Gear On/Gear Off?

I know there are some pretty savvy engineering types on the board here and I have a question for you:

Is it better to leave your gear on or off when not in use? At the last station I worked the Chief engineer would come into my studio and turn the DAT machine and MD machines that I infrequently or hardly ever used on. I believe the reasoning had something to do with keeping all of the moving parts, well, moving.

Now that I am working exclusively from my home studio, I am wondering whether or not I should keep the LEDs lit on my gear as well. My primary concern is my Focusrite Platinum Voicemaster Pro. Should I leave it on between sessions? Turn it off? Pros and cons? I also have a Sony MD deck which gets used rarely. I'd appreciate some general rules of thumb here.

Thanks!

I don't know about others but I leave everything on.

A processor probably doesn't really care whether its off or on. There are no moving parts, generally. Any benefit would be from not discharging and recharging capacitors as often, which would only show up if you plan to keep the proc box for a decade or more.

Focusrite recommends you turn it off when not in use. That being said, I never shut mine off. With Class A devices, you waste a lot of power by leaving it on. Typical Class A/B devices don't waste much power when not in use. Class A is always "full on" and always drawing maximum power. The Voicemaster doesn't pull that much, but it will probably increase your electric bill by $5-10 per month.

Emmett

Since most of the equipment in question is solid state electronics, I would offer the same advice that I offer to computer users:

Most wear and tear on solid state equipment happens during start-up and shut-down, when there a significant temperature changes. The expansion/contraction of boards that are loaded with tiny traces separated by very little epoxy can eventually cause micro-cracks in boards. That's a very good reason to change the operating temperature of solid state electronics sparingly. On the other hand, heat is a killer. A failed fan can cook your system in a hurry. A semi-functional or dirty fan may be worse because it allows temperature to rise to dangerous levels, but defeats fail-safe thermal shutdown circuits.

Other sources of damage to solid state electronics are power surges and static electricity. Most utility power is lousy. Brownouts - especially in summer, and surges as rolling brownouts are switched to different portions of the grid are far more common than they'll ever admit. Plug everything into a decent UPS with line conditioning that prevents both surges and brown-outs. Static is a huge surge compared to the power levels in a lot of solid state circuits.

The bottom line? Turn your system on at the beginning of the day, give it a few minutes to get to normal operating temperature, then go to work. When you're done for the day - or for more than a few hours, turn it off. Turn off the UPS at the end of the day. No sense in running fans, and subjecting your stuff to lousy power for hours on end when it's not working. It also helps your electric bill, and the planet.

Treat your work area for static. Anti-static chair mats work wonders, especially if you have a chair with wheels. Use an anti-static mat as a mouse pad. The bigger ones actually fit under the keyboard, give you room for the mouse, and may fit nicely under the front edge of your mixer. Most of all, make sure that they're connected to a good ground.

Thank you all for the great replies. As always, I learned something here. I think I'll buy a good UPS unit and leave the gear on. I appreciate the advice.

robnokshus06 said:

Thank you all for the great replies. As always, I learned something here. I think I'll buy a good UPS unit and leave the gear on. I appreciate the advice.

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I've got all my gear plugged into an APC 1500 Back UPS XS. Has 30min battery backup so that I can finish up and power down safely.

Using tube mics we leave them on..also the console stays on, as does the outboard rack. Computers all go off at night. We have a whole-building surge protector built into the circuit panel, and FIVE (5) APC 900RS UPS units taking care of everything. They have been great.

But not before frying at least three motherboards on a Telos Zephyr, and ruining the power supplies on four mic processors...Expensive lesson but well worth the investment.

Quiet around here..what's everyone been doin?

I used to turn my tube mic preamp off between jobs. STUPID! I found that I wore-out tubes much faster with this constant off/on/off cycling than just leaving it on. Still, I hate to leave things on when not being used, so I turn everything off once a day. I KNOW I'd probably get longer tube life if I left it on, but still...