machine room...

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joninc
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machine room...

Post by joninc » Tue Apr 02, 2019 9:30 pm

hearing the faint hum of my computer and radar's fans and hardrives is slowly driving me insane. I don't know why I didn't factor in a machine room for this new studio when we built it 5 years ago but I gotta do something and no it's not gonna be enough to replace a few components in my tower...

it's partly that I track in the same space where the computers is housed and on quiet stuff it's annoying and audible. It's also that I had a DeAD quiet room in my old space where all the computer crap was on the other side of a wall in the hallway and the combo live room/mix room was silent so I miss that a lot.

Either gotta build a little closet or something outside of the studio (this idea makes me pretty nervous so most likely it will need to be something IN the studio).

Anyone built a small machine room? Any tips? (I do realize it will require ventilation :)

thanks!
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losthighway
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Re: machine room...

Post by losthighway » Wed Apr 03, 2019 4:33 am

joninc wrote:
Tue Apr 02, 2019 9:30 pm
hearing the faint hum of my computer and radar's fans and hardrives is slowly driving me insane. I don't know why I didn't factor in a machine room for this new studio when we built it 5 years ago but I gotta do something and no it's not gonna be enough to replace a few components in my tower...

it's partly that I track in the same space where the computers is housed and on quiet stuff it's annoying and audible. It's also that I had a DeAD quiet room in my old space where all the computer crap was on the other side of a wall in the hallway and the combo live room/mix room was silent so I miss that a lot.

Either gotta build a little closet or something outside of the studio (this idea makes me pretty nervous so most likely it will need to be something IN the studio).

Anyone built a small machine room? Any tips? (I do realize it will require ventilation :)

thanks!
I don't know how big your stuff is, but I would start by sketching up some kind of cabinet to see if everything could fit, if the fan noise could be reduced, and if all of this could happen with adequate ventilation. Could save space and $$.

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Re: machine room...

Post by drumsound » Wed Apr 03, 2019 6:41 am

Of even a professionally made iso box.

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ulriggribbons
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Re: machine room...

Post by ulriggribbons » Wed Apr 03, 2019 7:00 am

I installed a quieter fan in my Radar 24, and that was enough to justify not needing a different room for it here. If it's just the Radar, worth some investigation.

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Re: machine room...

Post by digitaldrummer » Wed Apr 03, 2019 7:08 am

depending on where the equipment is located, maybe even some sound absorption (Auralex or whatever) on any nearby reflective surfaces might keep it from leaking into mics (or your head...).
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Re: machine room...

Post by Nick Sevilla » Thu Apr 04, 2019 9:02 am

Howling at the neighbors. Hoping they have more mic cables.

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joninc
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Re: machine room...

Post by joninc » Thu Apr 04, 2019 7:21 pm

these are not in the budget but thanks!
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Re: machine room...

Post by vvv » Fri Apr 05, 2019 4:14 am

"Welcome, my friends, to the ..."
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Re: machine room...

Post by roscoenyc » Fri Apr 05, 2019 4:36 am

All 3 of our locations have been "One Room Plus".
When we had our old Hoover-Mac G4 we got one of those passive boxes that brought the noise down to zero.
I think we paid about $900 bucks for it. It was really worth it for us.

Sorry we still don't have it cause I think I pretty much gave it away a couple years back.

I bet there are some DIY plans out there for an ISO box?

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Re: machine room...

Post by frans_13 » Fri Apr 05, 2019 9:21 am

I built an iso box for my machine - big enough so the heat has some room, made from sandwiched woodchip to cut down on resonances (a 1.5 inch fixed to a 0.6 inch (or so) board). It didn't even need a fan, because it's big enough. Also heavy. Houses my ancient G4 tower, which sits on another board that sits on top of some dense foam inside the box, no vibrations to transmit from outside to inside and so on. The cables come out via a hole between the back door and the frame - wrapped in some more foam. The whole thing is maybe waist-high and plus a 19" rack on it (some more foam inbetween) and a little bit of sandwiched board/foam/board underneath. Works. I got a utility app in the computer to monitor cpu temperature but after a few months i noticed it never gets too hot, so case closed. (hinged doors front and back) Sometimes i open it between takes or in breaks just in case. No problems at all, more than 10 years.
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Re: machine room...

Post by vvv » Fri Apr 05, 2019 11:58 am

FWIW, at my place I just take the computer noise as thankfully less than the car doors and motors, dog barks and bird calls, bathroom fan switching and terlet flushes, and daughter on the phone in the next room ...

But I only record me and mines.
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