My Little Corner of the World... and a Lesson in the Ergonomics of Custom Desks

[nigelallistair]

This is a story of my little studio.

Background

I'm a 42-year-old father of four sons (2 whom are grown, 18 & 20, and mostly not at home, 2 are 10 &12 and so I am still in the full throes of raising them). I am recently remarried to a wonderful woman without whose support this little project studio of mine would not have gotten off the ground. I have spent the last 20 years being a father, coaching soccer, helping with homework, learning a great live or world travel and building a career as a graphic designer. I have been successful in both of those things but they have taken me long and far from my old world of music. I play half a dozen instruments had been recording in some way with one sort of studio or another since I was 16 years old. My last studio previous to this was well equipped, completely analogue due to the time frame and I loved it dearly. That studio, unfortunately, was dismantled and sold piecemeal to satisfy the needs of the children and family.

Until these past few months.

I have a small den-type room off the living room of our apartment. It is small, about 12x10 but it is open to the room behind which runs about 30’ to the back wall of the living room so it’s not technically a small box of a room but it’s also not totally private and closed-off but it's my spot and so it'll do.

I decided early on that the A&H ZedR16 console would be the centerpiece as I’m a knobs and faders guy and I knew that would be the best of all worlds for me. Coupled with a 27" iMac running Logic 9, I'd be in digital heaven.


Desk ...and the lesson in ergonomics

The console furniture is custom designed and built by me. Being a designer I have access to software tools that can help me in this way and I used a local die-maker I know from work to cut the side panels for free. I got the PDF of the ZedR16 from the A&H website and was able to take it apart in Illustrator and build a custom side panel to marry perfectly with the side shape of the Zed and also incorporate the monitor shelf and a rack-mount section for 4 pieces of gear. I bought and cut the rest of the pieces, assembled and thought I was really happy. Until I attempted some use of the desk. I discovered that the monitor shelf that held the iMac was simply too high for comfort. With the rack section where it was it pushed the monitor shelf too high and it was physically uncomfortable to be looking up and down at such an angle so constantly and I found it was actually killing my fun and creativity. it really wasn't working at all. Funny how a little thing like that can do that. As much as I was very proud of the initial design - I especially loved the rack mount section being built-in the way I designed it - it really wasn't working at all so it had to be fixed.

I extended the “shelf” that the ZedR16 was sitting on enough to accommodate the iMac sitting right behind it. I also “notched” the monitor shelf about 5 ½” to allow the iMac to sort of slide into it. As you can see from the pictures the iMac now sits directly behind the Zed and is in a perfect location being a very natural slightly downward viewing point. It's very much a recording cockpit. I then relocated the rack section to above the iMac and that worked out great as well. It all works amazingly and it’s made everything so much more fun and comfortable.

I initially installed a sliding shelf keyboard shelf under the desk but found it to be a bit low and uncomfortable for my legs so I built a small bridge-type shelf that spans the console and accommodates the keyboard and trackpad. The shelf can slide forward and backward depending on where I need it and if I need access to the entire console it can be simple lifted off. It’s pretty simple but effective solution


Room Treatment

The Bass traps are 4” OC703 covered with fabric and sitting in frames I made and into which I drilled a bunch of alternating size holes. They look great and do a fine job.

Above the console there is a rising in the ceiling that come to a peak and needed a bit of help so I hung a cloud trap up there and it seems to wokr pretty well.


Keys

I built a very simple table-like keyboard stand for my Roland Juno-G with a sliding shelf under it for my Ensoniq ESP16+.


Mics

Mics are a Rode NT1A and a pair of RODE NT5s. In these pics the mics are atop the rack section but they don’t live there as my cat likes to jump up there and lay in the sun from the window and my nightmare is a mic being pushed off the shelf and down into the iMac screen. So they reside elsewhere normally.


Guitars

I bought new guitars and a bass. Nothing super high-end but I could afford them, they sound great and I think they’re beautiful. And yes, I like blue guitars.

New guitar amp is the Line 6 Spider IV 75W and it’s amazing.


Outboard Gear

Outboard gear is simple but all I really needed for now. A Lexicon MX400 effect unit, Sampson S-phone headphone amp, Alesis DM5 drum unit and MOTU MidiExpress 128.


Drums

The drums are a nice but inexpensive set of PDP that are decent enough acoustically but as you can see that’s not how I’m using them so their acoustic properties weren’t as important. They are fitted with Pearl Mesh Heads (seriously brilliant) and ddrum triggers along with Pintech electronic cymbals. I am a drummer first and have been since I was 6 years old and so this had to be a good setup performance and feel wise and it really is. I’m extremely happy that I can both jam and record in my apartment and no one is the wiser.

So that’s it… my little corner of the recording world. It’s really a very nice spot. It sounds good, looks great, has a nice view of some woods outside and it was built with the support of a wonderful family. My kids jam with me, I’m enjoying learning the digital recording world and I couldn’t be happier.

[goldenlotus]

Nice!

[muziekschuur]

Really sweet. Fill us in on the hardware you have....

I'd say some drumpads beside the computer (like the Korg Nano series) could help out.

[Syncamorea]

I like the monitor(s) at a low angle too. Nice moody room. Do you sing the blues?

[inlinenl]

Hi Nigel very nice efforts, but on the desk , I have made many "desks" in my career ( 46 and father of three ), but you have no place to rest your arms, when using your mouse/mixer .. this is gonna hurt in the end ... it's way of the ergonomic standards ... IMHO. also gear needs ventilation, in those boxes it get's to hot, even when the backside is fully open .. don't fry your gear .. it breaks down in 2 years like that.

I think you will make a new desk soon .. all other items are good

[nigelallistair]

Hello all... thanks for the kind words and thoughts.

The armrest situation, yes i am finding that a bit but it's not enough of an issue right now to consider a rebuild just yet. But I will take it into account if I do.

As far as the "rack" up top...the equipment is actually suspended in that box to be above the height of the iMac screen and so it is not only completely open on the back but has about 4" of open space below it so I think that's good.

To answer the funny question about playing the blues, well, no, but I do find that this color blue is very soothing and relaxing so I used it on the wall and on the bass trap framing. It's also the color I have on the walls at my day job as a graphic designer for the same reasons.

Thanks all for the nice words.

[depulse]

Looks nice.

Regarding the armrest. I would take a piece of wood (with the length of the width of the desk) to be fixed under the front of the desk, sticking out maybe 2-3 inches.

Then get a small water pipe isolation tube, cut it lengthwise it its' not already precut (most are) and glue it flat to the parts of the wood that will be facing upwards (i.e. where you will rest your arms) in order to give the armrest a soft cushion.

Buy some real or synthetic leather and cover the tubing and use a staple gun to nail it to the wood, just be careful to make it fit really tight.

Connect the wood under the desk and voila, you have a leather armrest for your mixer. With a little care it can look really professional and by putting the nails only where they can be seen, it looks seemless.

I did this for my old Mackie 24-8 mixer (no pictures unfortunately) and I plan to do it for my new Onyx 32.4 as soon as I have moved into my new house.