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I recently had a discussion with an engineer from New York who was explaining that back in 1976 when he bought a Neve 8086, they turned it on in 1978 and turned it off in 1981, when they moved the studio.

I've never before heard of this. I've never left my console on for more than 2 days (granted i don't have a 96 channel Neve).
Does anyone know about this/do this/understand why this is done?

Jeremy

Yeah, I read about a guy with a bunch of vintage mics that he hadn't turned off since the '70s. I'm no recording engineer, but I've replaced enough light bulbs to give this question a shot: electronic components are under the most strain when they are being turned on and off. Don't know why, but it's true. That's why a light bulb almost never blows while it's on, always when it's getting turned on. I'm sure one of the smarter folks on here will chime in...

here is a good link

http://analogrules.com/leaveon.html

that article that wow&butter linked to wrote:I've seen very poorly designed power amps put out DC directly to speakers...

Been there, seen that. An old Dynaco power amp we had failed and put god-knows-how-many DC volts into a pair of those weird Bose 901s that a partner of mine owned, and the damned things took it without really blowing. Ok, the speakers excursed ALL THE WAY and the cones almost caught fire as the coils heated up, but the voice coils didnt just immediately bust into a jillion pieces like one would think. It was pretty remarkable, actually. And MAN did it stink. The scent of melted plastic everywhere. The whole housing of the speaker was misshapen from the heat of those voice coils.

Actually, we're pretty lucky the place didnt burn down.

Well, i just emailed said engineer in NY and got a logical response.

In NY, in the late 70's, business was much more frequent. to the point where, on average, down time (i.e. no one is at the studio) was less than 3 hours per day.
Electric companies charged based on an unequal curve, relative to the highest peak of voltage. So the surge or 'initial turn on' (which theoretically can be half again as much as the initial voltage) is what you're being charged for.
it would cost a studio more money in electric bills to turn it off for 3 hours a day, over a period of 5-10 years, then to just leave it on for those very minute down time incidents.

This is no longer a concern, for most of us anyway, because at the most, our studios are empty 8 - 12 hours a day (sleeping, eating,etc).
anyway, thanks for input.

Jeremy

I've read that digital gear should be left on to avoid jitter and quatization inaccuracies. The reasoning is that the quartz oscillators need to warm up and reach a nominal temperature. This can take 1-2 hours, at which point the components have stabilized, including the oscillator(s).

Same thing can probably apply to other IC op-amp based circuits, reaching optimum performance in their warmed-up 72-96 degree range.

I do notice that most tube equipment needs about 20 minutes to an hour to start sounding "sweet" for lack of a better term.

None of this discusses the wear and tear on the actual gear. Is there a downside to the gear by staying on?
Tube life for tube gear?
Solid state gear?
What about gear that runs hot? I feel funny about leaving that sort of thing on....amps, etc. It's bad enough if your studio burns down from faulty gear, but for those of us that have a studio in our homes, we're risking burning down our houses as well. In a professional studio, let's assume that the wiring was all done by a professional. All gear is in top notch shape. The wiring itself should be done to code. At home, we're using cheap hosa wiring, a mixture of new and old gear. The rooms we're in might not have the proper amperage to handle the gear, etc. Again, I'm sure someone smarter than I can answer this. Heck, I'm just a drummer, really.
later
m

None of this discusses the wear and tear on the actual gear. Is there a downside to the gear by staying on?
Tube life for tube gear?
Solid state gear?
What about gear that runs hot? I feel funny about leaving that sort of thing on....amps, etc. It's bad enough if your studio burns down from faulty gear, but for those of us that have a studio in our homes, we're risking burning down our houses as well. In a professional studio, let's assume that the wiring was all done by a professional. All gear is in top notch shape. The wiring itself should be done to code. At home, we're using cheap hosa wiring, a mixture of new and old gear. The rooms we're in might not have the proper amperage to handle the gear, etc. Again, I'm sure someone smarter than I can answer this. Heck, I'm just a drummer, really.
later
m

Well first, a home studio (or even most large studios these days) aren't in use often enough to leave the gear on all the time. This was all in reference to studios in the late 70s. the studio was never not being used.

Secondly, tube gear, I'd not leave on. In motown studio (way back in the day) there were 2 control rooms and one live room. The reason was that in control room A, there was an Altec Lansing Tube console that needed to be re-tubed almost once a month. In control room B was (?) a solid state console, which they hooked up to the fairchild 670 to emulate the compression of the tube console while it was being repaired.

side note: this caused the birth of what we now know as 'mastering' because motown was putting out louder recordings that anyone else, because of the fairchild. From this point on people began compressing their albums more and more to make them louder.

As stated before, solid state components are harmed more by the surge (turn on) than by being left on for long periods of time. if you use your gear for more than 20 hours a day, I'd say leave it on. otherwise, don't burn your house down.

Jeremy

Well, I don't know what the hell kind of circuits they had in those Motown Altec consoles, but there's no reason why a well designed tube circuit should need small signal tubes like dual triodes (12AX7 etc.) replaced any more often than every 10 years or so.

Seriously.

But to get back to the point -- there are many advantages to leaving small signal tubes running indefinitely. The main one is simply extending their life -- they undergo a lot more wear and tear when they're switched on than they do by just staying on. Also, they stabilize in some way and tend to sound less noisy when they've been on for a while.

Power tubes conduct a lot more current, which causes the barium oxide coating on the cathodes to wear away faster, so they should at least be switched into a standby mode (which keeps them heated but switches off the high voltage) or turned off altogether. In my shop I listen to music through an old Dynaco Stereo 70 power amplifier, which I often leave on continuously for days . I'll notice a lot more random buzzes and fizzes and bangs during the first half hour than at any time thereafter.

Of course, all this is moot if you only use the stuff a couple of hours a day.