Studio Maintenance: It’s the Little Things that Count

Nobody likes maintenance—but at least you can make the process a little more painless

by Craig Anderton

Maintenance is a necessary part of life. Sure, it’s more fun to spend time creating rather than maintaining, but paradoxically, a well-maintained studio will actually let you create more because it will run smoothly and cause fewer interruptions.

Some aspects of maintenance are obvious, like backing up your data or updating software. Others are less obvious, such as those that deal with organization—which is really just another facet of maintenance—or little hardware tweaks. Then again, there’s also preventive maintenance, which can really make a difference. So, here are some tips I’ve learned over the years that have helped my studio run just a bit less chaotically than normal.

MAINTAIN QUALITY CONTROL

Many electronic component failures occur within the first 72 hours of operation. This problem, called infant mortality, can be minimized by “burning in” electronic devices for at least 72 hours. However, burning in is a time-consuming process, and not many companies burn in gear prior to it leaving the factory; instead, they offer a 90 day warranty so that you can do the quality control. Therefore, when you first get a new piece of equipment, run it continuously for a few days to weed out any failures before the warranty period is up.

MAINTAIN A LITTLE MOISTURE

One day after walking across the carpet, I touched my computer keyboard and—ooops, instant file delete! Apparently, the static electricity charge had been sufficient to alter the data in the computer (luckily, no chips were blown in the process).

Fortunately, there are a number of accessories that prevent static build-up, such as anti-static floor mats on which you can place your chair as you mix, and humidifiers. Use them!

MAINTAIN YOUR MANUALS

With today’s complicated gear and operating systems, you need instant access to manuals. PDFs are a great way to store lots of data in a minimal amount of space, especially if you have an iPad—you can create your own manual library (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1: A manual library created in Apple's iPad.

The few rare book-size printed manuals can go on a bookshelf, but there are also manuals for signal processors and other smaller pieces of gear are sheets of paper folded over once and stapled in the middle. Remove the staples, use a paper cutter to separate the pages, get a 3-ring punch and voilà—a manual ready for 3-ring binding.

If you really need a printed version instead of a PDF, load up on the ink cartridges, hit Office Depot for a ream of paper, and rock on. But again, you’ll want to punch the pages and put them in a 3-ring binder.

For those weird little manuals and sheets of paper that aren’t 8.5 X 11, you can buy 3-ring punched pouches at any office supply store. Slip the manual in the pouch, and put the pouch in the binder. File alphabetically by company. Pouches are also good for those little plastic “cheat sheets” and other inserts that come with gear.

While we’re on the subject of manuals, if they’re printed, mark ’em up! (You can even do this with PDFs.) If there’s an errata sheet, make the corrections in the manual. Write down tech support phone numbers, serial number, date acquired, any bugs you find, and other useful info.

MAINTAIN YOUR CONTROLS

Your gear likes to be used. About once a month flip all the switches, press each pushbutton, play each key on a synth, rotate any controls, and slide any sliders over their full travel several times. Many of these parts have self-wiping contacts, and using them prevents oxidation. The one exception is membrane keyboards—these have a tendency to fail by shorting out, and are rated at a certain number of operations. Because they are hermetically sealed and usually use conductive plastic, they are not as subject to oxidation problems.

Jack contacts also need to be “worked,” as many jacks use switching contacts that can oxidize. Plug and unplug plugs several times into all jacks not just for the benefit of switching contacts, but also to keep the various pins and contacts free of corrosion. This tip applies to patchbays (yes, people still use them) as well.

MAINTAIN A DUST-FREE ENVIRONMENT

Gear doesn’t like dust, which is just one reason you don’t find a lot of recording studios on Mars Hopefully your gear has covers that are made out of a non-porous material, such as plastic; but also be sure to keep a small, “Dustbuster”-type vacuum cleaner around (Fig. 2) to remove dust from tables, desks, and other surfaces—but never use it to vacuum the insides of gear, especially computers. For these, compressed air is a better option. However, make sure you read the instructions on the can before you start spraying around indiscriminately.

Fig. 2: Black and Decker's "Dustbuster" vacuum cleaners can help keep dust under control in the studio.

Endust for Electronics is designed specifically for keeping dust off electronic gear, and it works. As an experiment I got a can and wiped one keyboard in the rack with Endust for Electronics, and another keyboard with a soft, damp cloth. After a week, the keyboard treated with Endust was still pretty dust-free, whereas the untreated ’board had a layer thick enough to write “wash me.” That was enough to convince me as to the product’s efficacy—studio supply places should bundle this with a Dustbuster for those who want to keep dust to a minimum.

