Audio multicore cable
[2] Portable multicore cables, stored loose or on a drum, enable sound systems to be set up at temporary outdoor locations such as music festivals.
[4] Without a snake, a rock band performing onstage, for example, would require 20 or more individual microphone cables running from the stage to the mixing console (typically located at the rear of a venue).
[2] An end with many individual connectors fanning out is sometimes called a tail or fanout, and generally connects directly to a mixing console.
[5][6] Some systems use large multipin connectors, colloquially called mults,[1] which make it easier to join snakes together – for example, to connect subsnakes to a main stage box.
[10] DT12 snakes are commonly built into sports venues and stadiums for easy connection of outside broadcasting trucks.
[2]: 272 Subsnakes may be used to connect a few instruments from one side of the stage to the main snake, which is neater and allows for shorter patch cables.
[3][12] This is more common in short multicores meant for in-studio connections, such as audio engines, analog-to-digital converters or digital mixing consoles.
The broadcast industry tends to use audio multicores containing star quad cables, due to their increased rejection of radio-frequency interference.
[6]: 1 A less common construction is a lapped or braided screen comprising thin wires wrapped around the conductors.
Canare, Mogami,[20] Clark Wire & Cable and GEPCO mark numbers on the PVC insulation of the individual pairs.
Whilst traditional analog multicore cables are common in sound engineering, the advent of digital mixing consoles have made so-called digital multicores favorable for many scenarios where multiple signals need to be run a long distance.
[1] This has the advantage of being much easier to set up and move, since only a single small cable needs to be run.
Digital audio signals are also virtually insusceptible to electromagnetic interference, which is a great advantage in some applications such as long cable runs.
