Low Temperatures vs. Gear

The heater is my studio is now disfunctional and I'm curious about the adverse effects of low temps on my gear. Does anyone have any experience in this dept.?

The temperature in this room can't be a cunt hair over forty degrees and I'm wondering if I should get my beloved equipment the fuck out here. Any knowledgeable feedback would be much appreciated. Spanks in advance.

Give me some of that cake and we'll talk.

But seriously, afaik cold temperatures (especially as much as 40 degrees) have no effect on electronics.

sweet jesus thank you!

sweet vegetables from 2897 thank you!

tina?

Yah I have an ancient aprtment in New England, there isn't any heat on the side of the place my gear is on so when Im not there it chills at or around freezing for most of the winter. Even my analog modular doesn't complain.

might make everything run more stable

get into ice pads and reverb

yea cold=good, as long as it's not liquid nitrogen-cold

it's hot you gotta watch out for with electronics.

batteries don't like low temperatures i know that much

It's fine by my gear, but I advise you to let any "dew" dry up before you hook up the electronics.

Gear likes cool temperatures...which makes me wonder why one of the synthesis labs here is always at like 80 F.

Never had any trouble with music equipment at low temperatures but I have seen the cold fuck other things up. I left a lab scale in my trunk once over night in the dead of winter and the fucker went ape shit when I tried to turn it on while it was still cold.

Might be a good idea to let your equipment warm up a bit if it drops below freezing before using it, other than that not a clue!

Thanks for all of the quality feedback. I was genuinely worried about my toys so it's a relief to hear that things will be okay. Everything is going to be o-kay...

Damn you look so hardcore I'm sure that that any damage to your boxes would be noticed!

as long as it is not cold + moisture.

just think that whatever you do at that exact temp no one else will be able to repeat which will make your stuff unrepeatable/unique/most awesomeness

try recording the same stuff at different temps to see if theres any noticeable difference...

....or not

yeah it should be ok, as long as its not wet down there.

  volg4 said:

just think that whatever you do at that exact temp no one else will be able to repeat which will make your stuff unrepeatable/unique/most awesomeness

 

try recording the same stuff at different temps to see if theres any noticeable difference...

 

....or not

clearly you are not familiar with thermistor hax

okay okay it still drifts a bit

I often worry about the potential of using old synths that are near freezing.. Like, maybe different components will heat up and expand at different rates and come apart, or something like that. The 303 sounds sick (like it has pneumonia, not snowboarder "sick") when it's really cold.. The resonance becomes extra warbly and droopy. It's only a matter of time before humans evolve some kind of heated pouch to carry our electronics around in.

i've heard it's prudent to let old gear acclimate if you move it to a different environment. like, if a synth is in a cold basement for a year, and you then move it up to a room-temp bedroom - you should let it sit in the bedroom for a week or so before powering it on. power-on can be a harsh motherfucker - you'll note lightbulbs usually blow when you switch them on, not after they've been on for a while.

however, i get the impression this is really for impossibly old and valuable gear such as GX-1's. probably all you need to do is let the gear reach the ambient temperature of where you're operating it... a few hours at most, that would take.

thermal expansion/contraction is likely worse when the difference in temp is more dramatic - if it goes from freezing to fucking hot, that's where stuff is gonna pop. moral is, i suppose, don't bring a synth from a freezer into a greenhouse, then switch it on and wail for five hours.

engineers, by and large, are conservative, paranoid motherfuckers. they understand that the stuff they design will likely go through shit they cannot possibly imagine.

  hahathhat said:

you'll note lightbulbs usually blow when you switch them on, not after they've been on for a while.

I.. remember reading that.. somewhere before.. As true now as it was then.