One other dust tip: If you’ve just finished building a studio space, take a rubber mallet and whack the ceilings and walls. It will shake loose a bunch of dust that would take months to float down otherwise.

MAINTAIN YOUR CONTACTS

If you don’t have a database in your computer, you should. You can add as many fields as you want—not just phone numbers and addresses but birthdays, names of significant others, whether they received the latest mailing about your studio, how fast they pay their bills, email or web page addresses, etc. Keeping all your records in one easily updatable place can be extremely convenient, especially if it’s in a laptop or other “instant-on” type of computer. Just don’t forget to back up this information religiously!

MAINTAIN YOUR POWER

Make sure that all electrical outlets are properly wired and grounded; I recently talked to a composer who had a couple of amplifiers break down due to inadequate wiring. The gauge of wire apparently wasn’t thick enough, which caused a voltage drop that simulated “brown-out” conditions and overstressed the amp. And while we’re on the subject of AC power, keep all cords routed away from foot traffic areas. More than one device has been destroyed because someone tripped over a cord and took down a piece of equipment with it.

An uninterruptible power supply (Fig. 3) will maintain a constant source of AC power in the face of brownouts, blackouts, and UFOs flying overhead (those pesky little things can cause all sorts of power problems).

Fig. 3: APC (American Power Conversion) manufactures a variety of uninterruptible power supplies.

Seriously, though, if you’ve ever had the power fail during a write operation to a hard drive, you’ll appreciate the protection this type of device affords. Think of it as insurance…it may be not be cheap, but without it, you could lose anything from your next hit record to pieces of gear.

MAINTAIN YOUR SPEAKERS

This is a preventive maintenance technique: insert a fast-blow, low amperage fuse (I use 1/2 Amp types) in series with your speaker. Golden-ear types will tell you that pushing current through that little tiny piece of wire will degrade the sound; tell them that if they’re willing to pay for blown tweeters, you’ll follow their advice. Just remember not to use slow-blow fuses, as they won’t blow until it’s too late.

MAINTAIN YOUR COOL

Many companies with otherwise fine engineers don’t seem to have a good handle on thermal design. Then again, many people unwittingly defeat what intelligent thermal design there might be. For example, equipment should never be set up where it can receive the full impact of the sun’s rays (even when filtered through window glass), and vent holes should never be obstructed. If there are vent holes in the bottom of a piece of equipment, make sure the device sits on a hard surface where air can flow freely into the holes.

If you have equipment built in a rack cabinet or recessed into a wall, adequate ventilation is a must; adding a small fan (the ones designed for use with computers are generally quiet) can minimize heat build-up. Another consideration with rack mount equipment is to stagger heat-producing equipment. If there’s a hot-running power amp at the bottom of the rack cabinet, leave one rack space above it for air to circulate. Assuming that other heat-producing rack units are sufficiently light, mount them toward the top of the rack so that as the heat rises upwards, it doesn’t “cook” other units in the rack.

But sometimes you don’t need a fan. I have one piece of gear that I get along with very well, but it used to be incapable of working above 85°F. So, I did some thermal engineering the company didn’t do. First, I felt around for heat build-up; the whole rear panel of the device would get very warm, so I simply removed it. This allowed plenty of air to circulate around the back.

I then took off the cover and touched the outside of each IC and power transistor package. Some of them seemed excessively hot. Not wanting to add a fan (the last thing any studio needs is more devices that make noise), it seemed like a good idea to beef up the heat sinks that help the semiconductors dissipate heat. For the transistors, I added an aluminum plate that carried heat away from the top of the package. (Incidentally, in the process of doing this I found that one of the power transistors had not been screwed down sufficiently to make good contact with its existing heat sink.)

For the ICs, I used thermally conductive epoxy to attach small finned heat sinks (available from electronics supply houses) to the tops of the IC packages. Lo and behold, all thermal problems went away—even when the ambient temperature hit 105 degrees during a recent heat wave. (Yes, I know you shouldn’t run computer-based gear in that kind of heat; but I don’t have air conditioning and a deadline was looming larger than fear of breakdown.) Since the capacitors sitting next to these semiconductors are no longer being baked by the heat, their lives should be extended as well.

MAINTAIN YOUR SANITY IN THE STUDIO

Actually, I don’t have any tips on this one. Maybe someday...

Craig Anderton is Editor Emeritus of Harmony Central. He has played on, mixed, or produced over 20 major label releases (as well as mastered over a hundred tracks for various musicians), and written over a thousand articles for magazines like Guitar Player, Keyboard, Sound on Sound (UK), and Sound + Recording (Germany). He has also lectured on technology and the arts in 38 states, 10 countries, and three languages.