Vintage Synth Explorer Forums

After reviewing my last thread, I believe I may be overlooking the cleanliness of the electricity in my studio. I think my sound could benefit from more balanced power. Does anybody here have any tips?

Before you spend a lot of money on it, the first thing to do is to get a cheap plug-in outlet tester from a big box store and check that all of your outlets are wired properly. Second thing would be to get good surge protectors, and make sure that all power strips and extension cords you use are in good shape. Also, if you have any outlets that are not holding the plugs well, replace 'em.

From there, it depends on what kinds of problems you're having, and how much money you have to spend on it. Sometimes the first and best answer is to get a dedicated circuit put in for your studio gear, but the cost of that can vary a lot depending on the specific situation. The best situation is when you have a breaker panel nearby and it has at least one open slot and enough capacity to accommodate a new circuit. I'm thinking about doing this myself; I'll pull 12-gauge romex and put in several double-gang boxes along the wall where most of my gear is. The 12-gauge will let me breaker it at 20A so I'll have plenty of juice. Keeping all the gear on the same circuit is the simplest way to prevent ground loops.

From there you might want to look at a power conditioner or a full-time UPS with a true sine wave output. Neither of these options will be cheap, and they aren't really made for residential use which means they'll be noisy and/or hot and you don't want them in the room with you.

If you have weird things going on with the power in your house generally, you want to have an electrician come and look over your panel. If the panel is OK, you can then call your power company and tell them that you have a power quality problem and ask them to come look at your service.

Great. Thanks for the advice.