I would use these for downstage monitors sends and down stage vocals over aes50. That would open up my analog snakes on stage especially since I use a 16 channel desk on most gigs. I’m sure theres many more things I could use them for on the pro series desks. Fingers crossed🤞🏻
Recently wired an entire venue with a metric ton of shielded twisted pair, which we now use for everything - HDMI, VGA, analog & digital audio, dmx, networking, comms and more. To save a buck we made our own XLR tails, following the SoundTools pinout on purpose - saved us a fair bit, a set ended up being about 30€ in parts. Also made some sets with ConvertCon XLR's which, although pricier, make it even more flexible :) Overall it's been a ridiculously efficient time & energy saver, not to mention the happy patrons/customers who get a super clean look to the venue, whatever the configuration.
Higher education Student Union here. You described exactly what it would solve for us. We have many student groups that will have a lectern for only a part of an event that needs a quick strike. But these lecterns also have a PC built in with a lectern mic. In addition they always need an aux input for their phones.
great stuff like always. Youre one of the few if not only channel i know, that goes the extra mile to do reviews like this, for people that work in the business like us. Thank you for all you do
I use a cbi version of this and another brand and they have been a great way to add a quick portable snake or drive line. My only complaint is that there is not a wiring/pin out standard so you cannot mix and match brands.
So many possible uses for the cat tails - mic'ing a drum kit; connecting DI's or instrument mics for an annual bluegrass / folk concert; audio feeds from a temporary FOH position to powered speakers. Extremely useful items and they look like they're solid!
I work with a small (boy do I mean small) live event production company and this would make getting audio from our console to our speakers a lot easier since the one snake we currently have doesn't have any returns
I could see the Cat Tails being very useful for simplifying cables runs in large-scale fire arm and explosives recording set-ups or recording in remote nature setting where you need to both shlep everything miles in and need get far from the mics (CAT6 tends to be lighter than a lot of XLR cable options). It'd be nice if they added an option for TOP series EtherCON connectors on the interconnect and tails. As a field recordist, most of my recording work is done outdoors, and that extra ingress protection is always appreciated.
These would be absolutely amazing for my High school theater. I run audio and lights there and having to use radios instead of actually having the funding to put in an intercom system is really harsh. Got home at 10 tonight from our second show of Urinetown, and having a real intercom system would really help when the booth talks to backstage.(especially when the radios cut out during performances.) Keep up the good work!
I'm new to the space of owning gear, but I know have a small Digital Console and some Active PA speakers. This would be great to drive my Stereo tops, and dual mono Subs that i use to supplement weak installed systems for the community theater/ highschool shows I work with. No more running 3, 150ft XLR around the building. Just one Cat run with break outs. so much less coiling at the end of the show!
Super cool! These would be awesome for commercial film shoots... you could send DMX, audio and intercom from video village to set using a single cable. I love that!
been running audio, midi, xlr using home made patch boxes with their respected connectors for 20 years now with Ethernet cables. Never had one single issue.
We’ve got a cat5 cable which use to be used for internet running from FOH to the main lectern at our school, so would be great to use the break out for mics and monitor sends! Love the channel, Finn
Great info! I work for a university and would probably use them as a quick disconnect in an auditorium where I often disconnect the built in AMX system from the amps and patch in a different console to the 4 zone system.
I’d use these for use with an orchestra. Use 2: Use one CAT Tail unit to Mic the front section, and run a second CAT Tail unit, towards the back, to mic the back half of the orchestra/choir. Keep things minimal, and clean. Either that or for running audio to flown in fill monitors. Great vid
I would use the CAT Tails to help with some routing around work. Lots of random patch points in an old building that needs some TLC! This would help with consolidating and improving the install.
I would use the Cat tail to run sound from audio mixers into our mobile video mixer. Running cables to tap audio form a house system to out video production equipment can be cumbersome at times.
There are so many cool uses for these. I think the tail version in particular would be super cool for use with a Zoom H6 for quick and dirty event recording purposes, especially as a backup if ProTools crashes on a gig where you absolutely MUST get a recording. Put the H6 out front to use the onboard mics as just a general XY pair, and then run an extra ethercon alongside the main snake line to get four channels into the H6 from the stage, whether that's a matrix out of the stagebox with the main LR mix, direct outs of specific inputs (lectern is one that would often be helpful), etc. Could also be combined with some of the cat boxes at the stage being used as splitters (split the lectern, etc before hitting console stagebox) for even better redundancy.
I would use the CAT Tails to avoid dragging out a 150' 16-ch analog snake when I just need to get 4 mic inputs across a room. That amount of CAT cable would be SO much lighter. Thanks for the videos!
The Cat Tails would be awesome for my stage boxes at church. There has been multiple times that I needed more inputs at a particular box on stage but didn't have enough. So running a shielded cat5e line to each box would be easier that running multiple mic lines to those boxes. I don't always need more than I have in the boxes, the Cat tails would help me put one cable in each box and give me more flexibility when I need more channels.
Those cat tails would really come in handy at my church (I know, Ironic church sound guy post, but I am actually a freelance engineer as well!) where we have a cat 5 cable running from FOH to the stage and is used for video during the week (as there are classes in the building every week). I can just add on the cat tails and that's my vocal run sorted! That would be an awesome, quick and easy solution! With regards to the Rode mic, doesn't sound that bad (although I was listening on my laptop speakers), and I agree that it's a good backup plan! Love your videos!
These would make my life so much easier trying to get sound down from my basement live room, to the studio upstairs. A few CAT cables running through my walls sound a lot better than big snakes.
