VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Benjamin Stovall]

Hey Monk,

I was wondering what you do about computer noise. Which route did you go? Did you use an isolation box or did you put it/them in another room?
_________________
Ben Stovall Voiceover
http://www.benstovall.com

"When you're nearing the end of your rope, tie a knot. Keep on hanging. Keep on remembering, that there ain't nobody bad like you." -- The Electrifying Mojo

[Monk]

I have an iso cabinet that the computers live in, but I'm not 100% happy with the results. The cabinet has a fan, and it's kind of noisy, so I don't use it, I just leave the back door of the cabinet open and the MacPro's fans are presently quiet enough.

The noisy thing is the external hard drive, it's case has a buzz to it, so I've been wrapping that in a yoga mat material and putting that in the iso cabinet as well.

I think ultimately though, they are going to move out to a small closet OUTSIDE the room, there's a perfect cabinet that is a linen closet outside of the studio. I'll soak up a shelf and have them in there and just run some long KVM cables to the workstation.

In reality, the microphone isn't picking up any computer noise, so I'm in no hurry, but it's on my list of things to finish. I have a couple of battery backups that will go out in that closet too, just to give me another layer of protection from brownouts or spikes.
_________________
Company, villainous company, hath been the spoil of me...

www.monksvoice.com

[Benjamin Stovall]

Yes, that's a conundrum. You set out trying to reduce computer noise so you use an isolation box, only to find that the fans in the box introduce noise as well. Outside the room does seem the way to go.

I wanted to mention, (though I'm sure you've already considered it): If the linen cabinet that you plan to use has a door on it, you might want to remove it. Even better would be if you can also install fans in the side(s) to pull heat away from the rear and create airflow so that lingering heat in the space doesn't impact overall system temperature. That's a similar situation to where you are now with the isolation box with no fans going.

It may never become an issue, but it has been shown that higher system temperature can affect component life expectancy. (The following is information from electronics.stackexchange.com and the effects mentioned are experienced at 15-20° F variances in temperature) :

•Chemical reaction rates increase with temperature, including oxidation from atmospheric Oxygen, impurity reactions etc.

• Plastics "soften". Materials' mechanical properties generally degrade

•Diffusion rates increase. Both at eg metal-plastic sealing boundaries and in materials that rely on differences at boundaries.

•Components that rely on internal liquid content dry out. Notable examples are electrolytic capacitors and batteries.

•Lubricant properties change (eg motor bearings).

•Defects in materials are liable to form faster and propagate more rapidly and further. (This is a major factor in eg long term LED lifetimes).

You can read it in full here: http://tinyurl.com/mxqhkcf
_________________
Ben Stovall Voiceover
http://www.benstovall.com

"When you're nearing the end of your rope, tie a knot. Keep on hanging. Keep on remembering, that there ain't nobody bad like you." -- The Electrifying Mojo

[Monk]

Thanks for that!

The closet has a louvered door so I figured airflow would be just fine. I would have the machines off the floor, we have dogs and I have seen how much fur a machine sitting on the floor can suck up. (no puppies allowed in the studio...)

Routing power to the closet is easy, and it will help me hang my "RECORDING" sign that was gifted to me. So there are a couple of reasons for moving that direction.

My problem is time. I keep getting involved in theater! Les Miserables goes up on July 25th, I'm playing Thenardier, and I roll right into another show after that. If I didn't have to sleep, I'd have an extra two hours to do things!

Time for me to research some long USB and other cables...
_________________
Company, villainous company, hath been the spoil of me...

www.monksvoice.com

[vkuehn]

[Benjamin Stovall]

The thing about airflow is that it usually has to be motivated. One example that comes to mind is when people stick a rotary fan in the window to "pull in" cool air. In the linen closet scenario, how is the hot air getting "pulled" out the slats in the front of the cabinet? If it's not motivated to do so, it will simply seep out in a sluggish, "natural" way. Due to the lingering hot air in the space, that may give you the variance in temperature I was mentioning in my last post. Basically, even with the openings, enclosing the case will generally make the temps go up.

Again, all could operate just fine in that scenario, but it may be worth your time to measure your temps (some motherboards have sensors and you can see this information in the BIOS or through software like HWMonitor) with it outside of the enclosed space, and then again once you have it enclosed. If you see a variance in temperature to the tune of 15 to 20° F, you might want to find a way to better displace the air in the cabinet.

Here's a link to HWMonitor and a picture of the information screen: http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html
_________________
Ben Stovall Voiceover
http://www.benstovall.com

"When you're nearing the end of your rope, tie a knot. Keep on hanging. Keep on remembering, that there ain't nobody bad like you." -- The Electrifying Mojo

[Bruce]

In my previous setup I had a big PowerMac 5 in a closet with a louvered grill in the door, but I found I still needed to open the door a bit and use a fan in there. Nifty if you can find them: an inexpensive box fan with a thermostat. It only ran when it needed to.

B
_________________
VO-BB Member #31 Enlisted June, 2005

I'm not a Zoo, but over the years I've played one on radio/TV. .

[Benjamin Stovall]

@vkuehn

To address your USB 2.0 power issue, if you have a PC:

Open Device Manager and find your USB hub. Look at the properties for it and locate the "power management" tab. Uncheck the setting that says, "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power."

If you use a USB keyboard or mouse that is similarly affected, find them in Device Manager as well, and under their respective power management tabs check the option to "Allow this device to bring the computer out of standby."
_________________
Ben Stovall Voiceover
http://www.benstovall.com

"When you're nearing the end of your rope, tie a knot. Keep on hanging. Keep on remembering, that there ain't nobody bad like you." -- The Electrifying Mojo

[NateOphonic]

Didn't have much to post about till now, but to celebrate the fact I got my first audiobook gig, I thought I'd finally post studio pix. There was one previous pic in the mic arm thread, but that didn't show much of anything. I did the big room with quiet corner and gobos to form a sort of booth;

The mix area:


inside the aforementioned "booth" area:


Yes! we can record stuff that's not VO:


a sensitive mic purchased from the C.I.A.. I got the Snowden discount!


sometimes, one has to rest one's weary bones:


hope you have enjoyed my little tour.
_________________
Nate Cimmino:
A man, a microphone and a pair of reading glasses. (How they learned to read, I'll never know)

[Scolaidhe]

Those are nice-looking panels.

[NateOphonic]

Thank you. .You can have 'em in your own studio, too, I built the booth cloud and gobos, but I cant take credit for the panels and diffuser, they were built by this guy:

http://www.studiovu.com/

He is my neighbor, and also did the panel placement to make the room as mix neutral as was possible. Turned an echoey mess sow's ear of a room into the proverbial silk purse.
_________________
Nate Cimmino:
A man, a microphone and a pair of reading glasses. (How they learned to read, I'll never know)

[ccpetersen]

I need to build a couple of more sound clouds for my little space. Now that I have the wood and the material, I suppose it's time to head to the workspace.
_________________
Charter Member: Threadjackers Local 420