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I've been reading the acoustic discussion on the mic thread, and thought I'd start another imbroglio of sorts.Just rearranged the room I use for music, and opened up a little more space. However, I still have the problem of noise from the computer. This is a small room, and I can't escape. What's a good way to silence the beast w/o overheating it (I already thought of wrapping the damn thing in foam)? (No, I wasn't dumb enough to try it)On a side note, I now have the proper siting for my monitors, and the difference is amazing. I've only been recording for about a year, and all this is quite the education!

Well, you can get this kind of thing: http://www.atomicmary.com/index.asp?Pag ... dID=781But they're very expensive. This is what I do:http://homepage.mac.com/virtualinstrume ... .htmlSorry for the crappy photo. The next room is the garage. But if you can't do that, build a closet for the computer. If it's big enough you won't have heat problems.

Quote:Well, you can get this kind of thing: http://www.atomicmary.com/index.asp?Pag ... dID=781But they're very expensive. This is what I do:http://homepage.mac.com/virtualinstrume ... .htmlSorry for the crappy photo. The next room is the garage. But if you can't do that, build a closet for the computer. If it's big enough you won't have heat problems.Well, I guess that's your theory, Nick. It's commonly accepted in the pro audio community that the smaller the space and the less the circulation in a space, the COOLER it will be, not hotter.Sorry, I couldn't resist. I'm obviously joking in the above statement (though I suppose it could be partially true; a small space with great circulation [or induction, more accurately] could be cooler than a large space with poor circulation).Nick, I really dig your custom cubby! Especially the orange paint...nice vibe.

So you vent the computer into the garage? Do you just use the computer's fan, or did you add some vent fans on the far wall?(If you are in Cal I wouldn't mention this to the fire marshal the next time you see him. )

Thanks Andreh. Sage green and orange is the shizzle. And you're right about the size of the space. This is another solution (which I haven't tried, but it looks good):http://www.melcor.com/ssair.html#Thru%2 ... tionersThe smallest air conditioners (the end of the list) use 12V and aren't expensive.Traveling: no vents, just a shelf in the garage with the computers on them; I run the wires through another hole. Why is that any more fire hazard than having the machines in my cubby? The machines are all on circuit breakers, of course, and there's nothing there to explode.By the way, my studio/office is the other half of the formerly 2-car garage - converted into a room in 1950 under permit. That's why it's long and narrow.

(And no, I wasn't the one who converted it, in fact I wasn't born in 1950. )

Quote:Thanks Andreh. Sage green and orange is the shizzle. And you're right about the size of the space. This is another solution (which I haven't tried, but it looks good):http://www.melcor.com/ssair.html#Thru%2 ... tionersThe smallest air conditioners (the end of the list) use 12V and aren't expensive.Traveling: no vents, just a shelf in the garage with the computers on them; I run the wires through another hole. Why is that any more fire hazard than having the machines in my cubby? The machines are all on circuit breakers, of course, and there's nothing there to explode.By the way, my studio/office is the other half of the formerly 2-car garage - converted into a room in 1950 under permit. That's why it's long and narrow.Nick,at the risk of asking the obvious!Do you use Macs and if you do which ones?J.

Nick, Based on my experience the issue isn't fire, but fumes. When I had a recording studio in my garage in Cal the fire marshall didn't like the booth because it allowed a door to open between the "garage" and "bedroom" even though there was already a door into the kitchen and the fact that the garage was a studio and the bedroom a control booth. Can't rason with nonmusicians sometimes. I thought your photo was in the studio with the shelf protruding into the garage. If it is just wires running into the studio I can't imagine a problem.

That's a great idea, Nick, but if I build a cabinet, it would stick into either the kitchen or bathroom--although I guess it would stay cool in the tub--for a minute, anyway! I actually thought of building a box around the tower, then drilling a hole in the floor--I'm right above the cellar--hoping that a chimney on the box would muffle the noise on the way to the ceiling. Whatever I do has to be small. Yesterday, I tried sneaking around the corner into the kitchen for vocals, but some dumbass left the monitors on, couldn't hear them in the phones, and I have abeautifully recorded metronome behind the lead, with natural reverb. I'm gonna fire my engineer.

"Do you use Macs and if you do which ones?"My main machine is a 2 x 2.5 G5, but I also have a 2 x 2 that I use as a slave for streaming samples. And I also have three Windows slaves (two of which are working at the moment).I've been working on Macs literally all day long since 1985. The Windows machines are more recent. But I'm not an Apple religious zealot.