people with consoles

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michaelkerchner
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people with consoles

Post by michaelkerchner » Thu Sep 26, 2019 8:54 am

Do you power down your desks? i have a Trident 80B that i dont believe has been switched off for a couple years. i know they have a "slow start" circuit but for some reason i get the heebie jeebies thinking about switching it on and off.
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Re: people with consoles

Post by kslight » Thu Sep 26, 2019 9:54 am

At the studio I do work out of we always shut the whole place down when we are done...console (MCI), 2”, rack... I imagine this is largely done to let the room cool down and cut down on electricity expenses.

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Re: people with consoles

Post by markjazzbassist » Thu Sep 26, 2019 10:04 am

your electric bill must be massive

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michaelkerchner
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Re: people with consoles

Post by michaelkerchner » Thu Sep 26, 2019 12:39 pm

ha ha i know its not energy efficient, i do however have 81 solar panels on my roof to help out a little. plus i dont think the 80b draw even touches the machine shop in the basement. ill start powering her down and see how it goes, though id hate to deal with a blown supply with a lot of work coming up.
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A.David.MacKinnon
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Re: people with consoles

Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Thu Sep 26, 2019 6:27 pm

I’ve gone both ways with this. I currently power down the whole studio when I’m not working. It keeps the heat at bay and conserves energy and money. I see no ill effects from powering down. The console (a Soundcraft 500/600 hybrid) is stable.

At my last place my studio mate had an MCI that was left on 24/7 all year long. The heat from it and the supplies was brutal but it would get buggy if it was powered down, often taking as long as a day to get stable again. We were running a commercial room with our own clients and outside engineers coming and going. Things needed to work every day and leaving the console powered up kept us going day in day out.

These days I work from home and if the console goes down I’ve got workarounds and can be up and running fairly quick. It’s less of a high pressure situation and I’m willing to take the risk.

You’ll only know how the trident will react after you start powering down but I’d advise waiting until you’ve got a slow spot in the calendar.

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michaelkerchner
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Re: people with consoles

Post by michaelkerchner » Fri Sep 27, 2019 3:23 am

thanks for the info, and yeah, like David suggested, in the middle of busy time probably isnt the best idea to start running potential console crippling experiments.

i am curious as to what in the console took time to get stable? was it just a very long warming up process that you would have to wait through?
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Re: people with consoles

Post by drumsound » Fri Sep 27, 2019 11:38 am

I leave mine on. I had to have the PSU redone last year, and I've considered powering it down nightly after that, but I'm a little paranoid/superstitious about it. Last week my AC went down, so I shut the console down until the AC fixed. Console seems fine after power up. I probably should shut it down more often. It runs pretty cool for a console.

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Re: people with consoles

Post by losthighway » Fri Sep 27, 2019 11:47 am

I had to drop a couple hundred bucks to get my power supply fixed last year, it feels like less wear-and-tear to power it down when I'm not using it- although some people have suggested the opposite.

Also I'm not doing daily sessions right now, so to have that thing humming away for 3-4 days without being used just seems insane.

I am liking the standby mode on the new Focals. I don't have to think about it, they just turn off when nothing is happening.

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A.David.MacKinnon
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Re: people with consoles

Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Sat Sep 28, 2019 7:54 am

michaelkerchner wrote:
Fri Sep 27, 2019 3:23 am
thanks for the info, and yeah, like David suggested, in the middle of busy time probably isnt the best idea to start running potential console crippling experiments.

i am curious as to what in the console took time to get stable? was it just a very long warming up process that you would have to wait through?
Routing switches would get staticky and some channels would develop what I can only describe as the bad cap sound. Intermittent high pitched static and popping. The sound of 40 year old electronics. After a day everything would settle down and be fine.

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Re: people with consoles

Post by Nick Sevilla » Sat Sep 28, 2019 9:29 am

I power my Allen & Heath GL2800 only when I use it. Seems good. Owned it since 2008.
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Re: people with consoles

Post by leftofthedial » Mon Sep 30, 2019 7:09 am

Heat is the enemy of electrolytic capacitors. Leaving a console on when not in use will just speed up the drying out process. My Opinion. Your's may differ.
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Re: people with consoles

Post by joninc » Mon Sep 30, 2019 1:52 pm

I never power down my board (Soundcraft Ghost) or power amp (Bryston) unless I am going on holidays and it would be down for a week or more.
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Re: people with consoles

Post by vvv » Mon Sep 30, 2019 4:00 pm

bandcamp;
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michaelkerchner
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Re: people with consoles

Post by michaelkerchner » Tue Oct 01, 2019 5:49 am

vvv wrote:
Mon Sep 30, 2019 4:00 pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHvMtU7hq9Q
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Re: people with consoles

Post by mwerden » Wed Oct 02, 2019 11:23 am

I have a small Studer 962 that gets powered up/down regularly. Not quite the same, I know.

I used to work with older (than me) generation folks who would have this debate. Arguments for leaving things on usually boiled down to "That's how this guy did it back at the studio I was at this one time" or "Things stop working good when I turn the console off". If I had problems with power cycling then I'd want to get those problems fixed, personally. If I was worried about an onion layered repair situation with an old console, I might consider leaving it on.
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