I do lighting and sound as my career and we are working bigger gigs lately and have been very fascinated in cat5 conversions. I would use this to see if i really want to switch over to this connection. I would love to learn more.
I would use it to minimize multiple cable runs from the band pit to the stage snake. I run Multitracks and Stems for a church choir and it would simplify running my rack sources to the the snake
ini terlihat bagus! Begitu banyak kegunaan. Akan sempurna untuk pemasangan terpisah ke rig kunci bergulir. Tails berarti lebih sedikit lead dari kotak DI,kerennnnn mr. Dcsoundop terima kasih tutorialnya saya ikut menyimak dari Indonesia semoga tambah sukses
I would love the rat tails. Even better than the cat boxes IMO because you don't need the extra cables. I would use them mostly for my cypher gigs. We're always changing venue, so ive gone to a rack with my x32, and and some wireless units. This would be a quick snake to get some more instruments mic'ed up.
Don’t be so hard on yourself mate, I’ve been watching your videos for about a year now, and they are really fantastic .... the Lav mic was totally fine for this video .... if you are demonstrating a specific mic, preamp etc, then sure the audio quality will be super important, however remember TH-cam is probably gonna affect that anyway. So maybe for those types of videos you could put the audio demo parts in full quality on your website or something. For product overview/first look videos like this that don’t require high quality audio representation, lav mic or similar is fine. It’s about the content of the video and how helpful it is, not about if the voiceover is super dupa quality 😊
I have been looking to run ethernet as my runs throughout my small but multi-floor recording studio. Thank you so much for this recommendation. I am going to be watching a bunch of your videos
I would use them for when I need to repatch something onstage quickly It means there is only 1 cable. If we get that wrong we are in the wrong industry. Great videos mate keep it coming!
Thanks for the thorough review!! I would use these for media feeds at corporate events when the press want a microphone matrix. Or for recording a small amount of inputs in a control room. Or having one live with IEM racks for easy stereo ears or 4x mono drive lines. Honestly it’s endless what you could do!
I would totally use this, I’m starting my own sound company and have small amount of gear. I could really use this as a snake for FOH speakers/amps. Thanks for your videos, they help a lot.
I would love the cat tails to run a single cable to the middle of the stage for plugging in choir mics for concerts. It would also be awesome to use during musicals to send com, DMX and audio instead of having to run multiple cables through booths/house
Great video. Love new modular tools like this. My application would be running out to fills and setting individual delays for each as with smaller gigs they are sometimes linked and have no flexibility in time delay. Thanks for the little extras at the end.
I'd use them for running dual stereo lines from video world to audio world, perfect for a stereo PPT and stereo qLab side by side, the tails would be best because it would let me plug directly into the backs of interfaces/DI's and into the console/stagehead without needing tiny jumper xlrs.
I would use the Cat tails for a lectern setup, our standard is 2 goose-necks where the phantom power would be good, and then we often have to have a stereo pc feed as well through a PC balance box. The cat tails would make that an easy disconnect for the all too often last minute request to clear or reconfigure the stage for the next session, making it possible to easily prepare the next position with one Ethercon cable and not having to worry as much about plugging 4 cables into the correct ports.
I'd use them in musical theatre when the orchestra or band is split on the set.. And you have 2 players on one side of the set and 2 others are tucked under a set piece etc. Running just one Cat6 Cable across a set is a lot more manageable.
The lav sounds fine IMHO. An earset/headset mic would get it closer to your mouth and therefore to the source, of course, but I didn't notice anything bad about it. Might not have been as 'full' as some in the past (lows weren't there) but I wasn't sure if that was a setting on the recorder or the mic itself. It's a Rode, so...should be good.
Yeah, strong use of the HPF on this one to eliminate a wicked build up in that concrete space. Even with foam overhead, the bottom end is out of control in this space. Once we're back from NAMM, I'll be on to sorting the space a bit better for LAV use, the freedom of being able to move around and use both hands while making a video is huge. Thanks for the feedback Mark!
I own a pair of cat boxes and super cat cable. Well built stuff. Bought them to run 2 ch analog to the stage rack but i can see where they could be used to jigrig all kinds of stuff.
I'd use these to get comms to front of house. I already run a 4 channel cat5e snake for Dante primary and secondary and it would be awesome to utilize one of the other lines for comms instead of running another long xlr from front of house to back of house every gig!
If used in a Studio/home Studio, this could be used to get audio from a live room to the control room, via pre-existing wall mounted CAT 5/6, (Or just under a door). It means you can leave your current interface in the control room with the engineer, to change gains etc, and just run the tails out to the live room. Much cheaper than buying a digital snake etc
Nice video, I would use them for my wireless mics and amp rack, would save me a ton of time! Lets compare it to the traditional ways: Amp Rack - short distance: You would need 8x connectors, cabeling inside and outside the rack - 12x XLR. This methode: 2x tail end, 1x cat
Hey, I just have to say that I like the audio in this video better than some of your more recent vids. It still sounds a bit harsh, but you also mentioned the abysmal acoustics in that room. Strangely, I don't ever hear the room so you're doing a great job of keeping the reverb out... Are you accomplishing that with a really tight gate setting? If so, that could explain why it sounds a bit harsh, almost robotic. Take it as constructive criticism because I love this channel and your content is always amazing!
My stage box is usually next to the drummer, but the wireless system rack is next to the stage (4 wireless in ear, the drummer has a wired) so it would be perfect for us, i hate using 15-20m XLR cables, depends on where we can lead the wires.
I would use CAT Tails to redesign my sound cart for TV and Film dialog recording. In the time of Covid Mixers are remoting their wireless receivers and cabling to a safe social distance from set. Very useful to hear your tests and comments.
