Karaoke Forums

How many KJ's are using a "snake" for their wired microphones to clean up your "stage" area ( so you don't have a 2 or 3 25ft mic cables from your mixer to your monitor)

Just curious

If you don't like the cables all over the place if using a snake with SHORTER MIC cables is a good solution?

Certainly could work but I could also see it being more trouble than it's worth. Some of it would come down to how much freedom do you want to allow your singers. Do you want them to be able to take the mics out of the stand and walk around the area with them? If so then you still need to have a longer cord sitting there coiled up and once some one walks around with it you're going to still end up with the same cable mess. I think you'd probably be better off just wrapping the mic cables in a loom to keep them together out to the stage and then let them fan out from there. That just seems like an easier (and seriously cheaper) solution.

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke

Only time I really used a snake is when I set my equipment up in a club set up for bands. I set up where the sound guy would normally, and the only thing on/near the stage was the singer, 2 floor monitors & monitor for words. I have thought about setting up a small snake for my current club for cleaning it up, but find other things that I can spend my cash on instead that I really need so never got around to it.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

I don't use a stage snake, but when I do our big contest gig I use my regular snake and put the FOH out in the audience....

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

I can't see not using a snake, i set up about 50' back into the audiance so that i can hear and see everything going on clearly, i always run the house speaker and the monitors as well as the hookup for both tv's out of the snake. I use three shure beta 58 cordless mics, and even run them out of the snake.

The best solution is wireless mics.

I use a snake even for my wireless mics. I find they work best when the base unit is close to the stage. The place where I do my regular gigs has a house 16x4 snake, so this is the easiest way to do it. When I do private parties I use my drum sub-snake (8ch 50ft) or my big one.

I might change venues soon, and if I do, I am going to buy a 8x4x100ft snake that I can coil up and store in my amp rack along with my wireless base unit.

I love sitting out front. Not only is it easier to mix, but customers feel like they can interact with me more readily, and friends can hang out and drink with me without disturbing the singers. I used to have a problem with people coming up on the stage to talk to me, so I moved to the side of the stage. Then I just had a table full of loud, drunk friends still distracting the singers. Now I have a table full of loud, drunk friends in the middle of the room where no one is annoyed!

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Jeff Wheeler, moonlight DJ/KJ

I wish I had a venue where setting up in a FOH position would work/be acceptable. Most of the places I play are so worried about the potential impact of me taking up space that I have to keep my rig compact in one place. Jeff, your ability to setup that way is definitely ideal, I'm jealous

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke

Honestly, that is the main reason I still work at this venue. There are compromises, though. I could make twice as much money at either of two other bars that are just as close to my house; and at one of them, I could get all their live sound work as well. So when this venue eventually replaces me, I won't be sorry. I fully intend to replicate what I have at this place at wherever I move to. I just might not have a nice house snake and a crappy house PA that I can use for the slower nights.

The sucky thing is, this venue is the biggest 20s bar town. One reason no one else will do it cheaper than me is there are A LOT OF SINGERS. My Tuesday crowd is like the weekend crowd at the other two bars that are close. My weekend crowd would not even fit into the other places. My PA is way over-sized for those other places. It would certainly fit, but it's not like I really need four 18" subs and 5000 watts of sub power for those other places.

The other venues would pay me twice as much (they have said so) but I'm not sure if they could consistently make money on it. My goal at my current venue, on the other hand, is to make it busy enough that they are forced to staff the "beer tub" on Tuesday. I need to double my crowd but I think I can do it if I am still there by next winter. I am going to do some contests with good cash prizes again soon.

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Jeff Wheeler, moonlight DJ/KJ

Oh, and I learned from doing live sound, that the answer to bar managers complaining about floor space, is to just explain how much better you can do your job if you can sit where you hear the same thing as the audience. I get a ton of compliments from customers on the fact that I am out front with the crowd, not in a booth or next to the stage. Everyone who has ever been in a band understands why, and a lot of regular customers "get it" too. There's no reason a bar manager shouldn't understand this if you take the time to explain it.

The floor space is only useful if there are customers to occupy it. Could the bar get one more table for customers on Friday & Saturday if I wasn't there? Sure! Would there be so many customers there that every single table is occupied, if some other KJ was there, not doing as good a job? Honestly, I do not think so. The economy sucks and my numbers are steady, while other bars are changing KJs, DJs, drink specials, etc. pretty regularly in desperation.

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Jeff Wheeler, moonlight DJ/KJ

Yeah I know the drill from our live gigs with the bands, but unfortunately a little harder to do as a KJ. They see other KJ's do it from up by the stage and that's what they want. Sometimes it's a legit concern (like one place I recently left, used to have a big dinner crowd and I'd have certainly been in the way), other times not, but I just go with the flow. Just means I have to get up and walk out front more often, which isn't an all bad thing either. I've also gotten pretty damn good at mixing from behind the PA, many times I'll walk out front and it's sounds exactly the way I want it.

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke