How do you mix studio electronics and water?

  • Thread starter Thread starter DDev
  • Start date Start date
DDev

DDev

New member
Came home last night about 8 pm, walked into the kitchen, and my feet went squish, squish. The ice maker in my fridge decided to become a fountain and had flooded the kitchen most thoroughly. As soon as the shock wore off I had a sinking feeling and ran down to the basement. There sat my Mackie 32x8 mixer soaking in water, as well as my studio PC, chair, desk, etc. What a mess :mad:

I got all the power disconnected and started pulling everything out. When we picked up the mixer and tipped it sideways to go through the door there must have been a gallon of water that gushed out.

OK, so the question for you all is what would you do in this situation? I've got the gear sitting on a tarp in another room with fans running air constantly over them (the mixer is tipped upside down). I borrowed this mega fan from a friend that is used to dry out carpets and it got the studio floor dried up over night (after the kitchen, of course; the wife does have a priority button).


I hope y'all's day today is better than my night last night was!!

Darryl.....
 
If the units were not powered on, you might not have a huge problem. Let it all dry out completely before trying to power it up. You might go dig up a few cans of compressed air and give all the connectors and crevaces a good purge.
Decades back I got caught in a torrential down pour prior to a live outdoor gig. The console (big old Peavey) was literally in standing water. time being what it was, we upended it, poured off the water, and powered it up...ran fine.
Oh yeah, just in case things dont come back, check yer homeowners policy. :D
 
Carter said:
http://gearslutz.com/board/showthread.php3?t=41450


I was reading this yesterday over at gearslutz, this info should help you out...
Click to expand...

That's a good discussion. Some interesting ideas, but it seems like the best thing is to just let things sit for a few weeks/months. I don't know if I can wait that long!!!

I already cancelled a session I had for Friday night. Manu, I'm bummed.

Darryl.....
 
Try and pop the back off the console to make sure that all interior pots and switches get good and dry before you power your Mackie back up. If it was just water and your board was off when it happened, you may getlucky and have no problems. When you do turn it back on pay close attention. USe your eyes and your nose carefully to spot any problems. If you smell anything weird turn your console off immediately. See if you can find the source. It's possible that you may smell a little something that isn't damaging, and just some parts "cooking" back in. If you see smoke anywhere however than it is repair person time. If you see sparks, than the board definately needs repairs. After 10 or 15 mins of leaving your console on, you are probably safe to leave it on for a while. Personally, I reccomend leaving it on at least overnight. Hopefully the board will create some heat and burn out any remaining moisture. I would not use the concole with audio signals for at least 12 hours or so of leaving it powered up. After that I would send somepink noise through it channel by channel and test all of your buss routing etc... to assess whether or not you have any other damage.

In my past I have onlyreally had three bad console poblems. Years ago at a large Rodeo party I had a full bottle of beer of thrown that broke open on an Allen Heath GL4 (40 channel). Luckily it was beer and not soda. I was actually able to finish the show with somequick clean-up. I actually had a GL3000 freeze once at an outdoor show at 4 AM. The moisture in the air condensed on the console, and then when it got cold enough it formed a light layer of ice all the way across the console. The console worked through the wholenight and at the end, I had to use a pair of 1k par cans to thaw it out before re-casing it. A few years ago at a club I had a 52 channel Allen Heath ML5000 take a bar stool bouncing off the top of it during a little riot at a hardcore show. Luckily no damage was sustained there either.

