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Silent air conditioning?

Benjamin Strange

Benjamin Strange

Commercial User
Dec 25, 2002
9,737
310
49
New Orleans, LA
www.ufodeathcult.com
Disclosures
Owner / Tech: Strange Guitarworks
#1
I live in New Orleans - it's October and it's still hot. I'm trying to record some acoustic guitars in my project studio, and I've fixed just about every problem a project studio has (treated the walls, moved the computer to a different room, etc.), but I still have one major issue: the heat.

Obviously, I can't run a window unit air conditioner while I'm recording. When I turn off the fan and the AC, I am able to record for about 20-30 minutes before it's too hot to function. Recording an album in 15 mintue spurts is no way to work.

Is there a way I can cool my room without the noise?
 
#8
I'm in an 80 year old duplex type house. There is no central air - only window units which are incredibly noisy. I can even hear AC units on the other side of the house with several doors in between.

And yes, I record naked quite often. Nothing quite like a big booming 9 string acoustic guitar vibrating against one's parts.
 
#9
WillBuckingham said:
It's not that hot. Maybe try leaving the AC at a lower setting when you're not recording so it won't feel so hot when you're recording.
Click to expand...

I agree... it's not that hot - for New Orleans. But just you try shutting yourself in a 12'x14' room with tons of equipment with no fan and no AC and see how long you last. ;)
 
#12
I cant think of anything that is price conscience. Ive seen lots of different cooling solutions in studios but they were all quite pricey. Not having central air is a killer. Do you own the home? Would it be worth putting central air in? You could get several very quiet fans.
 
#13
Actually, I've been in a number of 'professional' studios who had to cut off the AC when recording. But in your situation, one trick is to get a whopping big window unit so that you can cool the room down to about 60 degrees before shutting it off (that'll give you a larger window of recording time before the room heats back up to unhealthy levels), while another has already been mentioned - keep the room fairly warm with the window unit going, so that it doesn't feel like you're moving from comfortable to unbearable, but simply from hot to damn hot...

The cheapest option is to wait a couple of weeks; it's got to cool down eventually...
 
#15
Got any really good dynamic mics?

Without spending a bunch of money on AC, using a really good super or hyper cardioid (or any quality dynamic mic) would help a bunch when recording in a noisy environment.

My Sennheiser 441 and Beyer M-88 both record really great on virtually any source (with good preamps) and have very tight pickup patterns to greatly reduce these types of bleed problems.
(I bought both of these steller dynamics for under $200-each, used)
 
#17
Find a near by closet or build one and move as much outboard gear in it as you can. Then in the closet punch a hole in the celling and install a suction fan to draw the heat out. This is how our server racks the area of our data center that didn't have a rasied floor were setup. Draw the hot air up and away from gear. Easier to walk a little to adjust or check something than deal with heat.

Also think about heat when buying gear, no tube monitors a lot of heat. Don't rack gear on top of each other leave a single rack space to let air flow. High ceilings. Problems with air conditioners is noise they are nasty about generating low pedal tones in the background. Is there a floor above the studio or attic space and good solid roof. If so I'd put some vents in studio ceiling with duct work running to away so air can get out of the room.
 

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