Great review! I’m gonna get some of these to use for feeding signal to my active speakers think they would be great to get signal to line arrays, subs, center fills and monitors vs. running normal snake box
DcSoundOp yes very close to DC I looked into his products I think I’m gonna get a cat rack an some cat boxes also looks like a really nice product do you recommend using the blue supercat cable since it’s individual insulated?
Loving your youtube channel - only recently found it! I'd use the CAT Tails for a function band I do sound for, for their horns section, as they're a big part of the show, and it would look way neater than running a multicore, or 4 separate XLRs!
The tails would be great to take our existing cat 5 lines and use them for AES drive and comm. I'd also love to try the cat snake to the stage, and use something like a cloud lifter or other preamp with the new 'presidential' 57 lectern setup. We've been trying to come up with a better solution for when the big man is in town.
i would use it as a downstage box for vocals and bass di for a small touring band. it would sit perfectly in the stagebox rack. i bought the redco version and they are not near as solid.
Really cool product! I would use it for active floor wedges or to a amplifier, wireless receivers or transmitter's. I love the sniffer sender from them I use it all the time! or for If I have a DJ I can just run 1 ethercon to the booth and I will be done! I use a lot of dante, in the a&h dlive or a soundcraft iam gonna be using it a lot in the field!
I will say, as much as I love sound tools products (I own and use their super cat snake and sniffer) Whirlwind 1 up’d Dave with the CatDusa, it has parallel female and male connectors within one box for all 4 channels and with etherCON passthru. I use it to send COMM, Amp Remote control (CANBUS) and a pair of analog LR audio. I would be nice to have a tail ends, too so I don’t have to pull out 4 short cables. Great Vid!
I run a lot of presidential announcements for the university I work for and he likes to choose a different location for everything and theses areas are not typical lecture locations. I would use them as a small snake to have the two lectern mics in and send out mains and single monitor back over 1 Cat6. Would also help with a lot of our larger productions on stage as well when we need comm for our follow spot ops instead of running 4 separate xlr
I just relaunched my sound company after being our the game since 2012 and I really don't have much but, I would like to use them for my DMX lights or to run mics at one of the events I have planned.
I would definitely used the cat tails in my smaller setup with my behriner x air tablet/computer controlled. Sometimes I need to be able to run playback from my laptop which i also use to control the mixer. the cat tails would make it easy to send lines from FOH to the x air mixer on stage with just one Cat5 instead of my big 100 snake.
I have a junkanoo parade coming up here in the Bahamas Jan31, 2019. I have to use 8 mics (4 shotguns on every block) to capture the instruments as they make their way up the street. The Cat tail would save the long cable runs. So instead of using 8 150-200ft mic cables, I would drop the cat tail in the middle of each block and only have to run 50ft. mic cables to each destination. What do you think?
That sounds like a challenging setup for sure, do you have any photos from last years rig? I'd love to see what a junkanoo parade looks like! Thanks Chadbourne!
@@DcSoundOp I have been working for this broadcasting company (ZNS) for only about a year now, so I don't have the pics from last year, but you can view the most recent parade video on January 1, 2019 on the ZNS News Facebook page. Hope that video will give you a better idea.
@@chadbournerolle2342 LOVE the little cardioid sub array. That festival looks awesome, getting it done with the X32, nice work! For anyone who wants the link - instagram.com/chadbeatz/?hl=en
The first thing I noticed about this Vid was the audio, then you brought up the Mic at the end. It sounds thin and nasal. Does not sound like a room problem though. Maybe the adapter?
Hey Fred, thanks for the message. Fighting a huge amount of low end buildup in this space, I may have thinned things out a bit too much. Once we're back from NAMM, I'll be trying some alternate temporary treatment options & will hopefully be able to bring back some of the bottom end once the resonance has been dealt with. Thanks again!
Looked into these a number of times. They are perfect, but still too expensive... easier for the accountants to have have us pull snakes. Even tried to show them weight savings on the trucks, but even the nice Rat cable is expensive. And no one wants to use the cheap pull from a box Cat5. Too many contact points with the general public in my industry. So my use... sports TV. At the college level, many campuses are not wired for TV, so I run into long runs for say, 2-4 mics on the far side of the field. Running a DT12 is overkill and a 4 or 6 pair is also very heavy. So the Rat Box/tails are perfect. Just can't get the funds approved when (heavier) options for exist.
there are too many great ways to use an adjustable length four channel xlr snake. the cat tails could be used anywhere from running over to wireless in ear boxes in their best broadcasting position, or just having a handy snake to get a few xlr ports over to the opposite side of the stage - wish they made a variable gender version with maybe 1 male 3 female or 2 of each. I would also have maybe tested this with a regular old cat5 cable just for the video's sake.
Connect this SoundTools Tails to a PCIe PoE Ethernet Switcher Card ... THEN ... connect CONDENSER MIC... does the DAW ( Digital Audio Workstantion ) recognise the MIC and send 48v Phantom Power to it ? ... will I be able to record with this configuration ?
I do not have this system to test myself but I think if you want to mix mediums through this system using a Shielded Cat7 or Cat8 cable would be the way to go. You have the standard shield wrapping all the twisted pairs AND the pairs are shielded as well. It may work and if someone could test that out for the rest of us and let us know. (hint hint)
I don't have any shielded Cat7 or 8 laying around here, but Dave Rat might if you ask him to dive into this on his channel - th-cam.com/users/www73171 - thanks for the message Richard!
