this is about the third place ive played live and I get these annoying electrical problems, keyboards not functioning properly, mixer acting up, power surges etc has anyone else experienced this problem when playing live? and is there a solution? (I have an excellent power bar and 3 prong extension cord) I know it's not my equipment because at home evrything is fine thanks, steve
If you're playing venues where the power can be dodgy, you may need a line conditioner/voltage regulator/ isolation transformer These units regulate, filter, and suppress noise in AC power for sensitive computer and other solid state equipment (keyboard certainly fall into this category). Power conditioners typically consist of voltage regulators in combination with output isolation transformers and transient voltage suppression circuitry. They provide electrical isolation and noise and spike attenuation to ensure the quality and consistency of power to sensitive medical, laboratory, computer, and other high technology equipment Simply said, these are boxes that when plugged into your ac source (ie, the wall), it takes the voltage coming out and stores it and cleans up all the irregularities (think of it as a big capacitor or battery that stores the voltage, no matter what it is) and then regulates it to a stable constant signal and then puts out a clean, regular voltage. Power strips with surge protectors are NOT sufficent for this and will only kick in when voltage exceeds a certain number, but will do nothing for voltage drops, or dirty power. Most "consumer grade" surge protectors or UPS's aren't much better either, as they'll only "protect" from black or brownout, but won't help for dirty power. Dedicated commercial power conditioners are more expensive, heavy and can prevent most failures and problems due to dirty power. Good luck.
thanks Meisenhower I really appreciate your help I will investigate this further Ill try to grab one for the weekend and test it out because this is a real pain!
