Do you turn off your gear?

[Bump Music]

My tech suggested I leave everything on, all the time. He said the temperature change is the worst thing for gear. Thoughts?

My question is, aside from being bad for gear, does temperature change affect the sound/levels of solid state gear?

[garymusic]

Is your tech going to pay your electric bill? I turn everything off when I am not using it.

-Gary

[adrianex]

same here. The only thing is one I turn something on,let say a reverb unit for a quick mic I leave it one for the rest of the day, until I go home. So far most of the equipment is been with me for a while with out a single problem.

Cheers

[cjogo]

the gear is on as long as the client is there paying..and then only the units we are working with, at the time. No use having pres, tube mics ,,running when say you are mixing/mastering.

[Bump Music]

I just experienced a 2 db increase between my cold gear chain and warm gear chain. Anyone else experience that?

[indie]

Originally Posted by Bump Music

I just experienced a 2 db increase between my cold gear chain and warm gear chain. Anyone else experience that?

I notice a volume difference too...don't know if it's 2 db for me though.

[vixapphire]

I notice a pretty huge volume difference between when it's off and on, but that's about it.

I usually leave all the digital crap on but shut off the tube gear and the old analog stuff. Don't know how much of a difference it makes, but I heard somewhere that the most "wear" is put on during power cycling rather than while the stuff is just sitting there "on". Never bothered to look too far into that well, though.

[Watersound]

Yeah, it's a good idea to only leave your tube gear on when you are using it, but other than that I sometimes leave my studio on for weeks at a time.

[bobby yarrow]

I only turn off gear with tubes in it, unless I know I'm going to be out of the studio for a few days.

[drBill]

I turn it off. The electrical savings on the studio and AC will more than offset anything that may blow on powerup. I've had the console PS go down once when powering up, but most everything is OK with it.

[Brent Hahn]

The only things I leave on are the Mackie HUI, which goes wacky when power-cycled, and the Bryston 2B amp, which A.) has no power switch and B.) puts a zap through the speakers when you unplug the power cord. When I spoke to the Bryston folks about this unfortunate pairing of features, they told me the 2B was "meant to be left on." Mm-hm.

[Sqye]

i find that if i dress scantily, i usually turn my gear ON

[stagefright13]

I turn everything OFF everyday. An analog reel to reel may need to be left on or you may have to adjust it every time. But...
I have stuff I bought in 1982! that I turn on and off all the time and is still going. Such as my delta lab ADM 256's got 2 of them still working since 1982. Altho I left them on constantly from 1985 thru 1988. Doesn't make any difference. I have a bunch of late 80's stuff I only turn on when I need it and they are all functional too. Also got stuff from early 90's still working. Roland and Digitech stuff. I shut it off when not in use.
Got a Tascam Da30 mkII I bought late 90's shut it off or on all the time. Still working. And all my 2000+ gear gets shut off every day. And my computers too. Leaving stuff on for some reason is a bunch of crap. Even my tube gear I only turn it on like an hour before I use it. Save the electricity and the gear. Power supplies get hot and burn out. Heat is the biggest foe of gear. Keep it cool...

[audiothings]

i have a dbx 168 compressor and an rme quadmic which have no power switches... they stay on all the time that i'm in the studio. Turn the master switches off when i'm leaving for home.

[gainreduction]

Also consider the fire hazard with gear running hot.

The risk is small to non-existant but it's still there.

I'm more comfortable beeing in the studio than at home when/if something blows.

I can see the point in leaving large consoles on but other than that, just turn it off and sleep well at night.

[DarkSky]

Originally Posted by Sqye

i find that if i dress scantily, i usually turn my gear ON

LOL. Definitely a gearSlut...

[PhilE]

I turn the whole room on or off... I only have a couple of pre's that arent attached to something I use for mixing and they would be in a flight case not a rack anyway as I track away from my mix room.

[Ruudman]

I leave the console on unless I'm away for some days.
Other gear gets switched off.

ruudman

[Musiclab]

I power off just about everything everyday. But I turn everything on usually an hour before I start and leave it on all day.

[Sticky Shed]

I think you have to balance the cost and environmental aspects of repairing or replacing gear against the power used when your gear is "idling". I leave my gear on: for example my Mackie desk has now been running for 13 years continuously without issue; I simply don't have gear breakdowns. I agree with your tech friend. If you want operational stability keep it running. Protect yourself from surges of course and ignore the above if you live in an area prone to frequent thunder storms.

[PhilE]

My desk has 10U of power supply and I pay the electricity bill- I should leave it on but the bill is plenty big enough as it is!

[doubledecker]

I think there is absolutely no difference whatsoever whether you leave the gear on or off.I never heard of anybody's anything blowing up because they switched something off or on.But i heard storysof gear overheating and blowing up.I switch my gear off,obviously

[xist]

May I ask? What about active speakers? It's better to turn them off and on from their switches or leave them on and turn them off at the end of the day from the general room switch?

[slipperman]

My biggest desk draws as much current as 3 average American households every day.

I have 4 rooms with desks.

I STARTED turning the power off, for the first time since the early 90's, to try to save some loot... as the yearly electrical bill around here runs about $36,000.

Been doing it for about month.

So far I'm getting away with it.

Scared sh*tless about it actually.

Had a nightmare that everything melted like Velveta on power-up the other night. I was running from power supply locker to power supply locker, and when I threw each door open... the power supplies had been transformed into huge red and white Igloo coolers that said "KFC" with the Colonels head embossed on them. No sh*t. Woke up sweating my ass off. It's funny now, but I was hating life at the time. HOHOHO.

Best regards,

SM.

[CSHARP]

This is a long standing issue with pro's and con's for both sides. I have not had any repairs related to power supply replacements (actually I have had no repairs needed at all) ...knock on wood. I look at this in four ways:

1. A heated area (within a containment or housing) will naturally draw cooler air from outside the unit as the heated air moves from the unit. The more the unit is left on the move volume of air that is drawn into the unit....and you guessed it, the more dust and particles will be drawn into it also.
2. If the unit has a cooling fan that exhausts heated air or pulls cooled air into the unit, you guessed it, the more dust and particles will be drawn into it also. It acts just like a small vacuum cleaner and sucks in the dust the whole time you have it on.
3. Each piece of equipment is rated to last for a certain length of time. If you leave the unit on 24 hours and only use it for 8 hours, you are reducing the life of the component by as much as 60%.
4. I don't want the added expense of the additional cost of electricity for the electronic equipment being left on and the cooling of the room because of the additional heat build up.

IMO, it's not a good idea to leave ur gear on at all when it's not in use. I do understand the need to power up some analog and/or tube gear at least 30 minutes before you plan to use it or leaving most of the gear on during your time in the studio.

....I bet you don't leave your car running when ur sleeping do you ?

[SamSpacey]

Wasn't Moby on the warpath about global warming and leaving electrical items on standby etc...... then said in an interview that he hasn't turned his studio off for months. How much oil did that cost to power????

[Mike Caffrey]

Originally Posted by Bump Music

My tech suggested I leave everything on, all the time. He said the temperature change is the worst thing for gear. Thoughts?

My question is, aside from being bad for gear, does temperature change affect the sound/levels of solid state gear?

Leave the console and computers on. The rest can go on and off.

[Mike Caffrey]

Originally Posted by drBill

I turn it off. The electrical savings on the studio and AC will more than offset anything that may blow on powerup. I've had the console PS go down once when powering up, but most everything is OK with it.

Yeah, but when do you power up? At the beginning of a session and you lose your session fee and some credibility when you have to cancel.