Powering Up Your System in the Proper Order

Did you know that it is important to power up your system and equipment in a certain order? In the early days, for me, I didn't know that!

Because systems are typically composed of both hardware and software, preparing your system for use might involve more than simply turning your computer on and launching your DAW of choice. The larger the system, the more important it becomes to follow a specific startup sequence. Starting components out of sequence could cause a component to not be recognized, prevent the software from launching, or cause unexpected behavior.

The recommended sequence is as follows:

1. Make sure all your equipment, including the computer, is off.
2. Turn on any external hard drives that use external power (wait about 10 seconds for them to spin up to speed).
3. Turn on any MIDI interfaces and MIDI devices (including any MIDI control surfaces) and synchronization peripherals.
4. Turn on your audio interface. Wait at least 15 seconds for the audio interface to initialize.
5. Start your computer.
6. Turn on your audio monitoring system, if applicable.

If your audio interface gets it's power from the computer, it doesn't need to be powered up in advance.

That's it! When you get in the habit of always starting your recording or mixing sessions this way, it will ensure that everything works properly as it should!

Till next time - Peace!
And, HEY, make it a great day!

T