How far is your ProTools computer from your control room?

[Sender]

Originally Posted by Diablo

How far is your ProTools computer from your control room or work area?

I am just wondering where everyone puts their noisy computer beasts. I am installing Protools HD in my house and I'm killing myself comparing loudness specs of computer case fans, CPU coolers and power supplies, etc. So then I had a mighty brainstorm: Just put the computer a couple of rooms away and run 50' cables into my control room!!!! That way I can put in the heavy duty fans and not worry about the noise or the cooling.

I figure I could get the following:

- 50' Digilink cable
- 3 16' USB active extension cables for a keyboard or 2 25' Din Cables
- 3 16' USB active extension cables for a mouse or 2 25' Din Cables
- 2 50' VGA cables (one for each monitor)
- 50' Ethernet cable for a Control 24

Am I missing anything? Has anyone tried it? I have never used Protools before so I have no idea what's involved. This not a commercial installation, so I can always walk to the other room to burn CD's or even run 3 15' firewire extensions to an external burner. A quiet control room is very important because I record almost everything except drums in there.

Thats what we do, it works out quite well! Instead of those USB extenders, you can get this device that will convert USB into signal that can be carried down an ethernet cable. Then at the other end you have a device that does the exact inverse. It's quite handy, and looks alot better then a whole bunch of cable coupled together.

Something like this...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ch&ATT=WebCams

[T_R_S]

I have a machine room about 20 feet away and I have all the inerfaces in the old 16 track machine soffit connect with the stock 12' cable. I use a passive monitor extension and a passive 12 USB with an active hub for the keyboard trackball & iloks/XSkey. Also I have 30 ' firewire active cable for the DVD/CD drive. It all works well no noise at all as we have an expansion chassis and about 6 external drives.

[Dave Martin]

My monitor, keyboard and trackball are at the end of 75 feet of connector cable - the same Gefen Extender I used with my Mac 9600 and my Mix system (some adapters are being used...) The G5 sits in a machine room, and so do the interfaces - why would you need to have them acessible if you have a patchbay?

[Sobe]

what if you have flat screens with DVI cables .......

[Diablo]

Thanks guys, for the responses, I'm glad to see that I'm on the right track. I already ordered everything that I need from Newegg.

Dave Martin, you, roundaboutly, bring up a point that I didn't think about: Are the Protools 192 I/O interfaces noisy? I have yet to open the box on mine so I don't know if it has a fan. But this bears more investigation...

[Dave Martin]

Originally Posted by Diablo

Dave Martin, you, roundaboutly, bring up a point that I didn't think about: Are the Protools 192 I/O interfaces noisy? I have yet to open the box on mine so I don't know if it has a fan. But this bears more investigation...

Yes, they have fans. And when you're using a number of them, the noise can be distracting. In my machine room, I have the G5, two PC's (one for general use like talking on GS, and one that's the automation computer for the console), a number of power amps (with fans), the console PS (which has a couple of fans), two 192's, and (currently) 4 firewire drives. It's pretty noisy in there, though the Firewires aren't as bad as the SCSI drives I just sold. In the control room, on the other hand, the only fan that I can hear is the one in a Kurzweil K2500RS (I've disconnected the cooling fans in my Vac Racs, after Stever Firlotte told me that it would be OK to do so).

[Diablo]

Originally Posted by Dave Martin

Yes, they have fans. And when you're using a number of them, the noise can be distracting.

Arrgh! Well, back to the proverbial drawing board. I will have to find a place to put it that will minimize its noise. Thanks for confirming that.

Sobe: About the DVI, I orginally was planning to use the DVI out on my video card, but now I'm getting a different video card, one with two D-subs. I will use that with the two 50' VGA cables I ordered from Newegg.

[Sobe]

when I sent DVI through analog cables the picture quality got so so lost .. to get DVI extender boxes 50 feet cost big bucks but that is the only way the picture quality is not comprimised ...

[7rojo7]

I have exactly what you want except I have 3 digilink cables. I have it fixed in the studio and a duplicate set for location gigs. To keep it neat I put up some wall conduit in the studio and have a preconfigured snake for location. I have 1 192 (8in - 16 out) that you can hear sometimes, but my Prisms (8 in - 8 out and 16 in) are dead quiet. I like to see the meters, call me paranoid. I keep all noise making heat producing stuff in another room or gar away from me on location, all my stuff is permanently in road cases so I designed my racks to keep all my wiring as cohesive and short as possible, thus my converters live in the patch bay rack. But if you have to put your 192 in another room it's no big deal, 8 pair cable isn't that thick or expensive. I have tons of it in wall conduit for the studio and more tons of it to take out on location.
I have 2 NEC 2080UX+ monitors that give me a fine view after 50 ft VGA extensions, unless you're doing graphics or video, I don't see it as worth the expense to extend DVI.
That USB contraption sounds like a nice thing though, I have a couple of warts in my live snake that I'd like that they would disappear