I leave my computer stuff on 24-7, when I managed a commercial recording studio we left everything but the 'tube gear' on 24-7, when I had a private studio in my house, I would turn it on an hour or two before I was going to start using it. It also cost about $3/hr. in electricity to run the studio, which is an acceptable 'overhead expense' in a commercial facility, and a dumbass expense in a private facility.

Let me add that your typical DAW/Mackie-adat home rig isn't going to cost anywhere near $3/hr. in electricity.

My last home studio had a 32x 24 x 24,fully discrete API, an Ampex ATR-124 24 track, a Studer A-800 16 track, and about 80 RU worth of outboard gear, two tube plates and 3x 1/2 track decks (one 1/2", two 1/4", all Studers). It drew some juice. It was tied into the mains for the house, with a pretty serious UPS on it that also functioned as a 'master on/off switch'.

The "home studio" before that had a Trident 80 series and a Studer A-800 24 track, pretty much the same 'everything else' (no 16 track), and it only cost about $1.00 to $1.50 an hour to run.

Originally posted by Fletcher:

My last home studio had a 32x 24 x 24,fully discrete API, an Ampex ATR-124 24 track, a Studer A-800 16 track, and about 80 RU worth of outboard gear, two tube plates and 3x 1/2 track decks (one 1/2", two 1/4", all Studers). The "home studio" before that had a Trident 80 series and a Studer A-800 24 track,

:eek: Sweet :eek:

That's great Fletcher, thanks.

So you do think that it is better for the life of tube gear to turn it off than leave it on? Or was that a cost consideration? What about "thermal shock" of turning tube gear things on and off? Is that just BS?

Thanks again.

-Dennis

I turn all my stuff off because I'm worried about something burning up :o I think it's sorta funny. Kinda like the wall outlet snarl of xmas tree plugs. That master power cord never gets hot though, so I think I'm somewhat OK. Hmm. $1/hr in electricity? That's $720 a month if I left my stuff on 24 hours! Akk! My studio is for myself- I don't charge my friends :p so I don't think I'll be leaving my stuff on...

Originally posted by retreading:
So you do think that it is better for the life of tube gear to turn it off than leave it on? Or was that a cost consideration? What about "thermal shock" of turning tube gear things on and off? Is that just BS?

We turned off the tube stuff to extend 'tube life', we left everything else on so it would stay nice and stable...just the way we left it (in the commercial facility I used to run...that and all the big studios left their stuff on all the time, plus we were pretty well booked).

Sounds like tube life is prolonged by shutting the stuff down. I guess I'll just shut everything down.

$3/hr!!! At power-starved California's rates that's over 30 kilowatts! That's like 27 hair dryers running all at once. :eek:

-Dennis

Hey Fletcher, you mentioned that you were using a UPS for powering your home studio. Is there a specific variety of UPS that's "better" for audio applications?

I was planning on adding a UPS onto my rig at home, but one of my techie pals talked me out of it, claiming that most UPS's don't have a "clean" enough output for powering audio gear. Something about the UPS distorting the nice sinusoidal shape of the AC current and adding all kinds of nasty artifacts to it, in turn inducing distortion in all downline gear.

Whaddya think?

I've had my desk PSU burn out from leaving it on all the time. Beware of gear that is designed for other markets and doesn't quite have the extra work put in to make it 100% compatible with your mains voltage.

Also beware of mains voltages that vary - in my area they are terrible, you wouldn't believe the amount of light bulbs I go through!