Should your studio be grounded, why?

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atomlow

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I just realized that my friends basement where we record isn't grounded. I bought a surge protector that tells you if you are grounded or not. Is this gonna effect the sound of the recordings or what else should I be worried about.

Thanks,
Adam
 
It leaves you wide open for hum and noise..... not to mention the real danger of electric shock if something goes wrong and electricity decides that YOU'RE a shorter path to ground than the circuit is............
 
Well, besides death, there is that annoying ground loop/ buzz thing.
 
to ground, you just hook, say, a wire up to your pipe on your cieling, down to your outlet, or power strip, etc...correct? or do i have to ground everything individualy?
 
from what i understand, all of your sockets should be grounded.

The most important thing with earthing, is that all of your equipment should be earthed (if It has the 3rd pin - UK).

What's gotta be done then, is that you inter equipment connections musn't have the earths connecting, so if you have a jack2jack cable, the shielding should only be connected on one of them, otherwise your creating a loop (earth going through j2j and through your sockets)

Anyone who's studied comms at college will tell you that loops make GREAT aerials...

get the idea? Aerials == noise.

:)

hope thats confused things a little more :) *kidding*

for more info, look here.
http://www.saecollege.de/reference_material/pages/Audio.htm
 
shackrock said:
to ground, you just hook, say, a wire up to your pipe on your cieling, down to your outlet, or power strip, etc...correct? or do i have to ground everything individualy?
Click to expand...
Er... you'll want an electrician to perform the grounding so that it's done to code....
 
You didn't hear this from me but run a heavy copy wire from the ground on any outlets you are using to your copper water pipes. It will probably be easiest to pick one outlet to use. This does not guarantee a good ground, so check it with a meter, but it is the quickest, easiest way.

You can also run the ground wire to a copper rod and drive it into the ground a few feet.

Obviously, TURN OFF THE BREAKER TO ANY OUTLETS BEFORE MESSING WITH THEM.
 
You'd be safer following Bear's advice - (reasons to follow mine about following Bear's - I've been a tech of one sort or another for 37 years, hold two electrical licences and a journeyman Industrial Instrumentation card...)

Usually, TRK's method will work although the water pipe thing doesn't meet code. Also, I've seen a couple of cases where the city water comes in through "black iron" pipe, and gets sweat-soldered or otherwise bonded to copper pipe for cold water supply - one case was a house I owned. I had grounded my electric fence charger (horses) to the copper water pipe, and it worked fine for about a year. Then one day my horses got out, I checked the fence and it wasn't hot anymore. Finally tracked it down to NO GROUND on the charger! What had happened was that the dissimilar metal connection of copper to iron had gotten electrolytically corroded so there was no continuity between the copper and the iron. No water leaks, just no electrical connection.

If you're not an electrician, at least consult one before you tackle wiring. If you're gonna die, at least do it for a good reason, like Pizza overdose, or.... Steve
 
hmmm, well you guys know the litle metal rings on the end of some power strips...just big enough to put a wire through - i always just put a wire from that onto a copper water pipe or furnace, whichever was closest...ha

is that bad?

what happens if i dont ground anyway? i'll definately notice a huge buzz correct? i mean, if i dont notice anything, whats the difference right?
 
shackrock said:
what happens if i dont ground anyway? i'll definately notice a huge buzz correct? i mean, if i dont notice anything, whats the difference right?
Click to expand...
The difference is death by electrocution, or not!
 
Aren't you young Shackrock...? I might be wrong, but I remember some of your posts where you said you were like 16 or something...

Why not talk to your dad/mom about getting the proper grounding job done by a qualified electrician...

Don't half-ass it.. You can DIE! (No exaggeration)

It really should be done in your basement anyways, regardless of whether your recording or not...

Safety first... Electrical Wiring is NOT a hobby.. CALL A PRO!

Joe
 
well my pops is an electrical engineer, so i guess he'll take care of it enough..ha.

i assume he already has stuff grounded - he works down there building shit pretty often, and he knows i do too. i'll ask him about it.
 
Yeah, please do ask him - remember the story about the plumber whose pipes always leaked, the mechanic whose own car wouldn't run, etc... Steve
 
Scenario: It's a little warm in your basement. You're just kinda bummin around messing with your Fender Tele or Strat. You know, the ones where you feed the strings from the back. Nice metal contacts there. It's a little warmer so you take off your shirt or it's already wet with sweat (calm down, this ain't gonna get kinky). Did I mention you're barefooted standing on bare concrete? All of a sudden your amp decides it's not an amp, it's a fence charger. Best case - Everybody in the house knows you just got zapped (hint - a really loud yell). Worst case - well you know. My son got zapped (best case) standing in our kitchen on linoleum barefoot, no shirt, when my old tube amp (ungrounded plug) got tired of being an amp.

Get it fixed by someone who knows what they're doing. The piece of mind is well worth it.

DD
 
I'm confused on the whole issue I guess....

I wired my basement myself (to code), standard 3 conductor 18 gauge wire to all the outlets, the bare copper wire (ground) goes back to the main breaker box where it is connected all the other bare copper wires, which in turn are connected to a copper stake driven into the ground outside my house. Around here all houses use this system, so by definition all outlets in the house are earth grounded.

Have I misunderstood what the original poster meant when he said his basement was ungrounded?

Having said all this I realize that grounding problems (loops) will still exist in a house that is wired to code and grounded properly.

Blue Bear - do studios such as yours use any special kind of grounding scheme to avoid ground loop problems and the hum problems you described earlier? I've worked in labs all my adult life and have seen special set ups where a grounding bar is mounted to the wall behind sensitive equipment, the equipment is then connected to the grounding bar using thick woven copper "rope" with alligator clips or a nut/washer arrangement.
 
"I wired my basement myself (to code), standard 3 conductor 18 gauge wire to all the outlets" -

Is this a misprint, or do you have a different wiring code than the rest of the world? NEC calls for 12 gauge wire for 20 amp receptacles, and 14 gauge for 15 amp receptacles and some lighting circuits.

Please check this out on your own wiring job - this is how fires start... Steve
 
Phyl,
I work in a government calibration lab. Our old lab had a 2"x1/4" copper bar that ran behind every work bench. All benches were grounded to this rail. Inside the building there was a place where the concrete had been removed and a grounding rod driven about 20' into the ground. The ground was so dry (Georgia clay) we had to pour a saltwater solution around it every couple of months to make sure we kept a good ground. Anyhow our new building was built from the ground up as a cal lab so we haven't had any ground problems. Ground problems can cause some really wierd things to happen to electronic test equipment. Just my 2 cents.

DD
 
Yes, it was a typo (sigh), it's all 12 gauge with 20 amp circuits.

I'm just wondering if you folks do something beyond the typical home grounding scheme to decrease hum, noise, etc in your recordings. I can see where it could be a big issue when using very sensitive pre-amps and microphones.
 
Blue Bear Sound said:
Er... you'll want an electrician to perform the grounding so that it's done to code....
Click to expand...

Code!!?? in Kentucky...the only code we have is to ask our sister first, before we molest her!!
 
Phyl said:
Yes, it was a typo (sigh), it's all 12 gauge with 20 amp circuits.

I'm just wondering if you folks do something beyond the typical home grounding scheme to decrease hum, noise, etc in your recordings. I can see where it could be a big issue when using very sensitive pre-amps and microphones.
Click to expand...
The only thing I did in my present facility is use balanced power transformers on all the racks... this elimnates any ground loop issues...

My new (forthcoming) facility may have special treatment -- I'm still in the pre-design phasse and still need to consult with electricians...........!
 
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