Houston spent much of this past week under water. Violent lightning splintered the sky and thunder cracked. Creeks and bayous rose, drowning the streets and flooding homes. Families fortunate enough to have a second level, carried everything upstairs to avoid getting drenched in the cold, murky waters. Some people didn’t make it. Some horses didn’t either. It was a rough week, certainly.
Our neighborhood seemed to be one of the only in Cypress that did not take in a lot of water. We did lose power several times over the week, but I am so grateful that is the only thing we lost. And it’s times like this when I am so happy to have a power conditioner on my side.
Up until a few months ago, I had never even heard of a power conditioner. I’ve been working in a home studio for 19 years, and not once (not once!) has anyone ever mentioned this amazing little equipment-saver to me. So I learned about it the same way I have learned about a lot of things in the VO world – I learned it the hard way.
For some reason, Mother Nature has been banging on Houston like a bongo drum. The last time she went cray-cray and we lost power, I also lost a very expensive Avalon M5 microphone preamp. I’m talking $1600 in teeth-gritting destruction. Fortunately, the awesome team at Sweetwater had Avalon repair her for free. The problem, however, was that she blew her fuse again the following week, for reasons I do not remember. I think I’ve blocked the whole ordeal in order to preserve my sanity.
With clients on standby, I raced to Guitar Center to buy a replacement pre-amp, ASAP. Instead, I bought a power conditioner.
Best. Purchase. EVER.
Especially after this week’s tumultuous wave of storms.
Basically, a power conditioner absorbs the brunt of impact when power surges, protecting your valuable (and by valuable, I mean co$tly) equipment. So every time ear-splitting thunder cracked through our sky, or when flashes of lightning stabbed our grounds, I knew my equipment would endure. Furman’s red surge light flicked ON and all my equipment stayed ON.
Dear VO friends, the moral of my story is this: If you do not yet have a power conditioner, get one. Today. You never know when Mother Nature will come rumbling through your town.
Happy VO’ing!