Power strips as power switches: Bad?

I do.

Yep, I do it as well.

I don't think it has ever caused me a problem in 7 years of using power strips to switch on/off all my gear. I did lose a channel on my Pacifica recently--but I had been turning it on/off using the switch on the preamp itself!

ORIGINAL: SteveJL

For computers or anything with a micro-processor, it is VERY bad, the hint for these is if the device has a "shutdown" process vs a straight rocker-type power switch as the main means of powering off. For everything else, it is a judgement call. Personally, I just use the switches on each device and switch the power bars off last, because it is the safest thing to do and my gear is worth the 30 seconds or so involved to do so. My rationale is that a power-bar can send a micro-spike or other electrical anomally that can damage delicate electronic components.

Any switch can send a spike no matter where it is if it isn't de-bounced. If you could look at the waveform put out when a switch is closed you would see a number of oscillations decreasing in amplitude. A simple de-bounce circuit (sometimes a cap and resistor, sometimes a purpose-built chip) can remedy that. Most power switches are NOT de-bounced.
For a computer, use the shut-down sequence in either Windows or Mac OS. Both OS's go through a set of processes when shutting down that unless allowed to follow-through to the end MAY mess-up the computer. After the computer has shutdown, then hit the main power switch on your strip(s). There is no need to turn off each piece of equipment by it's own power switch. Then when you go to start a new session, just hit the main switch on the power strip, wait for everything EXCEPT the computer to fully power-up, and THEN start the computer. This process will ensure that your computer will see all of the equipment hooked-up to it. Failure to do this process will more likely than not result in your daw computer not seeing any external drives or interfaces.
Why do I say what I do? I am a reluctantly retired EE formerly employed in the aerospace industry (communications satellites and their control electronics). Would like to go back to that as my day job.

I do a combination; I have a couple of power conditioners, each with 11 devices or subsidiary power strips plugged into them; these get powered on first, independently. Any gear plugged into them (including power amp, which has its own time-delay power-on to avoid pops to the speakers) comes online, and any gear plugged into the power strips plugged into the conditioners comes online as well. Next are computer monitors, then a separate power strip for control-room monitor matrix and active monitors. Last is the computer itself. Power-down is the exact reverse order.

This makes sure, as mentioned elsewhere in this thread, that everything gets powered on consistently, and that everything the computer expects to see is already there when it boots up. For a while I actually powered everything up and down individually in an attempt to be conscientious; but with so many synths, MIDI interfaces and other peripherals in the rack and elsewhere it was too easy to inadvertently leave something switched off, requiring a reboot.

EDIT:

I should also note that I have seen similar practices in "medium-large" but quite serious professional studios, like the personal studios of major artists (but run by experienced engineers and technicians); in the "big studios" (like Hit Factory in New York, when it existed, and other studios of that size and caliber) nothing ever powers down completely anyhow, except the room lighting.

I do it....

I wired a bunch of 4x4 boxes with duplex outlets..(normal home style outlets) and had them all powered on and off by a switch.... I knew I was planning a studio and lots of gear that needed to be turned on & off.

The only exception is of course, the computer. Using a surge suppressor bar is a really good idea... since there are always surges coming in to the equipment by way of the power line.....

yeah... use surge suppressors.... good ones.

