3-Way Non Iso Split?

[Sam Amato]

It looks like I'll be recording a show in a club where I think they are already splitting the mics & DI's on stage to a FOH and monitor console using a non transformer isolated splitter. I'll find out more details about the show and the club soon. My splitter snake is also non transformer isolated. Normally, I would just have all the mics & DI's go to my snake first; one feed goes to the FOH snake, one feed goes to me at the side of the stage. I have yet to try this in a 3-way split situation, however, and I'm hoping some of you may be able to share your experiences/advice.

[AllBread]

Throw down your split next to the stage split and patch all the sub-snakes into yours. Take one snake to your recording rig and then patch the other into the house's split box (which is probably already ran to FOH and monitors). I do it this way with 2 2-ways all of time. Of course, I have transformers in my split and I take the isolated end.

Transformers are, obviously, ideal but you don't have them you don't have them. Just make sure that everyone is communicating about their repatching and sending phantom power, anything done by any console is going to send a spike to all the other monitoring systems (which can really suck when you're using cans).

Of course, your only other option is renting a three way split. If, by chance, your snake and the clubs snake all use the same multi-pin connector, you can keep the snakes ran and just switch out the splitter on stage. Anything else might make the house guys unhappy.

[Sam Amato]

That's basically what I was thinking; just do it and be extra careful. Thanks for correcting me on my terminology. This would be 2, 2-way splits; not a 3-way split.

[LX3]

This scenario makes me really nervous. Can you rent a Whirlwind or some other cheap transformer splitter?

One of the great things about transformer splits is that you can patch them into the house system's non-isolated split and just take the transformer side to your rig. So no repatching onstage, but you are still isolated from their system.

What you're doing will probably work fine, but I wouldn't want to stake my reputation on it... and wouldn't want to leave it until the night of the gig to find out.

[Sam Amato]

Good points LX3. I will look into the rental option also.

[Gilliland]

Originally Posted by Sam Amato

It looks like I'll be recording a show in a club where I think they are already splitting the mics & DI's on stage to a FOH and monitor console using a non transformer isolated splitter. I'll find out more details about the show and the club soon. My splitter snake is also non transformer isolated. Normally, I would just have all the mics & DI's go to my snake first; one feed goes to the FOH snake, one feed goes to me at the side of the stage. I have yet to try this in a 3-way split situation, however, and I'm hoping some of you may be able to share your experiences/advice.

I do this stuff all the time. I'd rather have an ISO split, but sometimes you have to play the cards you're dealt. If you're moderately careful, it will work fine. Just make sure that everyone who is attached to any of those splits draws their power from a circuit that is attached to the same ground. Otherwise it's easy to get into problems with hum. And, as someone else mentioned, make sure that you work out in advance exactly who is providing phantom to each channel.

Ask them if they're using the monitor split for this show. At many clubs, the monitor split is used only about 10% of the time - at any other time, you can use that split for recording - which means that you can leave your own snake at home. That tends to make the club sound guy more comfortable (since he knows his snake, but he doesn't know yours), and it's less gear for you to carry - a win/win.

If they ARE using a separate monitor mix, then you need to verify that all of the mics are comfortable (impedance-wise) with the combined load that they are seeing. So make sure that everything gets properly tested at sound check. But that's true even WITH isolation, so it's not unique to this scenario.