to cover or not to cover..that is the question!

[man-009]

how many of you really cover your synths after playing? should this be done? i decided might be a good idea in the long run.
i have my studio in the basement and had noticed dust and dirt on my synths alot! could not figure out why? then found out it was from the wood floor above from us walking around in the hallway. might have to put some cloth up soon to trap that dust and dirt.

[silikon]

I cover mine..(normally, from time to time they stay uncovered)I have the same problem, except it's from the assholes above me that stomp around and introduce small herds of large elephants into their apartment.

Same dickheads that have the audacity to come knock on my door when I'm in the middle of a track. But I digress...

Yes, I cover mine... Plus I'm OCD and have to dust them routinely. And Oil the wood ends. Power and signal cables are separated by a large distance. Cable wraps. Power conditioning and UPS...

Geezus this thread seemed to remind me how anal I really am.

[garranimal]

As they say in the Mackie manuals, potentiometers are not rocket science. They use a wiper that slides over a track. When airborne junk lands on the track the wiper has to stumble across the crud, introducing scratchy sounds when you operate the slider/pot. Just know that even with a cover on, dust can still infiltrate but I think it definitely slows it down. When I got a Roland a couple of years ago, the sliders were completely filled with gunk by previous owners. I think they stored it in a greasy kitchen or something. They were beyond cleaning so I replaced every single pot and slider, and definitely keep a stretchy cover on it when not in use.

[cornutt]

I keep meaning to come up with a cover for mine. But all I have handy is cotton towels, and that's probably no better from a dust/lint standpoint than no cover at all. Plastic covers don't create lint, but they do offgas. At one point I experimented with a piece of sheet Teflon, but it kept sliding off.

[construct09]

i use those suit/dress bags, you can pick em up in your local charity shop for peanuts. if you have something like an arp odyssey for example, the sliders on those are magnets for dust, yeah ,anything with sliders i,d definately cover and small stuff like a VL-1 or drum machine i,ll put upside down (on a soft surface)

[fh991586]

I've been using flags lately. The kind of fabric looks like it won't leave small particles... Also, a british or japanese flag is a great cover for synths or rackmount!

[garranimal]

pure genius, and stylish too!

[man-009]

i ordered 4 huge korg , roland, yamaha and doepfer banners to cover mine now! thanks for the tips. i can't believe how much stuff drops from the wood floors above. crazy!

[Ashe37]

that's a decent idea, a use for those Ensoniq banners i keep seeing on the 'bay.

[Hybrid88]

Definitely cover, you need to protect plastic discolouring in the sun (UV is bad news for white keys), and to keep as much dust out of the keyboard mechanism as possible.

I use towels and while yes they do produce some lint of their own I still prefer them over anything else - more than a few times I've saved what could be a potential broken key from me accidently bashing something into it.