European power converter question

That shit ain't gonna work, better get 110-220 volt converter they are not that expensive

well i should have been more clear, i meant can i plug a surge protector into the 220 volt converter i bought? is that gonna cause any problems that i'm not forseeing?

ow hehe i thought you want to use the surge protector as the converter to 110 v (which might work for 1 millisecond), as spec sais after the converter ofcourse.

it depends where you buy them...i found one (75watts) for only 25

i've got 2, you can buy them online for 20 euro or so. half my studio runs on 110v..

Shouldn't be a problem. The 110v stuff needs a step-down converter, from 220v to 110v. On this step-down converter you can of course connect an American power strip so more machines can run on 110.
Only thing you need to be sure of, is that the step-down converter can handle the watt  / amperes that the combined equipment needs. The converter can never output too much watts, but if it outputs too little, you'll get in trouble.
The wattage of the equipment is most of the time mentioned on the machine itself, or in the manual. Simply add the numbers of the equipment you want to connect, and you'll know how much watts you'll need.

Oh, and if you only know the amperes the equipment needs (or amps or whatever you call that in english), multiply them with the volts: 0,9A x 110v will be about 100watt.

This isn't a good way to calculate the power consumption  as the ampere ratings quoted in the manual  will be absolute maximum ratings ie. what the device will draw just before it bursts into flames. If you add up all these you will get a total that is too high and misleading.*

Like Brian says it's better to have too much power than too little from the converter, but if you get a ridiculously large converter (like 2-3 kW) it will be bulky and heavy and maybe cost you more than you need to pay. You can get problems with distortion in the power waveform if you run a transformer (which is essentially what the converter will be) a long way below it's quoted power rating - this is just like distorting an audio signal, it creates harmonics in the power wave which makes audio noisier and might do strange things to digital equipment (this is caused by the magnetic field in the transformer core, if you are interested). Big transformers can also hum quite loudly which is irritating in a studio.

Very little studio gear will use more than 10 watts of power except amplifiers, big mixing desks and powerful desktop computers. Also maybe stuff which has elaborate displays with lots of LEDs and lights, like electribe boxes and so on, they can be quite power hungry - and if you have anything with valves in. Basically things that get hot and/or have a fan in them use a relatively large amount of power (hence the heat) - everything else used minimal amounts of power in normal operation.

If you have up to ten things running off it a 50W unit should be fine, unless any of the stuff is generating a lot of heat. You may want a larger converter if you are running a big mixing desk or a modular or something, or lots of very old synths (like pre 80s). Most converters will be fused to protect them and anything you have connected if you draw too much power. The worst thing that may happen is you find yourself replacing the fuse too often.

Something like this will be cool for you I expect - http://uk.rs-online.com/web/search/sear … ;R=4693959

Also power ratings for converters are often given in VA not in watts - due to something called power factor, things can draw more power from the supply than they use (the extra power is stored in the capacitors and inductors in the machine and goes back into the supply when you turn it off). VA is the power rating seen by the supply and it's always more than the wattage. For 50W of power go for maybe an 80 or 100 VA converter.

*Brian, how much power do you burn in your studio then? You must grow great tomatoes in there