Hi all,
Just like to say that I considered building (or buying) just such a cabinet (like the one in Kurt's fine review) until I realised how easy it actually is to relocate your computer outside of the studio room.
To begin with I considered KVM extenders and the like (expensive), but in actual fact you can reliably extend your monitor cable by up to 30 feet with no effect on picture quality, I've got two of these for two monitors (you cannot do it with any old cable you need the highest quality shielded extension with molded plugs such as belkins pro range or lyndy's).
Your keyboard and mouse will also extend to that length extremely reliably, that leaves USB and your actual recording interface. USB will go 15 ft, but if you get a hub you can then go another 15 ft and by using a usb CD recorder, you have full access to CDr and CD facility.
It does take a little extra work to lay the cable and snake it around but nothing compared to what I thought.
Only problem is that now it's so quiet that the low hum of my powered monitors bothers me. I didn't hear it before.
Audio Creature (also known as Gregory) :D
Comments
David French wrote: Expensive? http://www.vpi.us/ When I said
David French wrote: Expensive?
When I said expensive for the KVM extender, I meant the professional kind that are 2 boxes linked by an ethernet cable, this would be the ultimate solution fof the KV and 2x M part because you only have a tiny ethernet cable (or 2) to lay between rooms.
Also, I believe those cheapy cables in your link are unlikely to work to 30ft.
The real costs are as follows:
About £50 ($90 US) for the quality cables (1x 30ft KVM extension cable, 1x 30ft monitor extension cable (so that's 2 monitors), 1x 10ft USB, 20 to 25ft of 70ohm digital if going to a dac like me, use quality antenna cable works perfectly).
Instead of the dac, If your pc audio interface includes balanced outs, then you can reliably substitute the 70ohm cable with 2x 20 to 25 ft of microphone cable to go to your (balanced input) amp or active monitors.
Then there's $30 to $40 for the USB hub. A usb hub is a useful thing to have anyway as you can plug all kinds of stuff in there (like that USB cigar lighter you got fro christmas)
Other thing I need to add is that of course midi only goes 10 ft, for me that was no problem, but if you need more length you will need signal a booster.
AC
A lot of home studios are built in a single room where performin
A lot of home studios are built in a single room where performing, mixing all occur in the same space ... you might be moving the computer away from the workstation and monitors but moving it closer to an area in the room where you would have a singer standing in front of the mic and the noise is being recorded instead of just interfering with mixing.
You are assuming everyone has the space or a room next to their CR to move the computer far away enough to attenuate the noise. In situations (like mine) where there is nowhere to move the computer the Silence Case solution is a no brainier. Its been three years now since I purchased my Silence Case and I am still very content with it.
audio creature wrote: HansAm, Great, but sounds like a much big
audio creature wrote: HansAm,
Great, but sounds like a much bigger job than the above. Why build a luxury hotel for your noisy comp, when you probably have a room next door?
A.C. (a.k.a. Gregory)
Yeah. Extra work. But i cant wait to get started on the project, I think it will look realy cool. and seems i will be able to build a 1,1 meter tall and 1m deep rack with a noise-dutch ventilation and a lookingglass in front for less than. $200.
Room for several computers, amps and other units.
Kurt Foster wrote: You are assuming everyone has the space or
Kurt Foster wrote:
You are assuming everyone has the space or a room next to their CR to move the computer far away enough to attenuate the noise. In situations (like mine) where there is nowhere to move the computer the Silence Case solution is a no brainier. Its been three years now since I purchased my Silence Case and I am still very content with it.
I simply took it as given that you cannot implement a solution where you do not have the possibility to implement that solution. The point of the post was not to discount the cabinet as a solution, but to point out that in certain situations, this is by no means the best or most cost effective one.
This is worth knowing, because when I was looking into solving the noise problem, I was not even aware of how far you can reliably distance your console/midi/usb from your computer case, how to go about it and how much it would cost. In my case it turned out that relocating the pc was the ideal solution, in others clearly the cabinet is the way to go.
Gregory
i didnt have another room to throw my computer into, but closet
i didnt have another room to throw my computer into, but closet worked just as well, with some extra pillows and clothes for added insulation (while avoiding overheating). ended up costing me less than $14 altogether for two 6 ft monitor extension cables (dual-monitor setup), though i already had a wireless keyboard/mouse and one or two other helpful but cheap extension chords lying around. zero noise leakage, its nice. thats about as cheap as it gets.
Expensive? http://www.vpi.us/
Expensive?
http://www.vpi.us/