2009
Okay, the lil' missus and I are moving on up. To the east side. To a de-luxe apartment in the sky. (Except it's on the first floor, and that reference will be totally lost on our foreign readers, which really takes the fun out of it. It isn't all that de-luxe either.) Since the space available to me is somewhat smaller than what I have now, I'll be going minimal for my home office/mini-studio.
In that vein, I need to get a new piece of furniture. I was pondering getting a producer's desk or an edit desk or some such with built-in racks, except for the fact that it's a royal pain in the ass to (a) re-cable anything, and (b) take something with me somewhere else. I can get away with 8 rack spaces right now (Furman, D-Box, Mytek, Eclipse, MIDI interface, and the MKS-80, which equals 7U) so I'll just go grab an 8-space rack and call that problem solved.
That out of the way, I need something to hold a 61-key controller, two 19" monitors, a mouse and keyboard, and a pair of Adam A7 up off the floor. I would vastly prefer to avoid anything that has significant structural parts made out of MDF, and I can afford pretty much anything on up to completely custom. (Figure less than $3K would be fine, less than $2K would be cool, and less than $1K and I'm gonna do a happy dance.)
I've always just used a combination of Quik-lok stands and whatever was at hand, but now that I'm all growds up, it's time to buy a proper desk. Help a brother out. What do you have? What do you like or hate about it? I can search out links as easy as the next guy; I'd rather hear personal testimonials as to the quality or lack thereof of a particular piece of studio furnishing.
-CR
posted February 1, 2009 by Chris Randall
posted February 1, 2009 by chromium
I don't think you'll find non-MDF south of what you're looking for. You may be better off contacting a local furniture maker with some plans and he'll advise you on materials:cost. For roughly 6 years i used an old rosewood dining room table. It did not resonate and was incredibly sturdy
posted February 1, 2009 by AdamJay
All in all, I use it because I have it but would replace it in a heartbeat if I could source enough aluminum tubes and old ultimate support 'thinkertoys' and customize my own. It also has sentimental value as buying it was a contributing factor in my divorce (and a very good thing that was).
posted February 1, 2009 by noisetheorem
If money is literally burning holes in your pocket, there's always Sound Construction, they make really nice stuff.
-W
posted February 1, 2009 by Wade Alin
This is the type of desk I would like:
(Picture)
link [www.soundonsound.com]
(Article)
link [www.soundonsound.com]
.:aKido
posted February 1, 2009 by aKido
-=A
posted February 1, 2009 by alexplosive
i decided against typical 'studio furniture'. i hate the way it looks and i don't like the arrangement of my equipment to be mandated by the furniture.
i can set each shelf to the exact height i need it to be, it's super sturdy, and it's modular so it doesn't force you to configure your setup a certain way - if you get a new piece of gear, you just get a new shelf. the only downside is that there's no place to rackmount stuff. but it'll definitely support the weight of a (smallish) wooden rack.
the biggest shelf they have is about 6' wide and 2.5' deep, so it's big enough for a full size keyboard. i love it, it looks good - clean and simple. and it's cheap, (mine was in the $1200 range), the shelves are really light and the whole thing breaks down small enough to fit easily in a hatchback.
email me for pics. only downside is that i still don't think you can get them online, only at the store, and MAYBE only in chicago stores.
posted February 1, 2009 by waveplant
posted February 1, 2009 by waveplant
![link [www.soundonsound.com]](http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb01/images/parker1.gif){kind=link}
I'll try and find the link.
posted February 1, 2009 by planes