Studio lighting

[Nebulous]

Hey lads

I was wandering, given that so much of our time working with audio is spent at the PC, what do you find to be a healthy lighting when you work?
Either at your pro studio or at home, do you find it less stressful on the eyes to have "normal" bulbs or down lights, or bright fluro lights, lighting from behind your back, lighting from behind your monitors, subtle lighting in the corners only (lamps)?

Based on my work and home environment, I'm 99% sure that fluro lights fuck your eyes pretty hard.

Please share your experience.

 

[006]

Anything except overhead lighting.

 

[egan.]

Dimmers are nice.

 

[Metaltastic]

Anything except overhead lighting.

A FUCKING MEN

Dan, did you see this thread? Might be of some help

 

[Joematthews]

Dimmers are nice.

If you love buzz and ground loops.

Stick to low power halogen spotlights or high power led's, and the wall lights for mood (on a seperate switch obv.)

Joe

 

[egan.]

^^
I guess, but I've been any plenty of studios with them w/o issue.

 

[Joematthews]

Pro? cus you can get isolated ones, but they are massively expensive. It 's just one of those things which can cause a lot of headaches.

Joe

 

[greyskull]

lots of little granny lamps and lava lamps

 

[Nebulous]

A FUCKING MEN

Dan, did you see this thread? Might be of some help

Sweet. Thanks for the thread link and ideas guys.

It totally makes sense why my eyes get so sore here now. I thought it might have just been me. Can't wait to get my place finished so I can get away from these bright fluro lights here.

 

[Nebulous]

Also on a related note here, what sort of screen type/ size would you recommend for studio work?
I sit at a home desk with no console between me and the 3 monitors, so I'm at a pretty close distance. Do larger screens help or increase strain on the eyes?

 

[egan.]

Pro? cus you can get isolated ones, but they are massively expensive. It 's just one of those things which can cause a lot of headaches.

Joe

Pro, yes. Honestly the light fixtures weren't the topic of much interest.
You are probably right that they are worth avoiding particularly if lighting is sharing circuits with your sound equipment as it usually would in a home studio environment.

 

[NickL]

I've actually never been in a studio that didn't have dimmers...

 

[colonel kurtz]

Based on my work and home environment, I'm 99% sure that fluro lights fuck your eyes pretty hard.

they're terrible for your eyes...daylight bulbs that are 5000K+ aren't as bad, but still not great

not to mention the ballasts in flourescents produce 60-cycle hum!

 

[AudioGeekZine]

I've actually never been in a studio that didn't have dimmers...

To do it properly you need to use a rheostat instead of the more common potentiometer. That keeps the AC line cleaner and the lights don't make noise.

The sound of under-powered light bulbs drives me nuts, almost as bad as crt tvs. I hear it a lot on tv and movies, anytime a tv is on in the same room it sounds terrible.

 

[Ermz]

Can't stand what bad lighting does to AC lines. Even this lamp I have here is constantly buzzing since I have it on a quarter of its full power. Whatever you can do to get 2 phase, do it.

Ambient lighting works best. If it's indirect and bounced off the walls it will be all around gentler on the eyes. Really bright overhead lighting will make your eyes feel dry and sore, and like you haven't slept for a few days. Dealt with that at a local studio here whilst tracking and editing drums, and it wasn't fun at all.

 

[Nebulous]

What about the screen size issue? I'm currently on a 15" flat pannel. Will going to a larger size increase or decrease the strain, given that I sit about a meter from the screen?

 

[nwright]

I use my lappys 17" screen in conjunction with a 24" widescreen LCD...The 24" is soooo nice. IMO much less eye strain and I can lay out my mixers to see everything without having to scroll.

 

[Ermz]

I prefer to have a larger screen and sit further back from it. That tends to reduce eye strain significantly. If I could (read: if my room weren't a piece of shit), I'd be sporting a 30".

 

[Nebulous]

Hm, I think I need to get my tax done asap.