Keeping Gear on over extended time - is it safe?

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Hello,

I turn off my computer, monitors, and interface after every session.

However, for my external synthesizers (Analog, Analog Modular, and digital synths) and 500 racks I was wondering if I could keep them on.

We keep our studio at 68 degrees fahrenheit with air conditioning and we also live in a very low humidity environment (Colorado). We have Unified Power Systems which are basically back up battery for all your gear so we aren't worried about power shorts from a lightning storm or something. Also cost from keeping gear on isn't a major concern of ours either.

What are the pro's to keeping gear on? Ive hard turning on and off analog gear can be worse than just leaving it on as there so many ways it can be damaged turning a unit on and off?

Are there any cons to living our gear on?

If you personally leave gear in your studio one for an extended time, do you turn it off every once and a while just to let everything completely cool down or is that just something Im thinking would benefit when it wouldn't? If so do you turn everything off every other week? Once a month? what? and for how long?

Thanks everybody.
• Logic Pro 10.8.1
• MacBook Pro 2023 - M2 MAX - 96 GB RAM
• Focusrite Red 8Line + UAD Satellite

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Certain analog gear - like true analog synths with free running oscillators - always need a certain warmup time before to staying in tune. Virtually impossible to play before that.

It's stated that what is difficult for silicon transistors is power on/off stuff, and transients that come with that reduce expected life time - another pro argument.

If localities are regulated temperature they should also reduce other heating costs - if that is thought of as possible con argument. All gear running also contribute to heating. But if in a climat where you normally run coolers it's the other way around, I guess - power bill increases even more having to cool more.

Tubes wear down by running - so expecting sooner tube swap if continuous running.

I just feel uncomfortable having stuff running if not using them - thinking at least power supplies in unit wear somewhat from that. That really jeapardize unit completely if power supplies break. Especially if hard to get vintage something.

Just a bunch of pro/cons....

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any broadcast station in the world is forced to leave gear powered on 24/7. so given a proper air condition this is not a big issue...

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Hmm lfm you have me on both sides of the fence still... made good arguments for both sides lol..

a broadcast station is much different than a music studio though, isnt it? I guess they deal with a lot of compressors and EQs and a console desk still, but not really on the synth end of things. We definitely feel comfortable leaving our 500 racks on for extended periods with this knowledge.. (we have well ventilated racks, cleaned monthly to reduce dust, we actually only fill every other rack space and have perforated 1U panels for ventilation in-between each unit to reduce heat build up.

I guess my only concern at this point, how much quicker is leaving the gear on going to make me have to get repairs/services then turning the transistors on and off?

I found a similar post on a different forum and someone said that keeping your gear on does wear down parts however turning the gear off and on regularly does more damage. Is this true?
• Logic Pro 10.8.1
• MacBook Pro 2023 - M2 MAX - 96 GB RAM
• Focusrite Red 8Line + UAD Satellite

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Maybe for a lunch break I'd leave it on, but I just find it good practice to switch everything off after a day's work. I also completely switch off my TV and amp every night, I don't let them running on stand-by. Yes that 5 W consumption on stand-by bothers me!

Risk of wear by switching the power button, imho that's neglectable. How many switch-on-offs can it take before it goes poof? More than the natural lifetime of that device. It's always something else extremely silly and non-replaceable you didn't think of that breaks the gear.
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I have various units from the 1970s that have been turned on and off MANY times and never had a single problem. Only one unit got ruined when I turned it on, because it had lousy leaking capacitors.
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OK, I had some more thoughts about the subject.

What I don't know is what the working hours are for your studio. It might be a different story either if someone works there 12 hours a day, every day, every week, every month, or you have it in use for only 4 hours only in the weekends. In the last scenario it's obviously an obscene waste of power to keep everything switched on.

