Hey Slutz,

Has anyone tried PC extension cables (Monitor, Mouse, Keyboard) to get a noisy computer out of your studio? If so, which cables did you buy and from where?

{caz}

Try building a case for it, it's cheap and easy.

Yup. Radio shack. 30 feet. just a few $
Problem solved.
Don't believe that you need a KVM box - some will tell you that you do. under 75' - you don't.
Unless you are editing video and using your monitor to judge color / brightness / contrast, this is a possible exception.

Gefen makes some nice extender options..

Monitor, kboard/mouse over Cat 5

www.gefen.com

-B

http://www.cableclub.com/

I have a 15 foot cable from these folks - no video issues (and I'm picky) and very affordable. I would not hesitate to go longer.

Yup, punched a hole in the wall and voila...

no more noise.

Probably cost me $80 in cables? Bought locally at an electronics supply store.

War

Folks at one of the studios where I work used the cheapest ****tiest VGA, USB, & S-Video (for Apple Desktop Bus) cables on all their Macs, running between 50 - 100 feet. I kept warning them this was asking for trouble, but it's been 2 years now & never a problem.

I think I'd still look into a Gefen KVM Extender if it were my money...

Cableclub prices seem so low...can the cables be quality?

{caz}

I've been using a 15 foot KVM cable for about 3 years. It was dirt cheap and works great. I have image issues with some of my $40 Belden cables, but not the Cable Club cable.

I haven't ordered from them for a long time - they may have significant profit built into their shipping charges, but with the cable prices they list, you can afford to pay a bit for shipping and still come out ahead.

I'm not saying their shipping is high - I don't know - but it wouldn't surprise me, and I'd probably order from them anyway.

You gotta' get it out, the difference is huge...


ruudman

You get various extension cables from many computer mailordershops.

Just buy a VGA extension cable (high quality) and PS2 extension cables.

I run 10m without any problems. No need for the expensive Gefen stuff.

You only need a Gefen DVI booster for digital extension over approx 4m. or longer extensions than 10m.

For what it's worth: when I first moved the computer out of the control room, I bought a pricey monitor extension cable, 15'. I just added a second monitor, and I bought the cheapest 15' vga cable on egghead. It works exactly the same.

Just a word of warning, don't buy just any KVM cable, I picked one up off of newegg, and it turns out I need an $80 switch box for it to work. Some don't need a switch, some do.

Getting the computer out of the control room is the best move I ever made. Get that thing out of there...you cannot possibly do your best work with those stupid fans and whining, spinning hard drives stinking up the place with their noise pollution. Don't think that the silence cases are the absolute answer. Though they help, they still make noise. Like one of the other guys said, cut a hole in the wall!

Just be aware of the sexes. Just like a mic cable, you need M at one end and F at the other if you want to put it between your existing connections.

If you want to plug into your monitor (and skip an intermediate monitor cable - not a bad idea to make sure you avoid ghosting) you'll need to see what connector is on the monitor. Some factory monitor cables are M/F - some are F/F.

no biggie.

I've tried two well-established brands of KVM-over-IP (CAT5 or CAT5e) extender for a couple servers I placed in another room. Both work well, but both degrade the video sufficiently enough that I wouldn't use them on my DAW. The brightness is good, the clarity is OK, but the convergence is off just enough to be annoying.

One of the models (from Black Box) has an automatic video tuning feature that does it's best to keep things in line. The other brand is a Raritan -- it has automtic video tuning and a manual tuning pot which works just about as well. The Raritan was a better deal for equal functionality, so I picked up a second Raritan and returned the Black Box unit.

For day to day use, KVM extenders are great, but again, I wouldn't use them on my DAW where I need clarity at higher resolutions.

-Synth80s

Wireless keyboard and a wireless mouse also help quite a bit. They might have a wireless VGA solution....i dunno.....

dr. bott for the apple cinema display - i think i had 2 buy two of those extension
cables - they work great - thank god i had a major label client at the time...........

- jack

I paid 110 swiss francs for a 7 m DVI extension as well as using a USB and Firewire extender (about 40 francs each) for my G5.
It is an excellent thing to do - I can now track acoustic guitars and vocals in the control room.
the DVI extender was made by Lindy and is good quality.
The USB and FWire were off the shelf somethings.

Do it- you'll thank yourself.

Cabinets dont work because the air and heat have to go somewhere- you generally need some sort of exhaust fan out the back of the box. It is easier and cheaper to build a room and pipe the exhaust out to another room.

Here at Qlab we have two server rooms and they have special exhaust lines out to the great outdoors- works great, keeps the room 4 degrees cooler (roughly) and doesnt **** me off with the fan noise.

James

The thing I dont understand...is what are you gonna do about playing CDs?? Your gonna have to walk all the way into another room to do it! That would be soooo stressful.

I personally dont see how a computer fan could be so anoying? The computer I have has a ultra low noise fan...you dont hardly notice it...especially when your playing music.

I'd only move my computer for the heat issue. Computers do make the room a lil hotter/

Oh, I am a modern boy and generally listen to music via Ipod. I generally just use the computer to record...the extra hassle when burning a disc is worth not having an annoying whizzing during a whispered section of music. I just order some heavy duty extension cables. I let you know if this works.

Thanks for the advice and info!

{caz}

www.pascalgoespop.com

A solution for those with some spare $$$..
more like a tank than a PC case....

http://www.zalmanusa.com/usa/product...x=151&code=020

http://www.devhardware.com/c/a/Compu...C-Case-Review/

Dont use CD's anymore- I haven't since iTunes came out- they are all up in the loft of my house.
I have a dedicated file server in the server room that has itunes running 24/7 and a bunch of 200gb drives installed.
I use a mixture of AAC, AIFF anf Apple Lossless to keep the quality up as much as I can.
New material is ripped in there and the CD's taken home.

JR

I have an $80 Pioneer DVD burner in an external firewire case on my desk with a 15' cable. I also have 1394 and USB hubs in my rack by my desk for assorted periph needs.

You guys mention only the mouse, keyboard and monitor.
Don´t you have analog / digital audio cables to your audio card?

They are one of the reasons why I still cope with an iso box. Additional costs of 700 bucks or so for only ~ 8m cables distance was too much for me.

Ruphus

Well, I'm only running 15 ft, so I guess that cuts down on my costs a little. I'm running firewire for audio, all my audio connectors are still in the same room.

I put the Digi interfaces in the computer room and run 16 way looms between the rooms- works great- made the cables myself and I live in Switzerland (Neutrik are made here and a lot cheaper than elsewhere)

JR

I was thinking about getting an iso box for my noisy ass pc or putting it in another room. The studio I work for just so happened to be getting rid of a sound proof desk however and I decided to take it off their hands. It's not the most attractive thing desk I've ever seen but it's well made. It has fire proof acoustic paneling inside with plexi glass doors. Super quiet fans keep the whole thing cool and it has more rack space then I'll need for a long time(13, 1 unit rack spaces on each side). In the middle is space for a computer. With a nice table top to make it look good something like this could be made relatively cheap. Just something to think about.

I solved the CD issue by having an external drive near the monitors, attached via USB to the computer in the other room.

Before moving the PCs, I also had installed ultra-low noise fans, a giant copper heat sink on the processor, and even removed one of the fans. It was still wayyyyy too noisy to be able to have it in the same room.
My RME uses Firewire, and the MOTU uses a proprietary connection (firewire cable), so I can still have both in the control room.

-Craig

We fixed the problem in the cheapest way of all.....run 1 mic, 1 headphone cable to another room.....bam, problem solved :-)







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