connectors you want for your snake. The amount of connectors depends on the application for the snake.

    • 2

      Strip off the plastic cover on your microphone cable with your knife.

    • 3

      Unscrew the XLR connector from the XLR casing to reveal the three pins inside.

    • 4

      Put the XLR casing on the cable.

    • 5

      Strip the shield wire’s insulation to reveal the wire. This wire usually has blue insulation.

    • 6

      Solder the shield wire to pin 1 on the XLR connector.

    • 7

      Strip the wire with black insulation to reveal the wire. This is the negative wire. If it is not black, it is a darker color than the other two.

    • 8

      Solder the negative wire to pin 2.

    • 9

      Strip the red or white wire’s insulation to reveal the wire. This is the positive wire. If it is not red or white, it is lighter than the other two.

    • 10

      Solder the positive wire to pin 3.

    • 11

      Screw the XLR casing and XLR pins back together.

    • 12

      Repeat this for all of your cables on both ends. Be sure to put all female connectors on one end and all male connectors on the other.

    • 13

      Add a ground to cable 1 to reduce excess noise. Solder one end of the ground wire to pin 1 and the other end to a piece of metal.

    • 14

      Add an identifier to each cable so you know which cable is which on either end. Use different colored electric tape to mark each side of each cable.

    • 15

      Loosely wrap the entirety of the cable with black electric tape leaving at least six inches unwrapped on both ends. Don’t wrap it too tightly or the audio signals can get crossed.

    • 16

      Plug the cable into the mixer, and you're ready to play or record.

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