Halogen beamers causing buzz...

Hi everyone, I'm a newbie around here so please don't shred me into small pieces even if my questions are dumb. I'm in the process of installing a project studio in my basement. I have a problem with the 220V halogen beamers (all tied to a single light dimmer) mounted in the ceiling tiles of the recording room. They seem to radiate buzz directly into electric pickups of guitars/bass etc. only. No other audio device is affected other than the hiZ instruments. The ceiling is not so high (around 2.8 meters high). Is it a normal problem ? How can I avoid that ? Thanks in advance for any advice !!

What kind of dimmer are you using? Is the dimmer humming or the lamps/filaments themselves? I would suggest a variac type of dimmer. This should isolate the noise feeding back into the lines.

Aaronw wrote:

What kind of dimmer are you using? Is the dimmer humming or the lamps/filaments themselves? I would suggest a variac type of dimmer. This should isolate the noise feeding back into the lines.

No the dimmer is not humming. As I move with my guitar in the room, I get more or less buzz as I'm more a less under a light. When I lift the guitar closer to the light, the buzz increase. It seems like RFI coming directly from each halogen spotlight. As soon as I turn the dimmer off, the buzz stops. Would that variac type of dimmer avoid that particular problem ? As I understand it, it is a dimmer with a variable transformer inside instead of standard fast switching solid-state dimmers ? Is that item easily available to the general public ? I did some research on the net but couldn't find any such things in France where I live.

Does the buzz change as you adjust the dimmer? How large are the filaments in the bulbs? If they are the longer ones, you will probably continue to have issues. The small bulbs "usually - not always" don't have much of a problem. How attached to these halogens are you?

Aaronw wrote:

Does the buzz change as you adjust the dimmer? How large are the filaments in the bulbs? If they are the longer ones, you will probably continue to have issues. The small bulbs "usually - not always" don't have much of a problem. How attached to these halogens are you?

Yes the buzz lowers as I lower the dimmer or maybe it's the other way around (I'll double check tonight). The halogens are the very small spot type (50W each). There's 9 of em across the ceiling of the room. I'm not attached to them particularly and could replace them with something else (perhaps needing to recut the ceiling tiles) but I want some kind of dimmer anyhow !!

I bought my dimmers/variacs on Ebay. Got a slammin deal. 3 for about $17. I just installed the first one a few weeks ago. You can see the pic under the sticky in the construction forum (floating floors...page 16). As far as dimmers, here's what you see in a lot of studios, broadcast, etc. http://www.superiorelectric.com/LUXTROL.htm http://www.superiorelectric.com/PDF/Lux ... ntrols.pdf The WBD series.

Thanks for the infos !!

I made an edit between your post. Posted the PDF link.

Damn... It seems the luxtrol in-wall-dimmers only exists in 120V type and not 230V... I still can't find any commercial product to fit my need !! It's crazy !! Someone else in Europe must have solved the problem...

Check this out Jack http://variac.com/staco_Variable_Transformer_Map.htm cheers john

Thanks a lot !! Looks like those staco things will fit my needs... :D