Electronic components don't really wear off. It's not like a transistor can only endure ten trillion operations and then it's end-of-life. That is, as long as their temperature is kept within a certain range. Most passive components (resistors, ceramic capacitors) have a ceramic enclosure and are baked in an oven at hundreds or maybe even a thousand degrees Celcius during production. They don't really mind getting a bit hot (or cold) as long as it isn't for a prolonged duration. Switching power off or on can only cause a spike, and doesn't really have an effect on these components. Same for semi-conductors and non-ceramic capacitors: getting a bit hot is expected and tolerated. Excessice heat ofcourse is a problem, but there should be enough ventilation. What can wear are the mechanical components. But you can't touch them when you're not in the studio.

Tubes are a different story. Inside is a glowing spiral, much like in a light bulb, that emits electrons that travel through the void towards membranes: the cathode or anode, I forgot which is which. That glowing spiral has a limited life time, and so you better not keep it switched on for prolonged durations if you're not using it.

BUT. The real danger in switching your stuff off is not what it does to the device itself, it's in what it does to whatever is connected to it. Some poorly designed devices produce a rather loud impulse (click) on their outputs when switched off or on. If you respect the proper order to switch off your gear (from the end of the chain back to the start) then no issue is expected. Because if the receiving device is switched off, virtually no harm can be done. So first switch off the monitors (or their amp), then the console feeding the monitors, then the synths and computer feeding the console.

In a venue I once encountered a mixing console with a note on it: "Do NOT swich off!!". That was because then it would produce a spike through it's audio outputs, and the power amp was at a location where noone could easily reach it, and that click would damage the speakers.

I remember an incident which happened in our rehearsal room. For a disaster to happen, you need several things to go wrong at the same time. We were using a PA system designed for small venues, and it's volume was set at full blast. Our keyboard player had the volume of his synth set at only 10%, to compensate. On the mixer his channel was set very loud, again to compensate. So that was error one: wrong gain staging. When we stopped playing, error two happened: the keyboard player switched off his synth and pulled out his plugs while everything else was still on. That would normally not be a problem, but now the mixer amplified his click and the amp was set at full blast, and the HF driver could not take it and said "poof" in the process.

So that is something to really watch out for: pilot error! To counter-act you could choose to never ever switch anything off, but imho that's going much too far.
We are the KVR collective. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated. Image
My MusicCalc is served over https!!

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My Home studio is turned off and unplugged when I am not using it (everything runs down to one plug). One of my musician friends believes in leaving his gear on all the time. Much of his gear has died over the years from running all of the time, All of mine still works fine. I came up with an argument for him for turning off his gear, it goes like this. I have a computer (or synth) you want to buy from me. I have two of them, Identical in every way, they are both the same price. I have had them both for a year. one has been on the entire year and one has only been turned on once or twice a week when I used it. which one do you want?

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Hi everyone,

I have reached out to both Moog Music and Dave Smith Instruments on this and while they gave me different reasons they agreed on the same conclusion. Always power off your gear when your done working for the day/night. If your going to lunch or just stepping out of the studio for a bit leave everything on. But if your done recording for the day or are going to bed turn everything off.
• Logic Pro 10.8.1
• MacBook Pro 2023 - M2 MAX - 96 GB RAM
• Focusrite Red 8Line + UAD Satellite

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Hi everyone,

I have reached out to both Moog Music and Dave Smith Instruments on this and while they gave me different reasons they agreed on the same conclusion. Always power off your gear when your done working for the day/night. If your going to lunch or just stepping out of the studio for a bit leave everything on. But if your done recording for the day or are going to bed turn everything off.
• Logic Pro 10.8.1
• MacBook Pro 2023 - M2 MAX - 96 GB RAM
• Focusrite Red 8Line + UAD Satellite

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and now you don't have to go round and switch on every one
of your 500 racks each time, that must be a relief.(and probably
took at least an hour)

come on, lets have the list :)

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turning the transistors on and off
This is a misconception. Transistor is designed so it can be turned on and off indefinitelly with any switching frequency it supports. The only thing that can damage transistor is excessive heath / power dissipation and this should not happen under proper operating conditions.

To put it in another way: good electronic gear should never fail on its own.
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