The worst however was just last Saturday for me. I was doing a show where there was a big looking storm blowing in. Once the rain started I got the console and FOH racks tarped and under an EZ Up tent. It was a nasty little Microburst and the rain was nearly horizontal and very thick. The water filled up in several places and the weight of the water shifted one of the tarps and started to run off in a steady stream. Unluckily the tarp shifted in such a way that it dumped a few seconds of water onto the lower left corner of my 56 channel Midas Verona:( Later this week I will be able to completely assess the damage, but so far I know that channel 3 is shot, and channels 9 and 10, and possibly 1 need work. We'll see:(
 
DDev said:
Came home last night about 8 pm, walked into the kitchen, and my feet went squish, squish. The ice maker in my fridge decided to become a fountain and had flooded the kitchen most thoroughly. As soon as the shock wore off I had a sinking feeling and ran down to the basement. There sat my Mackie 32x8 mixer soaking in water, as well as my studio PC, chair, desk, etc. What a mess :mad:
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear that. The same thing happened to me a few years back, I got a call from my girlfriend, she told me to get home ASAP a pipe had broken and water was flooding my gear. When I got home I found her in the basement with towels and buckets trying to move all my gear out of the way. Long story short I unplugged everything, poured the water out, let it dry for a week+ and then tried everything out...................NO PROBLEMS! Everything was fine! :) Phew!!!

Good luck!
 
xstatic said:
Try and pop the back off the console to make sure that all interior pots and switches get good and dry before you power your Mackie back up. :(
Click to expand...

I haven't taken the bottom of the board off yet but it won't do much for giving me access to the pots and faders anyway. I don't know if you've ever been inside one of the big Mackie boards, but you have to disassemble EVERYTHING to get to the control side of the pcb's. I had to re-cable the console a couple of years ago and it was a major undertaking to get to everything. Every knob has to be removed, all 1000 retaining screws and every nut on every I/O connector has to be removed. I'm really hoping that by having it elevated upside down it will dry enough without my having to get into it.

On the positive side, I just tore into the studio PC and it looks all dry inside, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. The session I cancelled Friday night was to finish up "mastering" on an album that is getting "released" on Sunday. Somehow I've still got to get it done.

Thanks for all your thoughts, guys.

Darryl.....
 
HOLY SHIT DARRYL!! :eek: :( :( Man I'm so sorry to hear that. Just saw your thread. That is totally bum. Well, I would get some compressed air and start blowing where ever I could. At least you didn't have to leave it there like some people probably did in New Orleans. Among other things to morbid to mention. Well I sure hope it works out ok for you. You do own your home don't you? Maybe your insurance will cover it? :confused: I don't have any experience with this sort of thing or I would suggest stuff to try. I wish you luck Darryl. Let us know, ok? Were here to "grieve" the bummers with ya too. All of us get some kind some time or other. Like my shop. Got our first heavy rain last night. Went down to the shop, and the fiberglass roof leaked .....all over my Powermatic table saw and Laguna bandsaw. Rusted the tables right up in a few hours last night........damn!! :eek: :mad: :mad: I knew I should have worked on that roof this summer. Hindsight sucks.. :rolleyes: Again, good luck Darryl
fitZ
 
pain in the ass or not, take it apart and get those pots cleaned. Isopropal works in a pinch, but contact cleaner (from an electronics store) is much better.

The longer it sits, the longer the mineral content of the water (which there always is some) will embed into the pots requiring replacement.

I went through this about 20 years ago with my first mixing console - I had a Fostex 460-16 sitting on my desk, and a hanging plant right over it, in a pot that had a built-in coaster/excess water catch thing.

Unfortunately, at some point after watering it, the built in coaster/catch tray thing just fell off for no reason, while I was away for the weekend. So, the mixer (channels 1-3) received a nice bath, then continous dripping of muddy, very rich in miracle grow, water.

Don't wait... tear it down now.
 
Thanks, guys, for the comments and advice.

Well, here is an update. It's been a busy weekend. The session I had scheduled for Friday night still had to be done by Sunday, so I rigged up my "spare" mixer (an old Fostex 1516) and got the CD finished off late Saturday night (I heard from the drummer tonight that their concert this afternoon went great and they sold about 20 CD's so that is cool). The PC powered up just fine. It looked like it just got some splash effect on the lower part of the case, but there was no evidence of water inside the case, so I feel good about that. The only definite casualty so far is my wireless mouse. It is dead as a doornail. The wireless keyboard, which was full of water, survived and works fine, though. I haven't had time to tear down the mixer but I have had it drying off under constant airflow for the last few days. I am hoping tomorrow night to have some time to at least pull the bottom off and see if there is any residual evidence left of the water.

