New Home Studio

Roger Shackelton · Post by **Roger Shackelton** » 23 Dec 2009 9:51 pm

A friend is setting up a home recording studio. There are several radio stations near by and their signals bleed into his recording equipment.

Is there any way to block or filter their signal?

ROGER

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 24 Dec 2009 3:05 am

That can be a major issue. I worked on trying to get the radio station out of a recording studio in Kansas City that was a block from an AM radio station transmitter site. I was able to get most of it out of the recordings (attenuated enough that it was not heard over the audio recordings) with bypass capacitors extra shielding, AC power isolation, etc but was never able to get it out of the headphone system.

The first point to start is the AC power grounding - make sure the AC power is properly grounded. The next thing is the cabling - make sure it's all fully shielded cabling (even the speaker cables) and with metal plugs, not the molded type plugs. If the radio station is getting in via the AC power line, AC power filtering and isolation will get rid of some of it but unfortunately it may not get rid of it all. Bypass capacitors on some inputs can help. Wrapping some items in aluminum foil (and grounding it) can help.

This is really a job for a "competent" technician, not something easy or something a "lay" pereson can do.

Roger Shackelton · Post by **Roger Shackelton** » 24 Dec 2009 9:12 am

HELLO JACK,

Thanks for the information. I will pass it on to my friend.

ROGER

Rick Campbell · Post by **Rick Campbell** » 24 Dec 2009 2:18 pm

I'd talk to the station themselves. They have engineers on staff that can help you with it, they might even pay for the filters you need, if it's their fault. If you don't get any cooperation try this number:

888-CALL-FCC (225-5322)

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 24 Dec 2009 3:10 pm

If someone is close to a radio station transmitter site and operating within FCC rules, I doubt that calling FCC is going to do anything.

I used to have a commercial 2nd Class FCC Radiotelephone license. And, as I mentioned about working on the recording studio near the transmitter site. There was nothing that could be done to or by the station.

Rick Campbell · Post by **Rick Campbell** » 24 Dec 2009 9:15 pm

You could always move to my hometown Sneedville, TN. No radio stations within 30 miles. We didn't get the Grand Ole Opry until Sunday morning.

Bob Martin · Post by **Bob Martin** » 26 Dec 2009 1:18 pm

If your buddy is really serious about keeping radio signals out of his recordings (100% maybe) LOL try a Faraday Cage. I would tell you all about one because I have one in my studio to keep out WLAC which is a 50k watt radio station here close to me and when they were allowed to crank all the way up to their full power after the other stations on their same freq. shut down for the day their signals would be louder than my lead vocals and even louder than my guitar so read all about them here. I pretty much built my own and had a lot of help with it as far as installing it. Good luck

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_cage

Bob

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 26 Dec 2009 6:40 pm

Probably not very practical, but you can make a good recording studio out of one of those all-metal shipping containers. You'll need ventilation, and baffling material on the inside walls, of course.

Roger Shackelton · Post by **Roger Shackelton** » 27 Dec 2009 6:41 pm

Thanks for all the advice.

My friend's studio is only a home Hobby Studio. I don't think he has the financial resources to get sophisticated blocking material or devices.

ROGER

Georg Sørtun · Post by **Georg Sørtun** » 27 Dec 2009 8:20 pm

I would put ferrite beads/rings on mains and signal cables to suppress HF, and work my way through until the problem was reduced to an acceptable level. With a bit of trial and error for which cables ferrite beads/rings has the most effect on, the result would probably be zero or near zero interference with no negative effects at a reasonable price.

Have added "HF suppression chokes" in unshielded locations/studios, and always had good results - zero interference. The problem is always to find the right cables leading to the electronic circuits that act as receivers, so achieving optimal result takes time.

Don't know where you can find ferrite beads/rings in your area, but here's some info so you know what to look/ask for...
http://www.murata.com/products/catalog/pdf/o63e.pdf

Bob Martin · Post by **Bob Martin** » 28 Dec 2009 1:19 pm

I had less than 100 bucks in mine but I got most of the material from a friend in the electrical contracting fiedls but even if you did have to buy material it isn't that expensive. It's more of a hassle installing it but I had the advantage of having help and mostly free parts like I said.

Bob