A quick and easy way to see if using your power strip will cause damage to your equipment by turning everything on at once is to hook up a digital volt and amp meters to the outlet the power strip is plugged into to measure and get visual feed back of the draw and surge caused by powering up multiple pieces of gear at once.
 If your voltage dips and or amperage spikes above the power strip's rating upon power up, even though the PS's circuit braker may not pop, is hard on all the equipment plugged into it as each piece struggles to suck up the necessary supply of power it needs thru a "straw too small to handle the shock instantaneous volume of wattage" required to power up everything at once 
 Hear any pops, clicks, or crackles during power up or shutting down? That's the sound of virtually kicking capacitors square in their ball sacks, and while they can typically handle years of this, they still do in fact ever so slowly die a premature death while slowly, but surely ever so subtly building up, adding noise, distortion, and slowly but absolutely degrading over all sound quality over time.
 It typically builds up and happens so slowly over time it's hardly noticeable until it is, at which point is typically too late as damage cause by weakened and leaky capacitors takes their toll on other circuit board components (slowly being starved to death) and struggling internal component power supplies.
 Not to even mention the damage it does to your "Mojo" or "groove" which has a bad effect on the over all quality of your work and full dead on accuracy mixing potential, as in....
 Accurately and critically getting "Out" of your tracking sessions as what you put "In" to them..
 And THAT my fellow CakeHeads, is why after so many decades of earnestly trying my best to perfect my crafts and skills, I settled happily and firmly confidently into SONAR Platinum and Focusrite.
 Because as far as I'm concerned, when I'm recording and mixing music "Sound is Everything" and to me my studio is a very high performance vehicle that I must make sure has enough gas and octane to get me from start to finish with little to NO issues with maximum efficiency.
 You wouldn't expect your car to run good on dirty gas, why would you expect your recording rig to run good on dirty electrical power?
 
 If you can't seem to fully grasp of understand how important this, just ask any guitarist who just had his vintage Fender amp recapped, or even someone who replaced the caps in the built in power amp of their near field studio monitors who are typically nothing short of SHOCKED by the difference of noticing the over all bump in clarity or what they've been missing!
 Nor does it take a whole lot of critical listening to realize how much noise you "DON'T" hear any more by replacing a cheap power strip with a prograde power conditioner, and or notice a difference in performance and reliability of each piece of equipment you plug into it.
 
 Living and recording in this rather charming 80+ year old house mostly wired with old wiring, I'm a HUGE fan of power conditioning power strips for studio, amp, and instrument equipment, all running off of any one of 3 Furman power conditioning units that I power up sequentially a few seconds at a time, and 2 APC UPS (uninterrupted power supplies.) for computer/workstation/ network, printer, and such.
Not only do they protect the equipment from surges and spikes, they isolate and defeat hum and stray RF noise (radio freqs) transmitted thru cheap and dirty A/C power that flows freely thru cheap power strips, even from one amp or unit to the next and or thru the many cables and connectors hooked up in the studio.
 
 Can't locate that occasional intermittent hum that's been driving you crazy for God only knows how long?
 Well you could (may) identify and isolate it by unplugging the refrigerator, or the microwave oven in the kitchen, the heating and or air conditioning unit(s), or perhaps it's just a dimmer switch used for lighting or ceiling fan or window fan anywhere in any room of the house or apartment your in.
 Or get power conditioning and a UPS and forget about these annoyances even happen and or ever existed, and have a nice day!

Like JackN2 says, the power strip switches will likely bounce which is bad, but using higher up Furman or other quality strips for master on/off not bad.

This quote from above is key "Just make sure the strip is decent quality and the switches are as well."
Which means the obvious, the good ones aren't bad....hehehe.
The cheapest also have MOVs across L1, Gnd, Neutral; so the mfg can say technically "with lightning and surge protection with xxx joules. These can be super cheap and cause power hum as they age and the surfaces of the inside of the discs become pitted and there is a tiny bit of continuous contact between the two discs. *Which are supposed to arc over evenly in an over voltage situation.
Here again the better, like Furman, others, use better of this MOV and SAD technology for TVSS protection, and if any failures trip the small ckt brkr on it. Cheap ones, like 1.99 strips, have caught on fire in the past.

I wouldn't imagine anyone here investing in audio interfaces then use a 1.99 item. There are many cases of power hum being eliminated or greatly reduced by using quality power distribution.

Like anything, common sense prevails.

I also turn of any Phantom Power when I've finished using any mikes or DI that used it. Studio and Live. 
As well as I often turn down any mixer faders not in use etc. I really don't wish to blow up my NSM 10's just yet. 
 
Jeff is this what your using, I have 2 of them I use for things I don't use much.
 

You can use the surge protector to power off anything, however, you MUST power off the computer by first clicking Start > Power > shut down.  You don't want to damage your hard drive by abruptly shutting down the computer by using the surge protector.