Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Felix Werner]

ANY "soundman that does "tie-ins" is no better than the homemade distro guy.

I know we all do it, But we are not qualified to do so.

[Charlie Zureki]

ANY "soundman that does "tie-ins" is no better than the homemade distro guy.

I know we all do it, But we are not qualified to do so.

  Hmmm   That's not necessarily true, I know a lot of  Sound Techs that are more than capable of doing tie-ins. They have the knowledge and experience, and have been doing tie-ins for years.

   Hammer

[Jonathan Johnson]

ANY "soundman that does "tie-ins" is no better than the homemade distro guy.

I know we all do it, But we are not qualified to do so.

Do not confuse 'qualified' and 'certified'. One does not necessarily imply the other.

There are many qualified people who don't have that journeyman electrician's card, and there are many journeyman electricians whose certification leaves you scratching your head wondering how they got it.

[Trevor Ludwig]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16zwTCaz99c&feature=related this was the first video they showed me in my electricians courses. if you are willing to accept the responsibility of this happening to someone using your "homemade distro" more power to you.

...good god...

[eric lenasbunt]

Are you proposing drawing power from 2 different circuits without connecting their grounds together?

No, just plugging them in, no point in connecting anything other than Edison to Edison. In other words running extension cords to conditioners.

[George Friedman-Jimenez]

I have not tried this in a live setting, but in my studio, when I plug different components of the sound system into 2 different circuits, I get very significant hum due to ground loops. My fix has always been to use one and only one 15A circuit as the source for all audio components that are interconnected by the balanced ground connections. This is not a problem in my low-power studio, but in live gigs, a 15A limit can be very constraining.

Have you been able to get away with using separate circuits as you propose, without getting ground loop noise?

[TJ (Tom) Cornish]

I have not tried this in a live setting, but in my studio, when I plug different components of the sound system into 2 different circuits, I get very significant hum due to ground loops. My fix has always been to use one and only one 15A circuit as the source for all audio components that are interconnected by the balanced ground connections. This is not a problem in my low-power studio, but in live gigs, a 15A limit can be very constraining.

Have you been able to get away with using separate circuits as you propose, without getting ground loop noise?

This is the whole point of the Poor Man's Distro concept - tie the grounds together from multiple circuits.

[George Friedman-Jimenez]

So would there be any problem if I just ran a large (eg 12 ga) insulated wire from the common third prong ground in one 15A power strip to the common third prong ground in a second 15A power strip, and then plugged each into a separate circuit in a bar or other venue?

[TJ (Tom) Cornish]

So would there be any problem if I just ran a large (eg 12 ga) insulated wire from the common third prong ground in one 15A power strip to the common third prong ground in a second 15A power strip, and then plugged each into a separate circuit in a bar or other venue?

Functionally that's the right idea, however you can probably improve the implementation.  If you already have an amp rack, you can add another rack mount power strip for other deivces and pass your power through there.  The metal power strips will be grounded through the metal rack rails (may want to scrape a little paint off to improve the connection), and you have a functional solution without modifying anything or using dodgy external grounding wires.

[Clint Miller]

I have not tried this in a live setting, but in my studio, when I plug different components of the sound system into 2 different circuits, I get very significant hum due to ground loops. My fix has always been to use one and only one 15A circuit as the source for all audio components that are interconnected by the balanced ground connections. This is not a problem in my low-power studio, but in live gigs, a 15A limit can be very constraining.

Have you been able to get away with using separate circuits as you propose, without getting ground loop noise?

With my system, I have NEVER gotten any ground loop noise, because all the grounds are tied together.  The problem with it is, as many have correctly pointed out, the there is danger having an open neutral that would become "live", or "hot".

One problem I often encountered in bars was that the circuits that I was using were not exclusively used for entertainment.  On top of that I found that many of the outlets available were all on the same circuit.  So the 15 or 20 amps were not available and I would inadvertently pop breakers, trying to run my whole system on it.

By finding two breakers that would sum 220 volts across the hot legs insured that I had indeed found two lines that were on separate circuits.

So now, even if I don't continue to use my current setup, I will continue to find my power that way, so I am sure I'm spreading my draw across two circuits.  I will definitely tie the grounds together in order to defeat any ground loop.

[ProSoundWeb Community]