Is there anything wrong with using UPS's ( I bought two Belken 450 watt units) to power my studio ? I see units from Fuhrman especially designed for this, but can't these units for PC's do the same thing ? It supposedly provides clean power.....isn't that all that is needed ?
Also,... I have an Allen and Heath GS3000 console which has a max of 250 watts..... Since this comes with it's own power supply... do I still need to connect this to a separate UPS that I'm thinking of purchasing ? Thanks for any input....
UPS supplies are VERY important for supplying power to DAWs, hard disk recorders, etc. Unlike Older analog gear, when power to the newer "digi-gizmos" is suddenly removed, you can end up with ugly problems such as a corrupted hard drive, etc.
Compare that to what happens to an analog multitrack tape machine when power is suddenly removed...all that happens is that there is a minor glitch on a track IF that track was actually in record mode.
The very best UPS units actually "float" the battery across a charging rectifier, then other downstream circuits provide a reasonably clean sine wave AC mains waveform derived from the "floating" battery.
Uninterruptable Power Supplies will do a nice job when you have regular brown-outs (temporary no power, just a few milliseconds but enough to make some power supplies switch) or blackouts (doh, no power at all but you will be able to gently shut down all your equipment). Only the more advanced UPSes will have some sort of filtering, shaping and so on OR you buy it as a separate unit.
A 250W powersupply from your mixing console should be no problem for a UPS, but only when you know the capacity of the UPS. Will it last for 5 minutes ? 10 seconds ? And what about your *other* equipment ? Can you work with a mixing console that is connected to amps without power ? That gets feed by a preamp without power ? Do not hesitate to take a test, unplug the power from the UPS and see if the rest of your equipment is working as expected.