Can I power up 2 buckets plus masters only for small sessions

[StefanNowak]

At the moment I'm cutting a few pre-album demos with singer/guitarists.... usually only needing 8-16 channels at most. My console is 56 channels.

Can I power up only the buckets needed or will this create stress on components?

Stef. 

[sintech]

If it sounds ok, no reason why not.

From a tech point the logic control voltages will be reaching every unpowered channel, but most of my experiments have resulted in no problem when at least a bucket is powered. Without, I got a voltage drop on the Logic voltage at was accumulative to every non powered module loaded into the frame. (from the centre)

I'm pretty sure you could go down to one PSU also

[Matt Sartori]

If it sounds ok, no reason why not.

From a tech point the logic control voltages will be reaching every unpowered channel, but most of my experiments have resulted in no problem when at least a bucket is powered. Without, I got a voltage drop on the Logic voltage at was accumulative to every non powered module loaded into the frame. (from the centre)

I'm pretty sure you could go down to one PSU also

second this, I am normally doing the same with 64 channels E/G series.
one PSU will be absolutely fine, each one normally can take 32 channels + center section no problem! take the "audible warning" off your changeover unit tho! 

Mattia.

[StefanNowak]

OK great to know.

I generally run my effects to the last bucket, faders 49-56...

Is it ok if the buckets powered up aren't sequential? IE, I power up 25-32, 33-40, then 49-56?

S

[sintech]

Totally, it's just buckets joining one long bus, so electronically it makes no difference regarding sequence of buckets

[Showcase]

Im doing this aswell all the time.

Btw, I saw a guy selling a 24 channel SSL console at gearslutz classifieds, saying something like his console was overpowered since it only had 24 channels and claims to have better bas response ¿?
That cant be true? In this case I could turn on all PSU`s and run 8 channels getting killer low end I mean the channels are drawing the current they need, until the PSU cant support more and then you could perhaps notice a change in the sound right? (like running 56 channels on 1 PSU)

[kilmister]

Have you guys tried this allready?
While recapping some eq's in our 4056G+ we noticed a "thump" sound in the QB. Thump comes approx ones in a second. 1Hz yeah!
I noticed this very same phenomenon with the 4040G+ I was servicing earlier at this week. In our case we had bays 1&2 on, bays 3&4 off and partially loaded at the left side of the Center. On the right side bays 5&6 were on. My mate inserted channel in the bay 4 via extender and thumping suddenly appeared. Until that, nothing. With fully loaded 4040 it didn't matter witch bay I shutted down thumping appeared.

Would love to hear how your consoles are behaving.

Cheers,
Paavo

[Showcase]

Have you guys tried this allready?
While recapping some eq's in our 4056G+ we noticed a "thump" sound in the QB. Thump comes approx ones in a second. 1Hz yeah!
I noticed this very same phenomenon with the 4040G+ I was servicing earlier at this week. In our case we had bays 1&2 on, bays 3&4 off and partially loaded at the left side of the Center. On the right side bays 5&6 were on. My mate inserted channel in the bay 4 via extender and thumping suddenly appeared. Until that, nothing. With fully loaded 4040 it didn't matter witch bay I shutted down thumping appeared.

Would love to hear how your consoles are behaving.

Cheers,
Paavo

I have this from time to time, with 1 or more buckets off AND some channels out. No idea what it comes from

[Matt Sartori]

Have you guys tried this allready?
While recapping some eq's in our 4056G+ we noticed a "thump" sound in the QB. Thump comes approx ones in a second. 1Hz yeah!
I noticed this very same phenomenon with the 4040G+ I was servicing earlier at this week. In our case we had bays 1&2 on, bays 3&4 off and partially loaded at the left side of the Center. On the right side bays 5&6 were on. My mate inserted channel in the bay 4 via extender and thumping suddenly appeared. Until that, nothing. With fully loaded 4040 it didn't matter witch bay I shutted down thumping appeared.

Would love to hear how your consoles are behaving.

Cheers,
Paavo

never experienced this......interesting tho!
Mattia.

[kilmister]

Showcase,
Do you mind to double check? Hit all your bays on for an hour and then shut down some. Thumping is not coming very loud, -50dBu or so. You have to crank your monitor level up to hear it. Phase meter shows it as well. It might take a moment until thumping starts. Do you have a Film Pan mod?

I think there might be few channels in need of new caps on the Fim Pan card.

Cheers,
Paavo

[StefanNowak]

I've been running 24 channels off 1 PSU for the last 4 days no problem.

Today however, I had a session where I needed to use the groups and was getting no output from the groups, I then started up the whole console and all was good.

Stef.

[michaeldtech]

I would never do this!  With one or more dark buckets in the console all of the buses get loaded-down, group, aux, and mix with lower levels and distortion.  The only dependable way to do it would be to remove the mother board ribbon jumpers at the de-powering point.  That might be OK for a lockout but you will be sussing ribbons over time.

I am surprised that no one heard any distortion or notice any "hmm, lower than usual" levels on mix or auxes.
Mike

[StefanNowak]

Yes I won't be doing this again.

The SOLOs were all wacky too.

Stef.

[xmax]

Yup your solo buss voltage will be wack and summing impedance is screwy, but if you need to run your desk
with say 24 channels for a couple weeks it might be worth pulling the ribbons, one stock power supply can
run 40 channels, just hope you don't get a black/brown out!

[unitedreco]

yes you might hear thumps on cuts and solos , your bigger issue will be the recall might act funny on you should you use it, as far as pulling buckets off the mini ribbons to offset loads etc be careful if you are using plasmas you might incur noise you definitley will not be happy with and then youll loose all your hair like me ...all the guys are right on this its a crap shoot at times but you can run the board with just 1 bucket if you want , dont forget to power off the buckets though and definitely shut down a supply and your audible alert on change overunit.