Making my Studio Portable

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skaltpunk

New member
Ok

I need to have my studio fit in my car and operate without electricity. How should I do this? I have a fostex fd-8 standalone unit but would the car battery power that and a preamp if i bought a dc-ac converter? I guess my main question is am i going to be able to get the power i need from my car battery?
 
skaltpunk said:
Ok

I need to have my studio fit in my car and operate without electricity. How should I do this? I have a fostex fd-8 standalone unit but would the car battery power that and a preamp if i bought a dc-ac converter? I guess my main question is am i going to be able to get the power i need from my car battery?
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Probably yes. Audio gear doesn't pull much power, except for power amps. Just check the rating of your DC/AC converter against the power consumption of your recorder. For example, my Tascam portastudio uses 21W, which is not even 0.2 amps at 120V.
 
Alright here is the gear that I will be powering off of my car battery. Any estimates how long a typical car batter would be able to power all of this for?

Mackie 1202 VLZ - 120VAC / 25 W / 500mA
ART TubeMP Preamp - 9VAC / 700mA
Fostex FD-8 Dig. Multitrack - 120VAC / 17 W

Thanks!
 
Adding that up is around 50W. A car battery can generally provide something like 500Whours, so that's about 10 hours. However car batteries aren't designed to be totally discharged all the time, so you'll probably want to limit recording time between recharging to a few hours at a time.
 
i actually am planning on being in pretty remote locations where power outlets won't be available for miles. i think i will get one of those in case, however. so thanks for the link.
 
You can also get one that uses it's own car battery. You won't be tied to the car, and don't have to worry about draining your battery ten miles from nowhere.
 
so what im planning on doing is taking a road trip and recording an album during it. thats why i dont want to rely on outlets... because ill be living in my car. do you know anything about how i would hook up a car batter so i could draw ac from it?
 
boingoman said:
You can also get one that uses it's own car battery. You won't be tied to the car, and don't have to worry about draining your battery ten miles from nowhere.
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then it wont ever recharge...so you'd be kinda screwed. what you could do instead is buy a backup battery just in case your battery dies. then you could replace the battery, drive to somewhere to get the old jumped off and just drive for a while to recharge it a bit. then you should be ok.
 
ok id rather not have to buy a batter so what if i just recorded in hour sessions? would the battery hold up? maybe ill just have to buy a dc-ac converter and pre test.
 
i think if you just do an hour at a time, it should hold up if you're driving in between. gotta give the alternator time to recharge it though, so keep that in mind. also, remember to leave time for that moment at the end of the hour when you're thinking "i CAN'T stop now, this idea is PERFECT!!" but i don't think that should really be a problem if you're only using it an hour at a time.

oh...don't forget a cell phone just in case. :D ;) good luck and have fun, man.
 
dude, you are going to get stuck in the middle of knowhere wishing you had a backup battery.

my band got stuck in north carolina due to a failed battery, until we realized there was a spare in the back of the hitch behind all the gear.

my band got stuck in west virginia due to a faulty radiator hose, until we remembered that we had some of that quick seal pellet stuff. that got us to the nearest town. we got back to DC just in time for our show that night at The Bayou (RIP).

my band got stuck in kentucky... we blew a tire and the spare was worthless. our luck ran out on that one.

all i'm saying... as i'm sure you know... s**t happens. and it happens double on the road.
 
Can't you invest in a quiet generator? Chuck it in the back of the car for further isolation and you can then go on your American desert, Doors style, acid-induced music quest. :)

Man that sounds like such fun. I might steal that idea for myself. No need for acoustically treated drum rooms out in the desert. Where's my passport?
 
yeah i leave in a couple of days and am pumped. i bought a dc-ac converter and did a test with my car battery and all my gear hooked up. ran for 50 minutes and i stopped it before it ran out.
 
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