Hey, quick question. Do XLR to TRS/TS cables cause impedance issues? If so, does that mean audio gear with different inputs requires a transformer to match the connectors? I can't really figure this out.
Great question John! As Trevor mentioned below, it is going to be down to what you are connecting at each end. If you think about audio over CAT as replacing 4 XLR cables, that may help, as you can adapt and use them in the same manner. Let me know if you have any other questions or a specific scenario that you're thinking of that I can help clear up. Thanks!
Nice video! I would use them in a pinch to run one clean line for 4 dmx universes and/or audio for small gigs. (If you send me another break out I could possibly run a forklift or scissor lift over it)
That's a fair observation. I'm not 100% but think they may use this housing for other products that do need that extra clearance, so it may be a cost savings thing to not have to retool a whole new chassis for each product. Thanks for the message!
hi. im new to mixer stuff. and im trying to understand digital set up. im slowly sinking in about the fact that digital snake/stage box are very expensive. in other vid I saw cat rack 12 channel. is that really function as digital stage box using cat5 cable? im really hoping that it is as the s8/s16 begringer digital stage box is ridiculously expensive as im now on the verge of buying an x32 rack. which got the same price as that s16 D snake. please help. thx
Hi, I'm using one of these XLR to cat6 convertor for in-house sound system, but I'm getting a lift buzz in the background. Network cable are CAT6, there are 2 ports for audio and 2 ports for ethernet, they run together to the same rack in the network room were the audio system is sitting also. Audio source comes from a plain mixer 12 channel board and using the XLR output from that mixer. Any recommendation to remove the buzz would be appreciated it.
You didn't say if you are using Shielded cable or not, you'll want to make sure you are using it & I would recommend the stuff SoundTools sells if you're looking for an example. Thanks for the message!
I would run them over with a forklift to see if they can really handle it! Actually I would probably not destroy them.lol I would however love to use them in my studio. Great demo btw!
This cat tail would help me as the snake in my church goes underground and the pipe is clogged thousands of dollars would be saved going over cat cable which could be mounted easily
I don't see the use in it, to be honest. In a live situation nowadays, everything already runs through an ethernet cable or a two (or more) 24-pairs multicores is also still used. It probably also works with an extra ADDA conversion and therefore; no thanks. You mentioned the use of intercoms, how does it work with the "call" button and the "Attention" LED & Beep?
Kevin Hey Kevin, great question. These units are totally passive, no conversion or anything like that. They are using the high quality twisted pair in a CAT cable to essentially replace an XLR line. Anything you can do with an XLR cable (for the most part) will work just fine over an Audio over CAT5 adapters. Let me know if you have any other questions, thanks for watching & takin the time to comment!
Ok, that means that there is no difference with a 4 pairs multicore and a socapex breakout, except price on the pro side and sturdiness & reliability on the contra side, I think. I actually never did the experiment so I cannot say, but because the 4 channels use a common screen/ground, what about crosstalk?
Thanks for the feedback, I may have overstepped on the HPF trying to deal with the crazy low end build up in this room. More work to do for sure to smooth things out a bit in this space.
It's the Radio Design Labs PT-AMG2 - www.rdlnet.com/product.php?page=1 I'll be doing more on this one in the future, I've only had it in the shop for a few weeks.
I would use it for different things. mostly for small solo artists or lecturns/presentation setups, at other times as an extra 4-pair snake to run from keys or a brass/choir, or comms from FoH together with a dmx line. Btw. in Europe you can get a cheap version, pretty ok for dmx but not sure about running audio through it: www.thomann.de/gb/stairville_rj45_dmx_shuttle_snake_mx4.htm#
Well... it essentially replaces 4 XLR lines. If you're running AES, that's 8 channels. DMX would be 4 universes of 512 channels. The limiting factor though is the 4 twisted pairs inside the cable, if you need more than this, you can use the same cable but need to move to a audio over IP solution like Dante or AVB. Great question though Vadim!
I've been looking to get into this kind of stuff for a while...we run lots of individual lines under the stage, and it's hard to reach them underneath.. This might help our church solve the issue of using tons of cables we could use elsewhere on top of the stage!
I would use these for downstage monitors sends and down stage vocals over aes50. That would open up my analog snakes on stage especially since I use a 16 channel desk on most gigs. I’m sure theres many more things I could use them for on the pro series desks. Fingers crossed🤞🏻
Hey Alex, you WON the CAT Tails - here's a special message for you from Dave Rat! Get in touch so we can ship them out when we get back to the shop.
Helps if I post the link - facebook.com/dcsoundop/videos/347418249428692/
DcSoundOp sent you a message on instagram
Recently wired an entire venue with a metric ton of shielded twisted pair, which we now use for everything - HDMI, VGA, analog & digital audio, dmx, networking, comms and more. To save a buck we made our own XLR tails, following the SoundTools pinout on purpose - saved us a fair bit, a set ended up being about 30€ in parts. Also made some sets with ConvertCon XLR's which, although pricier, make it even more flexible :) Overall it's been a ridiculously efficient time & energy saver, not to mention the happy patrons/customers who get a super clean look to the venue, whatever the configuration.
Higher education Student Union here. You described exactly what it would solve for us. We have many student groups that will have a lectern for only a part of an event that needs a quick strike. But these lecterns also have a PC built in with a lectern mic. In addition they always need an aux input for their phones.
great stuff like always. Youre one of the few if not only channel i know, that goes the extra mile to do reviews like this, for people that work in the business like us. Thank you for all you do
I use a cbi version of this and another brand and they have been a great way to add a quick portable snake or drive line. My only complaint is that there is not a wiring/pin out standard so you cannot mix and match brands.
