How to magage your wires and cords...

**sausey** · 01-14-2004

Hi everyone,

My new studio is coming along pretty good, but I need some quick advice.

Right now I have lots of equipment such as a Computer, Synths and so on, and that means there's lots of cords and wires to plug in. The outlet on the wall normally has only 2 places to where you can plug cords in.

I know there are plenty of adapters you can get at places like Office Deport, etc. But is there a good one designed for MIDI where I can possible place it in a rack and turn them on with one switch?

If so, where can I find these and what is recommended? Do you own one? How do you manage all of these cords...

Thanks,
Mike

**mano 1** · 01-14-2004

yes I am very happy with my PL-PLUS Power Conditioner from FURMAN. it has some advanced filters for cleaning up hums and other noises.

THis will REALLY protect you from spikes and surges, and will provide "cleaner" power connections for your precious gear.

It has a switch in the front, so I can turn on my whole studio like this.

The switch actually does a "soft" power on and off, avoiding spikes and other bad things happening on "$5" outlets...

ahh one more thing... there are lights on it which you can pull out, and light up your rack... Very nice when you work ijn the dark and stuff.

Get the real thing

**Awdio** · 01-14-2004

Took the words right out of my mouth..good advice

**theblue1** · 01-14-2004

Right, a power conditioner can do a much better job of protecting your gear against spikes and even brownouts (too little power can hurt gear too, if its sustained... a lot of gear, perversely enough, actually overheats if it's getting insufficient power [another reason you should never ever plug your gear into a circuit that has a dimmer controlling it.)

Also, even if you're not using a power conditioner, it's important to get the power for your whole rig from a single source (a single wall socket, for instance where you can plug your power strips, line conditioners, etc) to avoid the potential for creating multiple paths to ground (the source of the dreaded hum-causing "ground loop"). [The worse case scenario would be something like bringing an extension cord in from the garage to power part of your rig... when you connect the audio cabling from the gear powered from somewhere in the house to the gear powered from circuits in the garage, the potential exists for the garage-powered gear to try to "find" ground through the audio cable to the house-powered gear, causing hum.]

**mano 1** · 01-14-2004

One more thing...

Power Conditioners and Power Regulators are 2 different things and you need to know which kind to get.

If you test your current and see that the voltage is dropping below 120/110 quite a bit, you might want to consider a Furman that does REGULATION as well.

Regulators "regulate" the voltage so it is always a nice 120V current (in case you have those "brownouts" mentioned above. It also "conditions" power like normal conditioners.

So... Regulators are better, but they are also more expensive - look on ebay for used ones! They are worth the price.

Good luck

**sausey** · 01-15-2004

Hi Guys,

Wow! There's a lot more to it than I thought.

I'll take your advice and get a PL-PLUS Power Regulator with a built in Conditioner from FURMAN.

All the features you mentioned sound great and I would like to do all I can to help protect my new gear!

I looked around a few places and here's one that I found. Can you please take a look and let me know if this will take care of everything we discussed?

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/...se_pid/181244/

Will this do the job or should I keep looking?

I look forward to your reply.

Thanks,
-Mike

**stkee phl0** · 01-15-2004

Should I be worried if I have several power strips chained together?

**theblue1** · 01-15-2004

Thanks to Mano for the correction on the distinction between conditioners and regulators.

On the chain of power strips... it all depends. Obviously, you're going to get better protection from a better (and undoubtedly more expensive) solution... Power strips can provide basic overload protection -- but they may not respond fast enough to rapid transient power spikes that might not trip the strip's circuit breaker but could damage delicate circuits in your gear.

One of the main safety things you have to worry about, of course, is exceeding the carrying capacity of any one link in your chain. If you have 5 power strips plugged into one and each of those secondary power strips is carrying, for argument's sake, the max amount, that means that the primary power strip they're all plugged into is now (assuming it's got the same capacity as the others) carrying five times its own max.

Most power strips have some kind of circuit breaker built into them but they do go bad (when your power strip's 'pilot light' goes from a steady light to blinking it's an indicator that it's time to ditch that strip and buy a new one.

**sausey** · 01-15-2004

theblue1,

Thanks for the information, it helps.

I will be sure to be aware of all of the things you mentioned.

Did you get a chance to look at the link to the PL-PLUS that
I posted in the message above.

Would this be a good solution or is there another one you can suggest?

I need to buy one today.

Thanks,
Mike

**mano 1** · 01-15-2004

PL-PLUS (the one i have) is not a regulator. That's fine if you get a nice 120V and dont have any problem

otherwise get an actual regulator from Furman. They are more expensive but it is worth it considering how much you invest in a studio.