The switch on a power strip would be an On/Off switch only … I guess. This can induce short high power pulses along the line, if switched on. I don’t think that such peaks are healthy for every gear. The effect is even stronger, the more gear is plugged in the line. Each draws power at the same time and … whooosh.
Typically, if the electronics are sensitive to electric shock, there is a protecting circuit inside, which ramps up from zero to full… with good reason … but if this circuit is not additionally filtering short high power pulses, the pulse will hit. You may compare this to a little lightning bolt of more energy then susceptible.
Maybe that gear with external powersupply, which is a kind of AC/DC converter, will be protected, but I would be very careful with vintage gear or any kind of active amplifier. You could destroy the circuits or membranes of your speakers.
So I’m just repeating something I heard here so here goes: There’s some last minute save that happens when you trigger the power switch on one of the machines - I want to say it’s the OT but I’m not sure and not sure it applies to other machines - and so you want to use the native power switch. This violates everything I assume about electronics but there it is. So even though I use a power strip, I personally make a point of shutting off my elektron machines first by hand.
simple answer: DONT DO THAT… not with any kind of gear or speakers… i had issues with that (and killed speakers)… in general it should work, but switching on two more clicks isnt that much work to save time and therefore bring your equipment into danger :-))
For years everything in my studio is turned on and off by one switch, I always turn down my monitor controller before turning off to prevent thumps, plus I shut down any gear that needs shutting down. Never had any issues, but YMMV.
Ditto, I currently have a power conditioner (before it was all connected via powerstrips) that powers all my gear and I just turn that on, but! when I do that for the MnM, something happens with my BIM that makes it not receive incoming CCs. So I only turn my MnM on by hand now.
All my synths, drum boxes and audio interface switch on together this way. Only my amplifier has a soft on/off button, so I have to switch that on separately. The on off switch on my strip thereby effectively switches between laptop audio or studio audio
Never had any problems, and have been doing this for years, switching on and off at least once almost every night…
In my case the powerstrip only powers my three electron’s devices, the rest of my studio hardware is turned On manually, amplifiers at last.
So I will continue powering my Electron s using their exclusive powerstrip, I know about the spark and the a tension rise, but in this case is just a few amps on this powerstrip so I think they will be just fine.
I Have Just put all my gear on 2 separated power strips.
One for my computer, audio interface, monitors, hubs.
One for my synths including elektron.
I switch everything on and off with the power strip’s switches.
I asked the technical support team for every piece of my gear in order to be sure that it is safe. The answer was “yes”, by design most of the power buttons on our devices are actually brutal on/off switch.
For me there are 2 things that need reflection.
1/ your devices probably need to “request” a lot of intensity in order to power up. Trying to power them up all at the same time may cause a “peak” of activity in your electrical system.
you have to check if your power strip can handle it, as well as all your electrical supplying system (wires, circuit breaker…)
2/The other thing that may be interesting is to have a tension/voltage stabilizer, but this is not related to using a power strip or not.
If the voltage provided at your power plugs is momentary higher than expected, you could burn your ac/dc adapters and maybe damage your devices.
Here in Paris voltage is known to be quite stable so I am hesitating on that matter…
This is my personal point of view, I am no electrical specialist!
One thing I forgot to mention, I have a LCD power meter in the outlet, then a bunch of power strips networked from that (in parallel not serial/daisy chained) was quite surprising when I first checked the amperage, all of my gear draws less than 3 amps, I expected it to be a little higher.
Will Elektron equipment (and synths and audio interfaces) take damage from being switched off by cutting power rather than switching them off on the equipment power switch?
An interesting topic! In case you would like to avoid cheap power switches in your studio: what would you buy? Most expansive stuff you can get for your rackmount power distibution is basically working exactly like these cheap stuff from the supermarket. On some point comes the power off switch that switches everything off. So what´s the deal with a professional power supply?
Well, I guess that a quality switch will avoid arcs when switching, which I heard that could lead to momentary variations (transients) on the electricity properties. Anyway I guess that Elektron’s AC adapters can handle those variations. I guess you can test your power strip switch by plugging a lamp on it and listen to your speakers for line noise while powering your power strip on/off?
Had the same questions. Asked for my gear
to the manufacturers, including elektron.
Aswer pas always the same : it is fine to switch everything on and off with a power strip (also ok for my monitors).
I think that the power consuptions indicated on our gear is a mean value, not a peak value, so it is important to keep that in mind when you choose a power strip that can handle the correct amount of power.
Only thing that could be interesting to improve safety is a filter if you think voltage supply is not stable (but it is independent from our question wether using a power strip or not)