I've not tried ducting though I have thought about it. I recently built a very quiet PC concentrating on fan and disk noise. It didn't start out so quiet.

The 2 items which helped the most were the Zalman CNPS7000 CPU cooler (very impressive) and the Enermax quiet power supply. Right now the noisest thing on the PC is the Zalman 80mm exhaust fan which makes a thumping sound once each rotation. The no-name fan I tried did the same. (Anybody got any ideas for a quieter fan?)

The Intel MB runs the fans at 1750RPM or 0RPM all the time. I've heard the fans running full tilt but wouldn't want to be around the machine.

The box is sitting right next to me at my mix position with the fans off and I can barely hear it. It's quite tolerable with the fans on.

Hope this helps.

larry

I finally gave up and moved mine out of the control room ( I know thats not what you wanted to hear :) )

the other day we were running tones and test mics on my new batch of homemade diffusors, and the computer noise was just intolerable. We had it in a whisper rack and everything, still reading pretty high. i am noticing a lighter touch on the reverbs on my end since then and steeper decays. What a pain in the butt tho, 12 25 foot long adat cables!

Yeah Pipeline, I fear that's what I will end up doing too - it's certainly the most cost effective measure.

Thanks all for the input.

mo

I've seen guitar players raving about wireless keybord and mouse setups, keeping them away from the hum caused by the monitor and pick-ups plus solves the tower noise problem.

MJ

Pipeline,

How are you getting your video signal(s) to your monitor(s)? Normal cables over a certain distance will cause video degeneration. Are you using BNC?

I'm also considering the second room solution, but I'm using 4 analog monitors with 2 computers with an expected cable run of about 16 feet. Is DVI a better solution or does it suffer of same?

Thanks

Angels

I'm using a 25ft extension cable on my CRT monitor with no degradation. Or if there is any, it's really minimal from my perspective. I'm an audio only user so I might notice something if I was doing video?

drbam

http://www.bonuscable.com/product_info.php?products_id=59
I bought a 15' cable from these guys - I am picky about graphics quality and the 15' cable does not degrade the image at 1600x1200 75 Hz - that's compared to a 8' BNC cable.

Im just running regular old monitor cables. I couldnt tell if it degraded the video, I really just do audio

Great ideas on video cable and how far one can go - what about mice and keyboards; IE: aside from IR wireless solutions previously mentioned, has anyone used any other kind of remote extension? While I'm at it, what about USB cable - I wonder how far that can go before there's trouble....

mo

I'm also using 20 ft extensions on mouse and keyboard. One older mouse didn't work with the extension but a more current MS standard model works fine.

drbam

I stuffed my CPU inside a closet. Extended my mike cables into my living room ("recording studio") and and that solved my noise problem for that recording session. The machine I use for Vegas is quite noisy (it's one of the early "speeders" that isn't so speedy anymore - 900 Mhz Compaq).

I recently upgraded my office machine to an HP 2.5 Ghz machine that is whisper quiet. I often find myself checking to see if the fan is actually running - and it is.

Someday, I will convert that machine for use as my recording machine. I'm betting it will be quiet enough for my uses without a lot of extra effort on my part.

I record singers and accoustic instruments, so I do need a fairly quiet room.

The closet thing worked for me. My CD's sound very good - no distracting noise of any kind.

Hope this helps.

Caruso

Does anyone have any experience with longer USB cables? According to their FAQ, USB.org says that a "low speed device" (assuming USB-1?) cannot be extended any more than 3 meters.

My I/O device is USB, assuming "low speed" as it's not USB2, so a nine foot maximum distance may be a limitation for me. Also, the more I think about it and read the responses here, I realize that I need to get the mics and the performers away from the box, instead of getting the box away from me - I spend far more time engineering than I do performing (unless it's midi work), so I need the computer and other resources near me most of the time.

I guess it's time to turn the barn into a studio... perhaps I'll have to start another thread about how to keep mice from chewing the cables...

:)

mo

>>perhaps I'll have to start another thread about how to keep mice from chewing the cables... <<

Reminds me of when Joan Baez was recording a project in Nashville (many years ago!) and a cricket somehow got into the live echo chamber (which was the studio's primary reverb/echo source). Everything came to a standstill while the engineers feverishly tried to catch the thing. At the time, Nashville was beginning to try and go beyond its "hillbilly" image but this little episode didn't help. ;-)

drbam