Musician`s Friend, September 2008

As Seen in Musician's Friend, September 2008
Product Spotlight
Planet Waves Modular Snake
The snake that re-grows its heads when you need it to
Darius Van Rhuehl, Musician’s Friend Staff Writer
I
hate wires. I dream of a wireless studio. You see, I’ve dealt
with more than my fair share of studio-spaghetti—and without the complementary jar of Ragu—as has anyone who’s
ever built a studio. Oh, and I’m not a big fan of soldering either.
Burnt fingers aside, to solder properly, you must be born with
three hands minimum, and nothing is more frustrating than
trying to find a cold solder joint somewhere in the midst of a
96-point patchbay. Why am I ranting? I’m moving my studio
and bought some new gear to add to it. Soon I’ll be in wire
straits and I’m hoping the Planet Waves Modular Snake will
deliver me from the wiry pits of hell.
Open the patchbay doors Hal . . .
Coincidently, just prior to my move, the task of reviewing Planet
Waves’ modular snakes was being passed around the Musician’s
Friend staff writer’s meeting room. No slam against wires in
general, but they’re really not that much fun to review. I mean,
what can you possibly say about a cable? “I plugged that puppy
in, and sure enough, it stayed plugged in.” But I volunteered
anyway. No, not taking one for the team, my motives were
purely selfish. The Modular Snake looks like a perfect solution
to spaghetti madness—and I needed to find out.
Looking at the core cables for the Modular Snake provided
an immediate epiphany. It was a vision of Bill Putnam Sr., Mr.
Rupert Neve, and Yoda (how’d he get in there?) hovering over
my console saying, “D-Sub patchbay, my boy, D-Sub patchbay”—
simplicity itself with the Modular Snake Core cables. The core
cables come in three sizes, 5', 10', and 25,’ and have male D-Sub
connectors at both ends. They’re also very well constructed and
feature a modern-looking connector with gold-plated AmphenolTM pins. To build your custom snake, Planet Waves offers four
breakout cables; 8 x TRS, 8 x XLR male, 8 x XLR female, and a
4 x stereo AES/EBU (4 XLRF/4 XLRM). The breakouts fit snugly
and have hand-screws to lock them in place.
Done in 60 seconds
The system I chose for AD/DA was the SSL Alpha Link SX with
24 analog and 24 AES/EBU digital channels terminated to 25pin D-Sub connectors. To connect the Alpha Link’s analog I/O,
I simply plugged six 5' core cables into it and the patchbay (DSub to D-Sub). Voilà! 48 patch-points connected and hours of
soldering evaporated like a nasty vampire in the sunlight (and
I’m talking really mean sunlight with lots of UV). For the AES
channels, three core cables with AES breakout connectors did
the trick. Obviously, I could have bought preconfigured D-Sub
to AES cables, but if the length needs to be changed, I can swap
core cables without having to buy new snakes or cannibalize
my old ones. Or, if need be, I can repurpose those cables with
different breakout connectors.
Now the outboard gear: Here’s where the Modular Snake
proved to be worth its weight in gold-plated connectors. The
space I had allocated for my MOTU 2408mkIII, which would
now serve as a multichannel soundcard for a dedicated virtual
instruments computer, wound up being swapped with a fourchannel Massenburg 8304 preamp. The 2408mkIII has 8 x TRS
I/O, whereas the Massenburg has four XLR ins (and four XLR
out). While it isn’t proper patchbay procedure, I decided to
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swap out the eight-channel TRS for the AES breakout
connector (4 XLRM/4 XLRF) and have the I/O of the
Massenburg side by side on the patchbay instead of top to
bottom. Then, after doing some ergonomic testing, I decided
that I didn’t like having the input and output in-line on the
patch bay, and swapped the Massenburg with an eight-channel
Audient ASP008 preamp with eight XLR in and 25-pin D-Sub
out. All I had to do was switch the AES/EBU breakout for an
eight XLR male breakout, which put all my inputs on the top
row of the patchbay, remove the TRS output breakout, and
use the Core’s D-Sub. Best of all, I made all of those changes
in minutes without having to pull the patchbays. For the rest
of my gear, I simply ran core cables to the racks and connected
breakout cables as needed.
Snake oil
Coincidentally (or perhaps karmatically), I was talking with a
producer/engineer friend of mine who’s moving his L.A. studio and facing the same dilemma. He bought a new console
with integrated patchbays and spent the last few weeks letting
the cables decide where he would put his gear. Being a creative
type, and not so handy with soldering (most people aren’t),
he also had to hire someone to solder the patchbays. Unfortunately, when we had our discussion, he hadn’t heard about
the Modular Snakes. Hoping to stave off that sinking “If only
I heard about this a week ago” feeling that is all too familiar
in the studio world, my friend tried to rationalize with the age
old, “Yeah, but it has an extra connector in the signal path.”
For his sake I decided to leave it at that, but therein lay the
basis for another test. Is there an audible difference in sound
quality between Modular Snakes and preconfigured snakes?
I plugged a snake I currently use into channels 1-8 of the
Alpha Link, and the Modular Snake into 9-16. From there I ran
the same eight tracks of material that was recorded in a worldclass studio through both snakes. Did I hear a difference? No,
and my current snake has been used to make records. End of
the “extra connector in the signal path” discussion.
Accept no D-Substitute
With so many multichannel AD/DA converters, preamps, and
audio interfaces on the market with only D-sub connectors
for I/O, the Modular Snake makes perfect sense. But to me,
its greatest advantage is the ability to make custom snakes as
needed. Stocking some Core cables and at least two of each
breakout option solves any unanticipated wiring problem with
elegant, cost-effective simplicity. If you’re setting up a studio
for the first time, I highly recommend starting with Modular
Snakes. The plain and simple fact is that your setup is going
to continually change. Accommodating those changes can
mean either hours of soldering and console/rack diving, or be
as simple as swapping out a breakout cable. Your choice.
Features:
• Interchangeable breakouts for
easy and flexible wiring options
• 24 possible snake configurations
• DB25 Modular Snake Core Cables:
- 5' Core Cable
- 10' Core Cable
- 25' Core Cable
- 8-Channel XLR Female Breakout
- 8-Channel XLR Male Breakout
- 8-Channel 1/4" TRS Breakout
- AES/EBU Breakout
• Industry-standard analog pin-out
TM
• Gold-plated Amphenol connectors
• Oxygen-free copper conductors
• 100% shielding for low noise
and low signal loss
Modular Snake
Core Cable
334007 . . . . . . from $1999
Modular Snake
8-Channel Breakout
334008 . . . . . .from $4999
Wi r i n g a l l y o u r g e a r i s “ a p i e c e o f s n a k e ”
thanks to Planet Waves. Order Modular
Snake from Musician’s Friend and
save big on time and money—
your satisfaction guaranteed!
9/30/08 1:38:46 PM