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Quieting Your G5?
metajunkie wants to take a bite out of this issue: "I recently set up an at-home recording studio with a DP G5 and a ProTools mBox. Problem is, I can't record (like, say, a voice over) anywhere near the computer because when the cooling fans kick in, it comes in way too loud over the mic. I can't move the computer into another room, and while I'm tempted to throw a blanket over the thing, I don't think that'll help. Does anyone know a place that sells a silencer box for the G5 or some good DIY way to cut out the noise?"
Good luck. This is a really crappy way to do it, but...
You could set it up in an independantly vented sound-dampened box. Run two pieces of dryer hose out of the room and put some 50+ cfm fans on the ends. Build a case cover to seal the hoses onto - cardboard & blankets to go cheap, brown bread or something intended for the purpose is more expensive. You could try polyester batting, possibly.
Anyway, it's a crappy plan, reminiscent of even cheaper mods.
You need some kind of partition, box, etc. How much you are willing to spend is the big issue.
That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
I just bought a G5 about a month ago, and I have to say it's one of the quietest boxes I've ever owned. The only time the fans were really loud was when I removed the case; they seem to be able to sense air flow, and adjust their speed accordingly. But when the case is closed and the inner plastic shielding is propertly in place, everything is hunky dory, i.e.: QUIET.
A lot of the other posters have provided simple and practical solutions to the problem, such as directional microphones and putting the pc in another room.
I just wanted to offer the rich eccentric solution. Buy noise cancellers. They exist. Pretty much what they do is listen to the ambient noise in a room, and then begin emitting a sound wave that almost perfectly cancels out the others in the room. Problem is if you start humming a single not for a duration it will cancel it out.
If all else fails.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
Take an old towel, cut it into squares, and stick the squares to the inside of your mac's box with tape. Helps quite a bit!
In studios, the Macs are usually on the other side of a glass partition, i.e. in the mixing room with the engineers and producers. But you don't necessarily have this luxury, unless you have someone else to hit 'record' for you.
I have a similar setup, only I'm using a PowerBook; however, my roommate's PC is the loudest thing in the world, and we had to figure this problem out, since we both record in the living room.
So here's a few tips:
1) Don't even bother trying to use room mikes in the same room with the G5. You might as well just mike the G5 itself. If you need to do room miking, you're gonna need to haul the G5 out of the room and get somebody else to engineer. Period.
2) If you're doing vocal takes, try not to use bi-directional mikes -- stick with your basic Shure-style unidirectional. Keep the G5 out of the line of audio -- you want it > 180 degrees from where the mike is pointing, i.e. you.
3) Put it under the desk. Even better, go down to Wal-Mart and pick up some of that mattress padding foam cheap. Put the G5 under the desk and Velcro the padding foam around it like a curtain (not too close, obviously, as you need air flow). You'll find that the noise won't entirely disappear...but it'll be close enough for government work.
As long as you're flying solo, you're never going to get a silent room to work in. But that's okay -- I do pretty well with my setup, and line noise isn't really a problem.
Hope that helps.
Josh Ellis
Creative Lead
Mperia.com
1. Active Noise Cancelling
Stick a microphone close to the source of the noise. Substract [*] this from you voice mic.
[*] Non-trivial substraction, as it needs scaling, possibly frequency-dependent. However the goal is not elimination, but rather reduction, so You can just use some sound editor's correlation coefficient, and ignor the frequency dependeny.
2. 5V (7V) etc your fans. This likely to A) void warranty B) reduce the life of you system (but it will be obsolete before that anyway). See Zalman fanmate for an off-the shelp component to solve this.
3. Move your computer to a separate room. A cabinet would not do, since the cooling relies on the availablity of fresh air. A closed space will heat up, regardless of size. The size only controls the speed of warming up...
4. Get a PC. I know you hate me know, but there are some really well designed PC cases that can muffle a 3.6 GHz P4. (See Zalman for a completely fanless P4 case. $4K !)
5. Get a Cube for terminal and use athe G5 as server off-room.
6. Use mufflers. Ie. boxes that allow air through, but have a maze-like interior with sound-dampening coating. Place G5 inside one of these, and air goes in, but noise doesn't come out (as much).
Code poet, espresso fiend, starter upper.
Get a real microphone! Not a "computer" mic that'll pick up sounds across the room, but a real microphone that you have to get close to.
You say you have an at-home "recording studio" but it doesn't sound like you know what that's supposed to mean.
I still think you do need to treat the cooling system in the G5 like a black box. If you want to improve it, you'll probably have to tear out all the fans and replace them with things that you can configure via hardware. I'm only saying that it is not "just about the easiest thing you can do on a computer." It might be really really involved, expensive, and difficult.Most people aren't complaining about the noise of their G5. Most of them are saying that they do not suffer the same problems as this guy. I'd suggest that either he is running distributed.net in the background and he's got his G5 pushed up against a wall in such a way that it can't get proper airflow, or his hardware is broken. The only reason a G5 should be loud is under extreme CPU load with poor ventilation. Or if you've done something ill-advised with your very expensive hardware.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
You're exactly right. This isn't funny. I was being serious. Showers are great for acoustic guitar as well. I used to work in a studio, and we'd send acoustic players into this bathroom that was tiled from floor to ceiling. It sounded better than a few thousand dollars worth of reverb rackmounts, depending on mic placement.
...
A G5 fan is nothing compared to the constant drone of your home's ventilation.
That's FANS (x9) and have you actually heard a G5 blowing it's fans at full speed? If you have home ventilation that the G5 in comparison sounds like "nothing" to, then I'd call the aircon engineer as you have problems.
If you want an idea of what it sounds like, take the plastic cover off.
Considering that other people mentioned that ProTools was a bit of a CPU hog, I suspect my advice to use Final Cut Express, which is not, was sound and would solve the problem.
I know that I've had no trouble at all getting good quality recordings following my advice.
Having a separate room dedicated to recording sounds like good advice, but I don't know if it applies well to the true amateur, who might be both vocalist and sound engineer. You need access to your computer so you can start the recording at the appropriate time, and so you can monitor its status.
If you do get a good book on computer sound recording, you'll probably be $40 lighter unless you get it off Amazon.
That all being said, what's wrong with having the mic close to your face, as long as you have a good de-popper?
D
A Zabuton is a thickly padded square cushion for your knees, used during Zen meditation. I don't meditate as often as I should, but I've found my Zabuton to be pretty effective at deadening the sound of my dual 1.25 GHz G4.
2 .h tml
I just drape it over the top of the G4. It doesn't obstruct much airflow on the G4, and doesn't cause the temperature to rise much (from 115F to the 120's.)
I believe this is the one I have:
http://www.samadhicushions.com/samadhi.cgi/C-53