Thanks Rodney, it's awesome to hear that feedback! Thanks for watching, I'm hoping 2019 will be an interesting on here on the channel.
So many possible uses for the cat tails - mic'ing a drum kit; connecting DI's or instrument mics for an annual bluegrass / folk concert; audio feeds from a temporary FOH position to powered speakers. Extremely useful items and they look like they're solid!
I work with a small (boy do I mean small) live event production company and this would make getting audio from our console to our speakers a lot easier since the one snake we currently have doesn't have any returns
I could see the Cat Tails being very useful for simplifying cables runs in large-scale fire arm and explosives recording set-ups or recording in remote nature setting where you need to both shlep everything miles in and need get far from the mics (CAT6 tends to be lighter than a lot of XLR cable options). It'd be nice if they added an option for TOP series EtherCON connectors on the interconnect and tails. As a field recordist, most of my recording work is done outdoors, and that extra ingress protection is always appreciated.
These would be absolutely amazing for my High school theater. I run audio and lights there and having to use radios instead of actually having the funding to put in an intercom system is really harsh. Got home at 10 tonight from our second show of Urinetown, and having a real intercom system would really help when the booth talks to backstage.(especially when the radios cut out during performances.) Keep up the good work!
I'm new to the space of owning gear, but I know have a small Digital Console and some Active PA speakers. This would be great to drive my Stereo tops, and dual mono Subs that i use to supplement weak installed systems for the community theater/ highschool shows I work with. No more running 3, 150ft XLR around the building. Just one Cat run with break outs. so much less coiling at the end of the show!
Super cool! These would be awesome for commercial film shoots... you could send DMX, audio and intercom from video village to set using a single cable. I love that!
That's what I'll be using them for a feature film this year!
been running audio, midi, xlr using home made patch boxes with their respected connectors for 20 years now with Ethernet cables. Never had one single issue.
We’ve got a cat5 cable which use to be used for internet running from FOH to the main lectern at our school, so would be great to use the break out for mics and monitor sends! Love the channel, Finn
Great info! I work for a university and would probably use them as a quick disconnect in an auditorium where I often disconnect the built in AMX system from the amps and patch in a different console to the 4 zone system.
I’d use these for use with an orchestra. Use 2: Use one CAT Tail unit to Mic the front section, and run a second CAT Tail unit, towards the back, to mic the back half of the orchestra/choir. Keep things minimal, and clean. Either that or for running audio to flown in fill monitors. Great vid
I would use the CAT Tails to help with some routing around work. Lots of random patch points in an old building that needs some TLC! This would help with consolidating and improving the install.
I would use the Cat tail to run sound from audio mixers into our mobile video mixer. Running cables to tap audio form a house system to out video production equipment can be cumbersome at times.
There are so many cool uses for these. I think the tail version in particular would be super cool for use with a Zoom H6 for quick and dirty event recording purposes, especially as a backup if ProTools crashes on a gig where you absolutely MUST get a recording. Put the H6 out front to use the onboard mics as just a general XY pair, and then run an extra ethercon alongside the main snake line to get four channels into the H6 from the stage, whether that's a matrix out of the stagebox with the main LR mix, direct outs of specific inputs (lectern is one that would often be helpful), etc. Could also be combined with some of the cat boxes at the stage being used as splitters (split the lectern, etc before hitting console stagebox) for even better redundancy.
These look great! So many uses. Would be perfect for discrete mounting to a rolling keys rig. Tails means less leads from DI boxes. Love simplicity.
I would use the CAT Tails to avoid dragging out a 150' 16-ch analog snake when I just need to get 4 mic inputs across a room. That amount of CAT cable would be SO much lighter.
Thanks for the videos!
The Cat Tails would be awesome for my stage boxes at church. There has been multiple times that I needed more inputs at a particular box on stage but didn't have enough. So running a shielded cat5e line to each box would be easier that running multiple mic lines to those boxes. I don't always need more than I have in the boxes, the Cat tails would help me put one cable in each box and give me more flexibility when I need more channels.
Those cat tails would really come in handy at my church (I know, Ironic church sound guy post, but I am actually a freelance engineer as well!) where we have a cat 5 cable running from FOH to the stage and is used for video during the week (as there are classes in the building every week). I can just add on the cat tails and that's my vocal run sorted! That would be an awesome, quick and easy solution!
With regards to the Rode mic, doesn't sound that bad (although I was listening on my laptop speakers), and I agree that it's a good backup plan!
Love your videos!
These would make my life so much easier trying to get sound down from my basement live room, to the studio upstairs. A few CAT cables running through my walls sound a lot better than big snakes.
I could see myself using them on a small drum kit in my band where cable runs are difficult. Cheers!
I do lighting and sound as my career and we are working bigger gigs lately and have been very fascinated in cat5 conversions. I would use this to see if i really want to switch over to this connection. I would love to learn more.
I would use it to minimize multiple cable runs from the band pit to the stage snake. I run Multitracks and Stems for a church choir and it would simplify running my rack sources to the the snake
ini terlihat bagus! Begitu banyak kegunaan. Akan sempurna untuk pemasangan terpisah ke rig kunci bergulir. Tails berarti lebih sedikit lead dari kotak DI,kerennnnn mr. Dcsoundop terima kasih tutorialnya saya ikut menyimak dari Indonesia semoga tambah sukses
I would love the rat tails. Even better than the cat boxes IMO because you don't need the extra cables. I would use them mostly for my cypher gigs. We're always changing venue, so ive gone to a rack with my x32, and and some wireless units. This would be a quick snake to get some more instruments mic'ed up.
