Photo courtesy of andedam

March 10th, 2009 – As I turned off my work computer today, it occured to me that not everyone turns off their electronics. Some people have servers running constantly at home, downloading movies, music, or whatever else. More importantly to this blog, quite a few music studios I’ve been in and have worked in, never turn off their gear.

I’m not sure if it’s because the engineer wants a certain sound that only comes from hours of tube gear warming up, and doesn’t want to come in early to turn it all on. Or if he’s afraid of delicate gear being harmed by turning the power on and off. Perhaps it’s laziness?

Whatever the reason, our society is under increasing pressure to save energy. Whether this is for “save the earth” type reasons, or if it’s a purely monetary one, we’ve been inundated with messages that we must save power.

Don’t get me wrong, I am one of those that saves power whenever I can. But should I feel guilty for turning on my tube mic an hour before I record to “warm it up”? Should I eschew all the analog gear that I so love the sound of, simply because doing everything through plug-ins is more power efficient?

Music studios are power hungry beasts. Should we be ashamed of that? Should we try to “green” our studio set ups at the possible detriment of our recording? Does any of it even matter?