The insurance company finally came over late Thursday and they indicated that they would replace the mixer. I am just waiting to see what the dollar amount is that they will provide. Who knows, I could wind up coming out of this with something much better than I started with. The Mackie is a very versatile mixer but in my setup it really was only being used as a monitor mixer anyway since I've begun mixing "in the box". I never liked the sound of the mic preamps so I never used it for actual recording (the Fostex, however, got a lot of use for recording full band scratch tracks).

I'll post more once I get the settlement and then try to figure out what to spend it on. I've got some ideas of what I would like to do, but it all really depends on what I get out of it. Replacement value would be in the neighborhood of $3500 from what I can see for a new unit (mine has the meter bridge which is an $800-900 option). Since I already have another 16 channel mixer at my disposal I'm thinking I might do something like a Soundcraft M12 board which has pretty decent preamps and direct outs on every channel, and then add in a multichannel I/O for the computer (I'm thinking maybe a MOTU 24i/o). Then I would be able to record straight to the computer and I could use my Mackie MDR hard disk recorder exclusively for the church stuff I do (and I won't have to lug it around all the time). Or I could get a small format digital board (like a Yamaha 01/V96). I'd also like to get one or two decent quality preamp channels. I don't know, it is kind of overwhelming to even think about. I almost feel like posting one of those "if you had $xxxx to spend what would you get" posts, which I usually ignore.

So, that is the latest. Before this happened I was actually getting ready to do a semi-pro photo shoot of the studio to start advertising it, but that will have to wait a bit now. The night after it happened I laid awake quite awhile almost hoping that there would be major sheetrock damage and I would have to get the walls replaced. That would be the perfect excuse for expanding the size of my control room to something that is actually acoustically sound rather than an 8 foot cube which is basically what I've got. It sort of works, but it takes awhile for me to get translatable mixes. But all I wound up with was a few stain spots on the ceiling, and some Kilz and paint will fix that.

Now to head for bed with visions of new mixers filling my head..... :)

Darryl.....
 
RICK FITZPATRICK said:
Got our first heavy rain last night. Went down to the shop, and the fiberglass roof leaked .....all over my Powermatic table saw and Laguna bandsaw. Rusted the tables right up in a few hours last night........damn!!
Click to expand...

Rick,

You just had to go mention that Powermatic table saw, now didn't you? Rusty saws are something I also have experience with. My old Craftsman has had the rust scrubbed off so many times it isn't even funny (and it needs it again). Mineral spirits and steel wool are what I've always used (of course, I'm not too concerned about any scratching of the surface). It sure doesn't take long for moisture to create rust on those things. It really makes you appreciate whatever they do to our cars to prevent massive rusting.

Anyway, thanks for the condolences. I hope your gear is easily cleaned up and put back to work :D

Darryl.....
 
Mineral spirits and steel wool are what I've always used (of course, I'm not too concerned about any scratching of the surface). It sure doesn't take long for moisture to create rust on those things. It really makes you appreciate whatever they do to our cars to prevent massive rusting.
Click to expand...
Hey Darryl, I live on the coast of Oregon. Stuff rusts so fast here its unbelievable. In fact, leave something bare metal out in the weather over the winter, and POOF!! ITs gone..rusted away to nothing :D But yea, some steel wool and ....hmmm, mineral spirits huh? never tried that one. I use Naptha, which is pretty close anyway. Then I shoot it with a special tool table wax. But I hadn't done it all summer so it was probably worn away. Normally, water doesn't get through it. Well, lucky you on the new mixer. Tell em it was a NEVE :p Worth only about say $110k......hahahahahaha!! They'll love ya.
fitZ :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top