Don’t be so hard on yourself mate, I’ve been watching your videos for about a year now, and they are really fantastic .... the Lav mic was totally fine for this video .... if you are demonstrating a specific mic, preamp etc, then sure the audio quality will be super important, however remember TH-cam is probably gonna affect that anyway. So maybe for those types of videos you could put the audio demo parts in full quality on your website or something.
For product overview/first look videos like this that don’t require high quality audio representation, lav mic or similar is fine. It’s about the content of the video and how helpful it is, not about if the voiceover is super dupa quality 😊
Thanks Daniel, I really appreciate your feedback!
I have been looking to run ethernet as my runs throughout my small but multi-floor recording studio. Thank you so much for this recommendation. I am going to be watching a bunch of your videos
I would use them for when I need to repatch something onstage quickly
It means there is only 1 cable. If we get that wrong we are in the wrong industry.
Great videos mate keep it coming!
Thanks for the thorough review!! I would use these for media feeds at corporate events when the press want a microphone matrix. Or for recording a small amount of inputs in a control room. Or having one live with IEM racks for easy stereo ears or 4x mono drive lines. Honestly it’s endless what you could do!
I would totally use this, I’m starting my own sound company and have small amount of gear. I could really use this as a snake for FOH speakers/amps. Thanks for your videos, they help a lot.
I would love the cat tails to run a single cable to the middle of the stage for plugging in choir mics for concerts. It would also be awesome to use during musicals to send com, DMX and audio instead of having to run multiple cables through booths/house
Would definitely use them to help split some inputs off of a DT snake for broadcast
I would use them for extension on big stage or just a regular snake.
I would use a set of these to run for tech table, DMX, Intercom, and a God mic over a single cable would be amazing!
Great video. Love new modular tools like this. My application would be running out to fills and setting individual delays for each as with smaller gigs they are sometimes linked and have no flexibility in time delay. Thanks for the little extras at the end.
I'd use them for running dual stereo lines from video world to audio world, perfect for a stereo PPT and stereo qLab side by side, the tails would be best because it would let me plug directly into the backs of interfaces/DI's and into the console/stagehead without needing tiny jumper xlrs.
I would use the Cat tails for a lectern setup, our standard is 2 goose-necks where the phantom power would be good, and then we often have to have a stereo pc feed as well through a PC balance box. The cat tails would make that an easy disconnect for the all too often last minute request to clear or reconfigure the stage for the next session, making it possible to easily prepare the next position with one Ethercon cable and not having to worry as much about plugging 4 cables into the correct ports.
I'd use them in musical theatre when the orchestra or band is split on the set.. And you have 2 players on one side of the set and 2 others are tucked under a set piece etc. Running just one Cat6 Cable across a set is a lot more manageable.
The lav sounds fine IMHO. An earset/headset mic would get it closer to your mouth and therefore to the source, of course, but I didn't notice anything bad about it. Might not have been as 'full' as some in the past (lows weren't there) but I wasn't sure if that was a setting on the recorder or the mic itself. It's a Rode, so...should be good.
Yeah, strong use of the HPF on this one to eliminate a wicked build up in that concrete space. Even with foam overhead, the bottom end is out of control in this space. Once we're back from NAMM, I'll be on to sorting the space a bit better for LAV use, the freedom of being able to move around and use both hands while making a video is huge. Thanks for the feedback Mark!
I own a pair of cat boxes and super cat cable. Well built stuff. Bought them to run 2 ch analog to the stage rack but i can see where they could be used to jigrig all kinds of stuff.
I'd use these to get comms to front of house. I already run a 4 channel cat5e snake for Dante primary and secondary and it would be awesome to utilize one of the other lines for comms instead of running another long xlr from front of house to back of house every gig!
If used in a Studio/home Studio, this could be used to get audio from a live room to the control room, via pre-existing wall mounted CAT 5/6, (Or just under a door). It means you can leave your current interface in the control room with the engineer, to change gains etc, and just run the tails out to the live room. Much cheaper than buying a digital snake etc
Nice video, I would use them for my wireless mics and amp rack, would save me a ton of time!
Lets compare it to the traditional ways:
Amp Rack - short distance:
You would need 8x connectors, cabeling inside and outside the rack - 12x XLR.
This methode:
2x tail end, 1x cat
I would use this in a corporate environment where they have plenty of shielded cat6 in the wall but they don't want cables taped to the floor.
Hey, I just have to say that I like the audio in this video better than some of your more recent vids. It still sounds a bit harsh, but you also mentioned the abysmal acoustics in that room. Strangely, I don't ever hear the room so you're doing a great job of keeping the reverb out... Are you accomplishing that with a really tight gate setting? If so, that could explain why it sounds a bit harsh, almost robotic. Take it as constructive criticism because I love this channel and your content is always amazing!
My stage box is usually next to the drummer, but the wireless system rack is next to the stage (4 wireless in ear, the drummer has a wired) so it would be perfect for us, i hate using 15-20m XLR cables, depends on where we can lead the wires.
Would be ideal for IEM monitor rack patching or overall stage patching, for example giving keyboards their own multicore etc.
I would use CAT Tails to redesign my sound cart for TV and Film dialog recording. In the time of Covid Mixers are remoting their wireless receivers and cabling to a safe social distance from set. Very useful to hear your tests and comments.
Great review! I’m gonna get some of these to use for feeding signal to my active speakers think they would be great to get signal to line arrays, subs, center fills and monitors vs. running normal snake box
Hey Southern Maryland, you're right down the road!
