KVR Audio

Jace-BeOS · Post by **Jace-BeOS** » Thu Aug 27, 2015 6:48 pm

My summers are wasted by intolerable heat and AC noise. The AC is to keep my gear safe (and save me from heat stroke). I can't turn it off most days, and headphones don't block it out (and aren't comfortable beyond a couple hours). I live in northeast PA, USA, where the seasons are growing less "temperate" and more bipolar.

How do you stay productive in summers (ARE you productive)?

Do you have central air (or split systems) in your studio ?

Do you simply live in cooler regions?

DJ Warmonger · Post by **DJ Warmonger** » Thu Aug 27, 2015 7:31 pm

Someone made a track with Windows startup sound

https://soundcloud.com/ideoforms/window ... lowed-4000

So maybe you can make a sound with AC noise, who knows?

Serum already features a number of AC noises sampled and they are pretty nice.

Jace-BeOS · Post by **Jace-BeOS** » Thu Aug 27, 2015 8:12 pm

I used an "AC noise" sample loop from Apple Logic in a recent track. It wasn't remotely like actual AC noise (which is grating, buzzy, hummy, and generally offensive).

Using a sample of a noise I hate is irrelevant to my inquiry. How would I even be able to work on such a piece of audio while I'm bathing in the real thing, hence my frustration in the first place??

justin3am · Post by **justin3am** » Thu Aug 27, 2015 8:19 pm

I stopped letting it bother me.

I often forget to turn off the AC or even the TV, when I'm recording with microphones in the same room. If the performance is otherwise okay, I'll just use the take with the background noise. Very few people notice in the context of a mix. Sometimes the background noise becomes any interesting part of the track.

Tricky-Loops · Post by **Tricky-Loops** » Thu Aug 27, 2015 8:25 pm

In Germany most people don't have AC (in their apartement or house). If it's too hot, they go to the next lake instead of making music!

Frantz · Post by **Frantz** » Thu Aug 27, 2015 10:20 pm

Central AC solves the noise issue.

Jace-BeOS · Post by **Jace-BeOS** » Thu Aug 27, 2015 11:17 pm

justin3am wrote:I stopped letting it bother me.
I often forget to turn off the AC or even the TV, when I'm recording with microphones in the same room. If the performance is otherwise okay, I'll just use the take with the background noise. Very few people notice in the context of a mix. Sometimes the background noise becomes any interesting part of the track.

Seriously? How? i can barely think with the AC on. i can barely hear dialog on TV with the AC on and the TV too loud. These aren't huge AC units either. i can't tune anything out, in general, but these things are loud.

Jace-BeOS · Post by **Jace-BeOS** » Thu Aug 27, 2015 11:21 pm

Frantz wrote:Central AC solves the noise issue.

i would agree, but even if i could afford it, it wouldn't work on the third floor. My parents had to install TWO split systems in their house (colonial style, built in 1977) for the second floor because the AC doesn't help there. The forced air in my house was added to a 100-year old row house, badly, and there's one tiny vent in the corner, in the floor, in one room on the third floor. The ground floor, it would probably work for, but, again, poor.

i'd really like to get a split system. Also outside my financial abilities.

Jace-BeOS · Post by **Jace-BeOS** » Thu Aug 27, 2015 11:22 pm

Tricky-Loops wrote:In Germany most people don't have AC (in their apartement or house). If it's too hot, they go to the next lake instead of making music!

i didn't know that Germany commonly doesn't have AC in homes. Is the climate generally cooler?

i hate where i live. There's nothing to do here, and i have no friends locally. And no money to travel.

Frantz · Post by **Frantz** » Thu Aug 27, 2015 11:25 pm

Over the years, I've had several different ac wall units. They weren't that noisy. Are you sure yours is working normally?

justin3am · Post by **justin3am** » Thu Aug 27, 2015 11:29 pm

Jace-BeOS wrote:Seriously? How?

I've become a master of tuning things out. Just ask my wife.

Seriously, though... Where I live (just north of Los Angeles) it's above 80f, 200+ days or more out of the year and it's been in the mid-90s to low 100s almost everyday since the middle of July. There is just no other option but to run the AC all the time, If I couldn't tune it out.

I think it helps that our AC isn't that noisy. The central air at my office is louder.

thecontrolcentre · Post by **thecontrolcentre** » Thu Aug 27, 2015 11:37 pm

Where I live (North East England) it's more a matter of tuning out the sound of the roaring fire and howling winds in the winter. I thought you guys were talking about alternating current for a while there ... why is American electricity so noisy?

Jace-BeOS · Post by **Jace-BeOS** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 12:28 am

Frantz wrote:Over the years, I've had several different ac wall units. They weren't that noisy. Are you sure yours is working normally?

Yes. I have three. They're all loud. The oldest (second-hand) unit is the least noisy. The newer ones are both very loud. Both fan and compressor.

Jace-BeOS · Post by **Jace-BeOS** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 12:33 am

American electricity is noisy too. 60Hz hum from ground loops (what electrician even thinks about this when installing electric wiring, and when will balanced AC become a standard??) isn't all I'm talking about. There's more:

I get a regular (intermittent, not constant) six second buzzing sound in every piece of electrical equipment. Things with speakers are most notable, but AC/DC adapters and other power supply coils buzz audibly too. I can't figure out WTF it is. It's not just in my town either. (No, it's not my cell phone)

Jace-BeOS · Post by **Jace-BeOS** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 12:35 am

Right now I've got my AC off on the ground floor and I'm still listening to AC hum (neighbor's). Row houses suck.

How do you make music with summer heat & AC noise?