How you deal with Heat in summers while recording - I switch off Fan but I have to AC

CatMalone

CatMalone

New member
Hello,

I setup a home studio in last winters, things were going great and now as summers going on, now it's a bit difficult to record.
So far I managed somehow. Here we had a 48 degree temperature but now it's 35 degree and humidity level is 75.

I switch off the fan while recording but I keep AC running while recording (I may bear the heat ) but in order to keep PC cool I have to run AC

Now the issue is after recording when I remove the AC noise from recording using Audacity then it takes away the essence of real recording. Afterwards My voice sounds like less original, smooth and rich.


May I ask you how to record in summers? Do you follow the same route as I'm having to...
 
I'm guessing you have some kind of AC window unit...?...which of course will be pretty noisy.

I have central AC, and my studio has an air-duct, so you can just barely hear the airflow when the AC is running...and my studio doesn't get over 72-73F even when I have my mixing console, 2" tape deck and a bunch of other rack gear and amps running. When I don't need to use a lot of gear, it can get pretty cool in there to where I have to turn down the AC by a couple of degrees...like if I'm just editing at the DAW...etc.
Today it's hitting 90F+ outside, humidity isn't real bad...and in the studio its cool and comfortable.

So your problem is having AC that isn't noisy.
They have the newer "ductless" systems, where you only have the small air-flow control unit on the wall...but the compressor is down on the ground. Those are pretty quiet and many have a whisper mode. I will be installing that kind of setup in my new studio which will be built soon....rather than the big central style compressor/ducts.
 
timing is your friend. Plan what you want to record, get everything all set and just before you hit 'record', shut the a/c off. Unless you're recording grand opuses in one take, do your thing and when you hit 'stop', turn the a/c back on. If you just want to noodle and hope to mine some gems, eh, you might be out of luck.

I used to have the opposite problem, a noisy humidifier in winter. Had to shut it off before recording with mics. In this case it's a little more devious because you don't necessarily feel the humidity like you feel temperature and it is way too easy to forget to turn it back on and wake up in the morning with dried eyes and nose and crackling static electricity. Takes forever and a day to get the humidity back up too, way longer than trying to cool off a room.

Or just record direct and the environmental control machine noises aren't a factor beyond potential dirty electricity noises.
 
I'm in a basement, it's still warm but it's not so hot that I can't make it work. In the winter time when it gets really cold I turn on the heat, wait about an hour then turn it off and go record. It's finished so it retains the heat pretty well, I also just deal with hoodies in the winter.
 
48c is hot. plus the 75% humidity. That's gotta suck.

I used to have a window unit in my little studio, but it was noisy. Not so much that it affected my recordings, you couldn't actually hear it above the guitars, but it was the constant droning that made it untenable. Based on a suggestion from someone here, I removed the window unit and installed a mini-split a/c. That was the best decision ever and so worth the money and effort. I installed it myself and paid a tech to set the pressures.

If you've got the means, get a mini-split. It will solve your cooling and noise problems.
 
My split system is so quiet I can leave on low fan all the time while recording. Mitsubishi, 18dB(a) in quiet mode.

Alan.
 
witzendoz said:
My split system is so quiet I can leave on low fan all the time while recording. Mitsubishi, 18dB(a) in quiet mode.

Alan.
Click to expand...

Yeah...that's what the service manager from my HVAC/fuel supplier said when he happened to be at my house end of the winter, doing a ride-along with his tech...so I had a nice 30 minutes to speak with him while the tech serviced my furnace.
He said they've installed them in a couple of studio/music locations...and they were great, and quite in normal mode, but there was also a whisper/quiet mode that made them almost inaudible...I think there was just a lower output, or maybe the return fan gets shut off (don't remember)...but that I need not worry about going with them. I think they also install the Mitsubishi units.

The interesting thing I learned from my contractor, is that even though they are called ductless splits...there are units that actually can have ducts...so that you can feed more than one room, though of course, the controller would be only available in one of the rooms.
 
I would be interested to know from the PC/mac experts if the OP SHOULD be worried about the temperature affecting the PC?

My thought is that any piece of electronic gear on sale to the general public should be operable in any conditions a human can tolerate? High quality audio equipment has been around for a good half century and is expected to work from poles to tropics (see "tropicalized" transformers). AC in any affordable form has only been around for 20 years?

Of course, if you have taken a stock PC, overclocked it and stuffed it with ram and spinners it might not cope! Then, peeps put desktops in cupboards to stop noise, you could do that and duct the heat away?

Dave.
 
Maybe the OP has a computer that already has heating issues. Usually that's attributable to a build-up of dust and dirt in the box.

As already suggested, turn off the a/c, do your tracking, turn it back on. In 15-20 minutes, the temperature is not going to climb that much. I do most of my tracking in the winter, though, when the windows are closed, people aren't outside making noise, etc.
 
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ecc83 said:
I would be interested to know from the PC/mac experts if the OP SHOULD be worried about the temperature affecting the PC?
Click to expand...
It's not a big concern for the average user.
Your computer should be adjusting fans according to temperature or, at least, constantly pushing enough air to keep the machine happy under load.

Most computers are capable of running, long term, much hotter than we'd like. My CPUs, for example, never go above 40c but they'd be just as happy at 60 or 70.

The problem, as MJB said, usually comes with obstructions. Clogging with dust, or putting the machine in a closed cupboard as you mention, could be enough to throw an already warm machine over the edge.
It's rare enough, though, and there are thermal safety shutdown limits too so it's unlikely to be damaged.

ecc83 said:
Of course, if you have taken a stock PC, overclocked it and stuffed it with ram and spinners it might not cope!
Click to expand...