DcSoundOp yes very close to DC I looked into his products I think I’m gonna get a cat rack an some cat boxes also looks like a really nice product do you recommend using the blue supercat cable since it’s individual insulated?
I would use them in a floor box at my church that has Ethernet but not enough xlr.
Loving your youtube channel - only recently found it! I'd use the CAT Tails for a function band I do sound for, for their horns section, as they're a big part of the show, and it would look way neater than running a multicore, or 4 separate XLRs!
The tails would be great to take our existing cat 5 lines and use them for AES drive and comm. I'd also love to try the cat snake to the stage, and use something like a cloud lifter or other preamp with the new 'presidential' 57 lectern setup. We've been trying to come up with a better solution for when the big man is in town.
i would use it as a downstage box for vocals and bass di for a small touring band. it would sit perfectly in the stagebox rack. i bought the redco version and they are not near as solid.
I would love to use these full range stereo and mono sub
Really cool product! I would use it for active floor wedges or to a amplifier, wireless receivers or transmitter's. I love the sniffer sender from them I use it all the time! or for If I have a DJ I can just run 1 ethercon to the booth and I will be done! I use a lot of dante, in the a&h dlive or a soundcraft iam gonna be using it a lot in the field!
I will say, as much as I love sound tools products (I own and use their super cat snake and sniffer) Whirlwind 1 up’d Dave with the CatDusa, it has parallel female and male connectors within one box for all 4 channels and with etherCON passthru. I use it to send COMM, Amp Remote control (CANBUS) and a pair of analog LR audio. I would be nice to have a tail ends, too so I don’t have to pull out 4 short cables. Great Vid!
Great info Kevin, I'm hoping to have the Whirlwind options in to take a look at in the future.
I run a lot of presidential announcements for the university I work for and he likes to choose a different location for everything and theses areas are not typical lecture locations. I would use them as a small snake to have the two lectern mics in and send out mains and single monitor back over 1 Cat6. Would also help with a lot of our larger productions on stage as well when we need comm for our follow spot ops instead of running 4 separate xlr
I just relaunched my sound company after being our the game since 2012 and I really don't have much but, I would like to use them for my DMX lights or to run mics at one of the events I have planned.
Gonna use for long delay speakers or towers..
Would use them for audio extensions in a HS gym.
Doing weddings/Quinces, the tails would let us route from other rooms to main PA.
Lav sounds good. not so much movement noise.
Thanks for the feedback on the Lav Tito!
I would definitely used the cat tails in my smaller setup with my behriner x air tablet/computer controlled. Sometimes I need to be able to run playback from my laptop which i also use to control the mixer. the cat tails would make it easy to send lines from FOH to the x air mixer on stage with just one Cat5 instead of my big 100 snake.
I have a junkanoo parade coming up here in the Bahamas Jan31, 2019. I have to use 8 mics (4 shotguns on every block) to capture the instruments as they make their way up the street. The Cat tail would save the long cable runs. So instead of using 8 150-200ft mic cables, I would drop the cat tail in the middle of each block and only have to run 50ft. mic cables to each destination. What do you think?
That sounds like a challenging setup for sure, do you have any photos from last years rig? I'd love to see what a junkanoo parade looks like! Thanks Chadbourne!
@@DcSoundOp I have been working for this broadcasting company (ZNS) for only about a year now, so I don't have the pics from last year, but you can view the most recent parade video on January 1, 2019 on the ZNS News Facebook page. Hope that video will give you a better idea.
@@DcSoundOp or you can look at my Instagram page @chadbeatz
@@chadbournerolle2342 LOVE the little cardioid sub array. That festival looks awesome, getting it done with the X32, nice work! For anyone who wants the link - instagram.com/chadbeatz/?hl=en
The first thing I noticed about this Vid was the audio, then you brought up the Mic at the end. It sounds thin and nasal. Does not sound like a room problem though. Maybe the adapter?
Hey Fred, thanks for the message. Fighting a huge amount of low end buildup in this space, I may have thinned things out a bit too much. Once we're back from NAMM, I'll be trying some alternate temporary treatment options & will hopefully be able to bring back some of the bottom end once the resonance has been dealt with. Thanks again!
Looked into these a number of times. They are perfect, but still too expensive... easier for the accountants to have have us pull snakes. Even tried to show them weight savings on the trucks, but even the nice Rat cable is expensive. And no one wants to use the cheap pull from a box Cat5. Too many contact points with the general public in my industry.
So my use... sports TV. At the college level, many campuses are not wired for TV, so I run into long runs for say, 2-4 mics on the far side of the field. Running a DT12 is overkill and a 4 or 6 pair is also very heavy. So the Rat Box/tails are perfect. Just can't get the funds approved when (heavier) options for exist.
Id use them in a live club environment I have the other set and love them. Wanted a set to drive my powered speakers and aux fed sub
there are too many great ways to use an adjustable length four channel xlr snake. the cat tails could be used anywhere from running over to wireless in ear boxes in their best broadcasting position, or just having a handy snake to get a few xlr ports over to the opposite side of the stage - wish they made a variable gender version with maybe 1 male 3 female or 2 of each. I would also have maybe tested this with a regular old cat5 cable just for the video's sake.
Ed Keenan they will make any combo of genders you wish. I have discussed this with them already.
Connect this SoundTools Tails to a PCIe PoE Ethernet Switcher Card ... THEN ... connect CONDENSER MIC... does the DAW ( Digital Audio Workstantion ) recognise the MIC and send 48v Phantom Power to it ? ... will I be able to record with this configuration ?
