Digital Snakes-Stage Boxes

In the last 12 years, everything has become digital, smaller, and more productive. The old analog snake is slowly fading out into the past. Digital snakes or stage boxes are replacing analog snakes. Many factors could explain why going digital is the right way to go. Digital snakes extend your digital mixer inputs to the stage and allow the user to take full advantage of digital mixers. Digital snakes, stage boxes, and I/O boxes refer to the same product. We are going to call them digital snakes.

Smaller and more comfortable to install and transport

The most apparent advantages of digital snakes are size and weight. Digital snakes are lighter and smaller than their predecessors. You can carry a 32-channel digital snake with one hand. For example, the Behringer S32 is a 32 inputs 16 outputs digital snake and weighs 14.6 lb.

Run Longer Cables With Less Effort

Digital snakes use an Ethernet cable, commonly known as Cat5 cable, to connect to the digital mixer. You can effortlessly run 100 meters ( 328ft) of the cable by yourself. By the way, the maximum cable length using Cat5 cable is 328ft. Try to lift 328ft of analog snake cable. You can't.

In-ear Monitor Systems? No Problem

Digital snakes allow us to give every musician on the stage an in-ear monitor. No more floor monitors taking space on stage. Today, every company makes personal monitor mixers to use with their digital snakes. For example:

• Midas uses the DP48 Personal monitor mixer
• Allen & Heath uses the ME-500 and the ME-1
• Presonus uses the EarMix 16 Personal Monitor Mixer

Digital snakes are available in different numbers of channels. No, every gig is the same. Sometimes, you need all 32 channels for a big band, and sometimes, you need only 12 channels. The most popular sizes are 16 inputs, 8 outputs, and 32 inputs, 16 outputs. If you need more than 32 inputs, some mixers, like the Allen & Heath SQ7, can run 48 channels with two AR2412 digital snakes.

Stage Boxes Are Rack-mountable.

All 32-channel digital snakes are rack-mountable. They come with ear racks built in and are ready to mount on a rack. 16-channel digital snakes are smaller, like the Allen & Heath AB168. In this case, manufacturers offer an Optional rack mount kit. Having your digital snake in a rack is convenient and keeps the stage cleaner for better performance. Not to mention fast setup and teardown.

Ecosystem Of Products

All brands make digital snakes for a specific digital mixer made by the same brand or by a sister company. Behringer makes the S32 digital snake work seamlessly with the X32 digital console. Midas is a sister company of Behringer, and the Midas S32 digital snake is compatible with the X32 console. Manufacturers develop their own connectors and software to work specifically with their products.