anyone have dimmers and audio with no problems?

Started by patmccay on 11 June 2007. 6 replies.

Originally posted at johnlsayers.com, topic 8945.

patmccay11 June 2007#1

hi all, i just posted another question in here and since it doesn't have to do with this one, i figured i'd keep this seperate. i live in nj, usa. and i am building a studio in my detached garage. i have three rooms and installed a bunch of lights. in two of the rooms, i have the lights on dimmer switches. after i installed them all, i read on here that people have had problems with a buzz coming from this sort of set up. is there always problems with this, or is it only sometimes a problem? basically, i'd like to know if anyone out there HAS dimmer switches in their studios and have no problems with them interferring with the audio? the lights i bought and installed are FAR too bright when on at full blast, so the dimmers are a must. and i'd definitely hate to (won't) replace all the lights, so i'm hoping for the best here... :) thanks everyone, pat

Junction12 June 2007#2

I have dimmers and fluor'os and had no problem with the control room gear - rack gear, console, moniotoring etc. As soon as I plugged in a guitar amp, off it went, have three different amps, they all pickup really horrible buzzing from the lights specifically with dimmers. Get rid of them before it becomes a serious problem one day when you have a paying artist coming with their guitar amp! Michael

Aaronw12 June 2007#3

Do not use regular dimmers. If you require dimming, there are options. Everything from high end low voltage controlled systems, to midlevel cost dimmers. Click here for the Technical resources info I have posted at the top of the forum. There are some links to dimmer info... http://www.superiorelectric.com/PDF/Lux ... ntrols.pdf http://variac.com/staco_Variable_Transformer_Map.htm http://www.lutron.com/grafikeye/3545.html

patmccay12 June 2007#4

Hi Aaron, Thanks a lot for the advice! I did actually look at those pages you linked to in the Sticky thread. I just.. honestly I can't really understand what it all means, sorry! :/ I basically bought a dimmer switch from Home Depot and installed it. This won't be a commercial studio, so I'm not interested in top of the line anything. But I also don't want to have a hum or guitar amps dropping in and out, thats unacceptable. So, is there a dimmer switch I can painlessly buy? Or is it a high cost Dimmer System that I'd need? The way I'm looking at it, its a lightswitch that I need. And I don't haev the budget (or the willingness) to spend more than, say $35 on a light switch, if that makes any sense to you? Sorry if I sound like I don't know what I'm talking about. That's only because I don't know what I'm talking about :) Much appreciated, Pat

sharward12 June 2007#5

I'm also pretty ignorant when it comes to this subject, but this much I do know (I think)... Most regular dimmers work by rapidly turning a switch on and off, like a strobe, and it is this effect that wreaks havoc with audio equipment. Am I off base, Aaron? --Keith :mrgreen:

Aaronw12 June 2007#6

Hi Keith. Honestly, I hadn't dug that deep into the cheap dimmers, but I seem to remember hearing that somewhere. I had a couple of those "Home Depot" priced dimmers around my house. And guess what...they cause a problem. Pat, you can do it cheaper as I did. As long as you're not in a hurry, and don't mind making a larger hole in your wall, you can find a variac controller for a reasonable price on Ebay. I used some of the Staco variacs, bought a 6"x6"x4" metal enclosure box, mounted the variac to the front cover plate (drill a hole) and installed it. I haven't had any issues at all with them. Basically the variac is a transformer, and it isolates it from the circuit so it doesn't feed back any noise into the AC lines.

gullfo29 June 2007#7

most AC dimmers work by cutting sections out of the phase cycle - cut more sections = less power = dimmer lights - which means spikes and noise and these occur as base and harmonics of the line frequency... and can get picked up by equipment with sensitive preamps - like guitar amps, mic preamps, etc... variacs work by adjusting delivered voltage like a "variable transformer" where you select some number of coils = fewer coils = less power = dimmer lights... much cleaner but harder to make = more $... fluoresent dimmers are even worse that normal AC ones - don't go there... :-) low voltage DC circuits can use resistive (one way) circuits to reduce voltage (and dim the lights) which is clean as long as the power source is clean.