LED Bulbs in studio

jckinnick · Post by **jckinnick** » Tue Apr 16, 2013 7:17 pm

Ive heard stories of CFL bulbs causing some interference but what about LED bulbs?

Jed · Post by **Jed** » Wed Apr 17, 2013 7:21 am

I just put four of these in my studio: http://m.homedepot.com/p/Cree-9-5-Watt- ... /203991774

They are pretty amazing. Haven't tried them with a dimmer yet but they seem to be totally silent. The best part is only 14 watts of heat for the equivalent of 240 watts of light.

I have not held up a guitar pickup to them yet to see if they are radiating much. I'll report back on that when I have a chance.

Drone · Post by **Drone** » Wed Apr 17, 2013 11:47 am

I have one above my console, and I haven't noticed any interference, but it's more of an ambient light, I have to turn on another light to actually see things.

How do these things run, is there a little switch mode supply in there or what?

Scodiddly · Post by **Scodiddly** » Wed Apr 17, 2013 3:26 pm

It will typically be a switching power supply in the bulb, though some cheaper bulbs will play tricks with linear supply.

LED video walls have been known to generate a lot of RF noise, but that's mostly because they can have a lot of unshielded wiring out to each LED. A bulb is self-contained and probably no worse than any compact flourescent.

roscoenyc · Post by **roscoenyc** » Wed Apr 17, 2013 4:12 pm

They also generate very little heat.

Drone · Post by **Drone** » Wed Apr 17, 2013 6:32 pm

Yeah they look nice in paper chinese lanterns.

Darlington Pair · Post by **Darlington Pair** » Thu Apr 18, 2013 7:03 am

I have a few in my studio, but my lighting wiring is separate from my outlets and I have noticed some problems with single coils and unshielded tubes, but really only in close proximity. So Where guitars and amps are just have very low wattage incandescent lights. I haven't noticed any problems in my control area.

Jed · Post by **Jed** » Mon Apr 22, 2013 12:33 pm

I checked last night with a mustang bass (which is a split single coil). With my amp cranked I didn't get any hum at all until I got the pickup within 6 inches of the lamp. If I can get 10 minutes I'll check again tonight with an LDC.

crow · Post by **crow** » Thu Apr 25, 2013 8:07 pm

I don't know if all LED bulbs are like this, but the ones I've checked out all seem too "strobey" for my taste, so fast movements like drumming, strumming, etc. seem to flicker. How are those Cree bulbs in that department?

goose134 · Post by **goose134** » Tue Apr 30, 2013 10:31 pm

Not all lamps are like that. I can't speak for the Cree lamps specifically, but the building I work in moved dozens of showrooms last year and offered a fantastic deal on LED lamping for their new locations. We mostly used a brand called Acculight. I would pay you cash money if you could tell me the difference between it and a halogen lamp.

20 watts, 1400 lumens, 50,000 hour lamp life. Yes, the $50 tag is steep, but it is the last lamp you'll buy.

Scodiddly · Post by **Scodiddly** » Wed May 01, 2013 6:45 am

There are some LED... er, not exactly bulbs. Elements? Cores? The actual working bit on a little tiny hexagonal heatsink, usually a "star" in the industry parlance. Some of those will run directly off AC, meaning that there will be a 100 or 120 Hz flicker which most people can't see. The one I used does do the guitar string strobing bit, though.

Anyway, I'd expect some commercial replacement bulbs to use that approach, hence the flickering. Others will use a DC power supply, more parts and more expensive but dead smooth.

It's not that big a deal to build your own LED fixtures using available high power LEDs, heatsinks (heatsinks are *very* important!), current-limiting controllers, etc. I power mine from old laptop power supplies since the controllers I use are pretty tolerant about input voltage.

http://www.LEDSupply.com is where I buy most of my parts.

losthighway · Post by **losthighway** » Wed May 01, 2013 7:14 am

That's so odd. A venue in town put in spot lights that are made up of a large group of LED's. I was performing on guitar and looked down, my low E seemed to be waggling so erratically I thought the string was broken and barely hanging on. It made me stumble for a moment and lean down to hear my amp clearly and voice the chord so you could almost only hear that string. 'Ooop, no problem just an optical illusion'. Weird.

Jed · Post by **Jed** » Wed May 01, 2013 3:36 pm

I got the 9 watt "warm white" Cree bulbs and they perform almost exactly like regular incandescents. There is no detectable flicker or noise. They turns on immediately and produce nice light (in my opinion). The only way they differs is that they glows for about 1 second on turn off.

My only regret is buying the 9 watt variety instead of the 6 watt bulbs as the 9 watt bulbs are ending up brighter than I expected. I may move them to somewhere else in my house and get the 6 watters instead.

Here's a cool article and inside view of the Cree bulbs:http://www.technologyreview.com/view/51 ... ould-love/

I too have had a weird experience with LED stage spots while playing at a local club here in Portland. The club kicked on their light system about half way through a song. It was so distracting/flashy/stroby that it made me a little disoriented and dizzy.

Scodiddly · Post by **Scodiddly** » Wed May 01, 2013 3:59 pm

White LEDs tend to be around 3.5 volts, and if you're going to use a whole bunch of them you could put them in series and run them right off 120v. And LEDs are instant on/off, so they'd definitely act like strobes.

goose134 · Post by **goose134** » Wed May 01, 2013 6:41 pm

Scodiddly wrote:There are some LED... er, not exactly bulbs. Elements? Cores? The actual working bit on a little tiny hexagonal heatsink, usually a "star" in the industry parlance.

The glowing bit on an LED lamp is called a light engine.

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LED Bulbs in studio

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