room humidity control

[Geoff Sykes]

I am reminded of a late night DJ job I held in my late teens. The station
was in the basement of the Adelaide Hotel. The entrance to the hotel, and
also the radio station, was in the back of a dingy dead end alley. But I
digress... We had humidity problems big time in the control room and
subsequently had a rather large and noisy de-humidifier sitting on the floor
in the corner of Master Control. The chief engineer of the station, knowing
that this was unacceptable noise for on-the-air, hooked up a relay on the
power to the de-humidifier that was triggered to the "on" switch of the
Master Control microphone. Every time the announcer would open the mic, it
would automatically shut down the de-humidifier. When the mic was closed,
the de-humidifier would then start back up. 

Years later, when I was working at a recording studio, the AC was designed
so that the de-humidifier was way back in the system. The duct work from the
roof mounted system was installed with acoustical damping qualities that
allowed us to keep the AC on all the time. It was almost un-noticeable
unless you were standing in the studio and had someone turn it off and
suddenly became aware of just how quite the room could be. Most of the work
in those studios involved close micing so the AC would have to have been
pretty noisy to actually be problematic. But with properly designed room
acoustics we regularly did vocals and string sessions without compromise. 

FWIW, the radio station was an underground rock station in late 60's San
Francisco and the studio was a high end "A" class Hidley designed studio in
late 80's Los Angeles. Sort of the extremes in acoustical environments and
treatments.

Geoff Sykes
Assoc. L.A.



-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On Behalf
Of David Skolnik
Sent: Saturday, July 16, 2005 8:10 AM
To: pianotuna@yahoo.com; Pianotech
Subject: Re: room humidity control


Don -

I am certain that you are correct regarding the ability of such units to be 
operated while actually recording, unless, of course, the lowest recorded 
level is higher than the machine's output.  But, in most recording 
situations I've encountered, short of having a designed air handling system 
that balances temp and humidity remotely, and handles air exchange 
noiselessly,  all air systems are turned off.  It can get a bit 
uncomfortable, at times.   To me, the point is less the recording aspect 
than what should be done for the general environment.

David Skolnik


At 10:01 PM 7/15/2005 -0700, you wrote:
>Hi Terry,
>
>I do not agree that dehumidifiers of the type that use
>fans and compressors are quiet. I have not seen any
>recording studios that run such a unit while
>attempting to preserve a performance. *grin*
>
>I had two such systems in my home from 1980 to 1984.
>They did a good job of keeping the humidity and
>temperature fairly constant. It did take several weeks
>of "tweaking" the controllers to prevent the
>dehumidifier and the humidifier from running at the
>same time.
>
>The humidistats I had then were "state of the art"
>I.E. human hair.
>
>At 07:07 AM 7/14/2005 -0400, you wrote:
> >> My 3rd choice system would be an air condition plus dehumidifier 
> >> plus humidifier plus electric heater
>all
> >> in the same room. Only the heater and humidifier
>will
> >> be tolerable as to noise levels.
> >
> >Some dehumidifiers are very quiet. Can you explain
>how this complex system
> >of electronics would maintain a desired RH any better
>than a good
> >dehumidifier alone?
> >
> >>> Jurgen Goering wrote:
> >>>    He has searched for higher end units, but even
> >> the manufacturers of
> >>>these do not guarantee the precision of their
> >> controllers.
> >>>
> >>> Any thoughts, and especially experiences, welcome.
> >
> >Sears dehumidifier with electronic humidistat.
> >
> >Terry Farrell
>
>Regards,
>Don Rose, B.Mus., A.M.U.S., A.MUS., R.P.T.
>3004 Grant Rd, Regina, SK, S4S 5G7
>Tuner for the Saskatchewan Centre of the Arts
>
>http://us.geocities.com/drpt1948/
>
>
>
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