Yes, temperature should always be monitored and taken into account when overclocking.
Most of the overclocking forums are as much about temperatures are they are speed. The two go hand in hand.
 
I've had PCs that started to be affected by temps in the mid 80s (29°C). As far as studio gear goes, I'm sure it can take a lot more heat than computers. Affordable A/C might be only a fairly recent phenomena but so are PCs in the studio. Probably part of the expense of a full blown studio in the day was the HVAC or else it must have been quite uncomfortable to record pretty much anywhere during the summer.

I've never been in a real studio before. What were the old famous record company studios like back in the '50s, '60s, '70s etc? Any old timers around here that can chime in, or does anybody here know some old studio hands?
 
bluesfordan said:
I've had PCs that started to be affected by temps in the mid 80s (29°C). As far as studio gear goes, I'm sure it can take a lot more heat than computers. Affordable A/C might be only a fairly recent phenomena but so are PCs in the studio. Probably part of the expense of a full blown studio in the day was the HVAC or else it must have been quite uncomfortable to record pretty much anywhere during the summer.

I've never been in a real studio before. What were the old famous record company studios like back in the '50s, '60s, '70s etc? Any old timers around here that can chime in, or does anybody here know some old studio hands?
Click to expand...

Sweetbeats will surely have all the dope on how "proper" studio gear coped with high temperatures ? I suspect, very well. Scully, Ampex, Studer will have built machines to high industrial standards and that includes tropicalization.

The problem is that most people are using "office" based PCs and these are perhaps not up to such cooking?
I have no doubt that PCs CAN be, are made that will cope with the harshest environments but not many people would want to pay for them! What would a 24 track 3M cost today compared the even the best AI/PC rig?

Dave.
 
miroslav said:
I'm guessing you have some kind of AC window unit...?...which of course will be pretty noisy......................

So your problem is having AC that isn't noisy.
.
Click to expand...

I've split AC and it's not that much noisy, sometimes it definitely make little noise but other times it remains quite.

(That's the other thing that there is background noise which comes from outside but that an issue for the other day :) )

At present The issue is heat, while recording I switch off the fan because it makes noise but I have to run the AC so that it keeps PC cool and also keep the room cool otherwise its hot here. So I was wondering how does other people record in summers?
 
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48C! That's brutal.

CatMalone, I'm guessing you're in a tropical area, and most likely in an apartment? Is the 35C in the room or the outside temp?

If I'm recording in the basement, I simply turn off the A/C while I'm tracking. After 20-30 minutes I'll usually stop and listen to some mixes while the A/C runs. The furnace/AC fan is on the other side of the wall but noisy enough that I can hear it running. To be honest, I could go a lot longer as the basement stays naturally cool, I just don't want the rest of the house to get hot.

If I'm upstairs in the spare bedroom, things are quiet enough that I can track vocals without a problem. It's a 2 story brick house, and the fan is in the basement. I use the bedroom because there is a large closet full of clothes that works great as a dead recording area.

We recently had a stretch where the temps were mid - upper 90F range (35-38C). I didn't even bother trying to record anything. I wasn't really inspired anyway.
 
Like others, I try to get everything set up and cool (heat) it down (up) more than normal so I can have the AC (heat) off for an hour at least before it gets too uncomfortable. I'm not in a basement but an upstairs room on the 2nd floor which is essentially uninhabited now that it's just the wife and me (1st floor bed/bath), but it means I can move the dial around as I wish for the most part.

And, it's only for tracking, of course, that I need to do this. Really, it's not that noisy, but the 2nd floor HVAC intake is right outside my little music room's door, so if I do leave it open (sometimes do just to keep air moving), the door must be shut, because that big sucking sound is going to be in the recording otherwise.

If it's 48℃, I'm looking for a bathtub full of ice, and an appropriate beverage to go with it...
 
Chili said:
48c is hot. plus the 75% humidity. That's gotta suck.

I used to have a window unit in my little studio, but it was noisy. Not so much that it affected my recordings, you couldn't actually hear it above the guitars, but it was the constant droning that made it untenable. Based on a suggestion from someone here, I removed the window unit and installed a mini-split a/c. That was the best decision ever and so worth the money and effort. I installed it myself and paid a tech to set the pressures.

If you've got the means, get a mini-split. It will solve your cooling and noise problems.
Click to expand...

I'm already using split Ac, it's new one fro samsung.
 
TalismanRich said:
48C! That's brutal.

CatMalone, I'm guessing you're in a tropical area, and most likely in an apartment? Is the 35C in the room or the outside temp?

If I'm recording in the basement, I simply turn off the A/C while I'm tracking. After 20-30 minutes I'll usually stop and listen to some mixes while the A/C runs. The furnace/AC fan is on the other side of the wall but noisy enough that I can hear it running. To be honest, I could go a lot longer as the basement stays naturally cool, I just don't want the rest of the house to get hot.

If I'm upstairs in the spare bedroom, things are quiet enough that I can track vocals without a problem. It's a 2 story brick house, and the fan is in the basement. I use the bedroom because there is a large closet full of clothes that works great as a dead recording area.

We recently had a stretch where the temps were mid - upper 90F range (35-38C). I didn't even bother trying to record anything. I wasn't really inspired anyway.
Click to expand...


Yes, I'm in an apartment (a concrete and brick house) and now its 34C outside temp but humidity is 76%

I'd do what you suggested.

Thanks again for your invaluable feedback, I remember you from my last post (working on your tips :) )
 
I'm grateful to all the members who posted and shared their opinions, it was really helpful to get an insight.

I learned couple of things, taken notes (because we forget fast unless write it down) I'm in the transit of implementing a few things which I found useful and applicable at my place.

Thanks again :)
 
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