The 4 XLR cable set requires a shielded twisted pair ethernet cable ( for the 4rth channel ground)
The shield is shared as a ground for all four channels.
@@DcSoundOp Yep, with the unshielded Ethernet cable type you can only have 3 channels so it kind of sucks.
I do not have this system to test myself but I think if you want to mix mediums through this system using a Shielded Cat7 or Cat8 cable would be the way to go. You have the standard shield wrapping all the twisted pairs AND the pairs are shielded as well.
It may work and if someone could test that out for the rest of us and let us know. (hint hint)
I don't have any shielded Cat7 or 8 laying around here, but Dave Rat might if you ask him to dive into this on his channel - th-cam.com/users/www73171 - thanks for the message Richard!
Hey, quick question. Do XLR to TRS/TS cables cause impedance issues? If so, does that mean audio gear with different inputs requires a transformer to match the connectors? I can't really figure this out.
The cables themselves shouldn’t. Impedance issues would come from what it’s patched into at both ends.
@@TrevorHigginsDustysqueak This guy transforms!
Great question John! As Trevor mentioned below, it is going to be down to what you are connecting at each end. If you think about audio over CAT as replacing 4 XLR cables, that may help, as you can adapt and use them in the same manner. Let me know if you have any other questions or a specific scenario that you're thinking of that I can help clear up. Thanks!
Nice video! I would use them in a pinch to run one clean line for 4 dmx universes and/or audio for small gigs. (If you send me another break out I could possibly run a forklift or scissor lift over it)
would help simple my cable runs for an upcoming tour my friend is taking me out on
Nice, who are you going out with? Feel free to link them if you want to share what you're up to.
what is the tester/tool you are using to test the phase/connection
Looks to me like the chassis is pretty long for the actual amount of hardware that is in there.
That's a fair observation. I'm not 100% but think they may use this housing for other products that do need that extra clearance, so it may be a cost savings thing to not have to retool a whole new chassis for each product. Thanks for the message!
hi. im new to mixer stuff. and im trying to understand digital set up. im slowly sinking in about the fact that digital snake/stage box are very expensive. in other vid I saw cat rack 12 channel. is that really function as digital stage box using cat5 cable? im really hoping that it is as the s8/s16 begringer digital stage box is ridiculously expensive as im now on the verge of buying an x32 rack. which got the same price as that s16 D snake. please help. thx
Hi, I'm using one of these XLR to cat6 convertor for in-house sound system, but I'm getting a lift buzz in the background. Network cable are CAT6, there are 2 ports for audio and 2 ports for ethernet, they run together to the same rack in the network room were the audio system is sitting also. Audio source comes from a plain mixer 12 channel board and using the XLR output from that mixer. Any recommendation to remove the buzz would be appreciated it.
You didn't say if you are using Shielded cable or not, you'll want to make sure you are using it & I would recommend the stuff SoundTools sells if you're looking for an example. Thanks for the message!
sweet!
I would run them over with a forklift to see if they can really handle it! Actually I would probably not destroy them.lol I would however love to use them in my studio. Great demo btw!
Photos confirming ownership of a forklift & intent may sway the giveaway results...
This cat tail would help me as the snake in my church goes underground and the pipe is clogged thousands of dollars would be saved going over cat cable which could be mounted easily
I don't see the use in it, to be honest. In a live situation nowadays, everything already runs through an ethernet cable or a two (or more) 24-pairs multicores is also still used. It probably also works with an extra ADDA conversion and therefore; no thanks. You mentioned the use of intercoms, how does it work with the "call" button and the "Attention" LED & Beep?
Kevin Hey Kevin, great question. These units are totally passive, no conversion or anything like that. They are using the high quality twisted pair in a CAT cable to essentially replace an XLR line. Anything you can do with an XLR cable (for the most part) will work just fine over an Audio over CAT5 adapters.
Let me know if you have any other questions, thanks for watching & takin the time to comment!
Ok, that means that there is no difference with a 4 pairs multicore and a socapex breakout, except price on the pro side and sturdiness & reliability on the contra side, I think. I actually never did the experiment so I cannot say, but because the 4 channels use a common screen/ground, what about crosstalk?
Four channel with common ground?
You got it!
The lavs are okay a bit tinny tbh
Thanks for the feedback, I may have overstepped on the HPF trying to deal with the crazy low end build up in this room. More work to do for sure to smooth things out a bit in this space.
What's that cable tester you have?
Lol did you watch the video? 11:23
It's the Radio Design Labs PT-AMG2 - www.rdlnet.com/product.php?page=1 I'll be doing more on this one in the future, I've only had it in the shop for a few weeks.
Paolo Poso LOL I did. Missed it.
I would love to win a set of cat tails to set up a com and shout system between FOH and Mon. World
I would use it for different things.
mostly for small solo artists or lecturns/presentation setups, at other times as an extra 4-pair snake to run from keys or a brass/choir, or comms from FoH together with a dmx line.
Btw. in Europe you can get a cheap version, pretty ok for dmx but not sure about running audio through it:
www.thomann.de/gb/stairville_rj45_dmx_shuttle_snake_mx4.htm#
Just 4 channels ?
Well... it essentially replaces 4 XLR lines. If you're running AES, that's 8 channels. DMX would be 4 universes of 512 channels. The limiting factor though is the 4 twisted pairs inside the cable, if you need more than this, you can use the same cable but need to move to a audio over IP solution like Dante or AVB. Great question though Vadim!
I've been looking to get into this kind of stuff for a while...we run lots of individual lines under the stage, and it's hard to reach them underneath.. This might help our church solve the issue of using tons of cables we could use elsewhere on top of the stage!