ststeven23 Posted June 26, 2001 Share Posted June 26, 2001 I play in a small-time local band that works about 8-10 jobs a month. The "leader" of the band has invested heavily in lights and special effects (presumably, if the audience is dazed and confused by the light show, they won't notice the lame-ass guitar playing and singing). Anyway, his most recent purchase included A GOD-DAMN FOG MACHINE! Our fearless (brainless?) leader insists on using this effect in "continuous" mode, which means that the entire stage and dance floor is constantly enveloped in a greasy, noxious cloud of stench. To say that I totally loathe this friggin' device would be an extreme understatement. In my opinion, we could get a similar and much less toxic effect by setting aflame a huge pile of old tires. Anyway, common sense tells me that this cannot be good for the inner workings of my sole gigging keyboard, a Roland XP-80 with a couple of cards installed. I know that after two sets of breathing this cancer cloud, my throat gets scratchy and my singing voice goes to shit. I am well aware of the damage ordinary cigarette smoke does to electronics---coating everything with tar and various nasties. My question is, how much more damage am I doing by exposing my precious rig to a constant barrage of this gunk? Thanks in advance for any info you can offer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mats Olsson. Posted June 26, 2001 Share Posted June 26, 2001 May I suggest that you cross-post this topic over at David Frangioni's forum too? It might result in some good replys. /Mats http://www.lexam.net/peter/carnut/man.gif What do we want? Procrastination! When do we want it? Later! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bucktunes Posted June 27, 2001 Share Posted June 27, 2001 Fog machines should be outlawed! Maybe OSHA or the EPA could prohibit their indoor use. I don't know anyone who can sing worth a damn with this stuff in the air, unless they want to sound like Rod Stewart! Speaking of noxious stench, I think homicide should be justifiable for anyone who burns a CIGAR within 10 feet of the stage!! I was playing a gig at a hotel lounge a few years ago and I swear each room must have come with a complimentary cigar. And some of those arrogant clowns insisted on sitting RIGHT IN FRONT of the stage and burning those damn dog turds! After a night of this, I brought in a fan the next night and aimed it towards the front of the stage. Would you believe one guy had the gall to bitch about getting too much draft, and asked me to re-direct the fan! I politely agreed to do so only after he extinguished the cigar. He did, so I did, and everyone was happy! http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/smile.gif Peace all, Steve ><> Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nursers Posted June 27, 2001 Share Posted June 27, 2001 One suggestion would be to inform the guy owning the smoke machine that you had just been reading about a study that linked excessive inhalation of fog machines to testicular and other cancers http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/smile.gif ------------------ www.mp3.com/thirdstoreystory The Keyboard Chronicles Podcast Check out your fellow forumites in an Apple Music playlist Check out your fellow forumites in a Spotify playlist My Music: Stainless Fields Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jose Cobelas Posted June 27, 2001 Share Posted June 27, 2001 Originally posted by ststeven23: I am well aware of the damage ordinary cigarette smoke does to electronics---coating everything with tar and various nasties. My question is, how much more damage am I doing by exposing my precious rig to a constant barrage of this gunk? Thanks in advance for any info you can offer. I was going to post some one line stupid joke like "Vaccum cleaners suck" when I noticed this, and I am puzzled. How really damaging for gear is cigarette smoke? How much do you have to smoke in order to get TAR in your gear´s circuits? JoseC. Signal Chain Smoker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b3fiend Posted June 27, 2001 Share Posted June 27, 2001 How really damaging for gear is cigarette smoke? How much do you have to smoke in order to get TAR in your gear´s circuits? Its pretty damaging, actually... especially to the microswitches under the front panel buttons. I have to take my boards apart every few months when the switches start getting flaky to clean the bar gunk off of the insides of the panel buttons. That layer of tar also sticks like glue to circuit boards, causing them to run hotter than normal if it gets bad enough. If you want to see how bad this stuff gets, play in bars twice a week for a couple of months, and then use a white towel and some dish soap to wipe the front panel. The towel will come back the same nicotine-brown color as the ceiling tiles of the bars you played in... -gregg (Also a fellow hacker - it helps my vocals for Rod Stewart covers) http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/biggrin.gif This message has been edited by b3fiend on 06-27-2001 at 02:19 PM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ststeven23 Posted June 28, 2001 Author Share Posted June 28, 2001 B3fiend, You described opening up your keyboard and cleaning gunk off of your switches/contacts on a regular basis. Is this a fairly straightforward procedure, using Cramolin or the equivalent? My Roland XP-80 front panel buttons are indeed starting to react sluggishly (if at all) in certain situations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
synthfoolsynthfool.com Posted June 28, 2001 Share Posted June 28, 2001 Roland buttons aren't designed to be cleaned, especially with stuff like cramolin. Spraying it in the switches may help for a short period of time, but will cause them to wear out sooner. Overspray is a real problem too as cramolin and other sprays of that type have lubricants that can cause problems elsewhere. If your switches are already causing problems, contact Roland or a service center to have them replaced or the panel board checked for cracked solder connections. Smoke affects anything where there's a physical contact being made. Whether it's switch or pot contacts or internal connectors, it slowly causes a dieletric to form between the conductors (an insulator). Smoke will also yellow many plastics and painted surfaces and in bad cases, the added grease will attract dust and hair causing frictional problems and wear. Patchbays and modular synths are places that smoking are a definite problem when practiced long term. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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