Any difference between "send" and "return" snake lines - besides connectors?

[RockStarNick]

Q: Lets say I have a 8-channel "send only" snake.

Theoretically - If I want to convert 4 of the lines to "returns", could I change out the XLR-F to XLR-F or TRS on the mixer side, and then on the stage side, swap out the XLR-F jacks for XLR-M jacks?

Is there anything going on inside these things that would prevent that from working.

The reason I ask is in my latest band, we're using all powered Mains/Monitors. And the majority of the mics are wireless ones.

So I'd love to have a 50: Snake with:
1. Mic stage L
2. Mic Stage R
3. Return Line: Mains L
4. Return Line: Mains R
5. Return Line: Monitor Stage R
6. Return Line: Monitor Center
7. Return Line: Monitor Stage L

That would just make things super neat and un-cluttered, not to mention make teardown a breeze.

 

[Bassomatic]

No diff. Solder away!

 

[MLG Audio]

I did something similar when I only had a 16x4. Only ever used 14 channels so I bought a few adapters to make two more returns


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[jsytsma]

I had some wrong connecting cables and needed one more return. Just used one of the send channels with my wrong cables as a return and it worked perfectly!

 

[modulusman]

What powered speakers are you using? A lot of them have both male and female xlr inputs.

 

[RockStarNick]

What powered speakers are you using? A lot of them have both male and female xlr inputs.

Really? Are you sure you're not thinking of the "thru" jack?

 

[B Money]

Q: Lets say I have a 8-channel "send only" snake.

Theoretically - If I want to convert 4 of the lines to "returns", could I change out the XLR-F to XLR-F or TRS on the mixer side, and then on the stage side, swap out the XLR-F jacks for XLR-M jacks?

Is there anything going on inside these things that would prevent that from working.

The reason I ask is in my latest band, we're using all powered Mains/Monitors. And the majority of the mics are wireless ones.

So I'd love to have a 50: Snake with:
1. Mic stage L
2. Mic Stage R
3. Return Line: Mains L
4. Return Line: Mains R
5. Return Line: Monitor Stage R
6. Return Line: Monitor Center
7. Return Line: Monitor Stage L

That would just make things super neat and un-cluttered, not to mention make teardown a breeze.

yes, I do that all the time. I just use gender changer adapters to convert "send" channels to "return" channels.

 

[modulusman]

Really? Are you sure you're not thinking of the "thru" jack?

The thru jack is wired in parallel on a lot of powered speakers so you can use either one.

 

[MLG Audio]

The thru jack is wired in parallel on a lot of powered speakers so you can use either one.

You may be thinking of passive speakers. I've never seen a powered speaker where you can input to both the input and output jacks.


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[modulusman]

You may be thinking of passive speakers. I've never seen a powered speaker where you can input to both the input and output jacks.


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The Op thinks he needs to change his ends on the snake He doesn't unless he needs a trs or 1/4 inch from what I can see.I have used extra channel inputs for returns. I have done it this way with some powered EAW NT, QSC HPR series subs and Yamaha DXR 10s where I used the female XLR on the speaker instead of the male and it works fine. Bob Lee from QSC told me it was OK to do this on the HPR subs years ago. EDIT I just ran a pair of Yamaha DXR10s backwards and came from the mixer into the thru jack then went to the thru jack on the other speaker works perfectly fine.