And the angled desk racks will suck too. The units you put in there will become nothing more than blanking plates too. They are too far away and it will be annoying trying to read any of the units' screens. That won't matter for your audio interface, or other units with no screens like compressors,etc. Anything that has any sort of menu diving involved in those racks will suck.

 

They are not going to be angled. At the moment. In above sketch, you can see the inner legs are straight to accommodate a straight rack. The legs are angled for aesthetics rather than to function as angled racks. Though, some I've seen with similar ideas do tend to have a slight angle on the lower rack to ease access from the chair.

I won't be mounting a computer there, nor will I be placing drawers as I intend to put an Ikea Kallas unit on the back wall and fill with them canvas cube drawers, some of which will contain cables, microphones, guitar perdals and so on, others I will probably fill with some fabric materials to held dampen the sound a bit. No idea if it will work as I envisage though

 

I don't really use audio processing outboard rack gear. The desktop racks will mainly be to house my desktop synths, like the Model D, Pro-1, K-2, and so on, all of which I already stand up to use to have a bit more freedom to get into it, so won't make any difference in that capacity.

 

one way around tiny screens is put a web cam or document camera on them and use picture in a picture or a a video switcher to send the video to one of your monitors.. there are some good document cameras that have hdmi out for class room teaching, so no computer needed, just direct out to a small hdmi monitor

 

I project the screen on furthest wall from single window room. In morning... afternoon with blinds open, I can see perfect with level 1 brightness. At night I even go to color management in Windows and "calibrate display" to fully reduce RGB color balance for even lower brightness. So brightness is not really an issue for me.

For fan noise, I do notice it and for a studio setup would probably need some sort of barrier that allows light through but not sound.

 

So, this is the latest mockups of my current design for my new home studio setup. Fits everything I will have, plenty of surface space for MIDI controllers if I need to use then, built in cable management tray at the back, full 88 key keyboard shelf, 8U each side on top of desk for my Model D, Pro-1, K-2 etc synths, extra 8U rack space in the legs if I ever need to expand, and should be fairly cheap to make as I've based in on a couple of 18mm plywood sheets, some CLS stud timber I already have, and an Ikea worktop as the desktop. All in, will be about 2.5m wide and 80cm deep.



Below are without the rear shelf, which I'm still undecided about, but an easy thing to add at the end. WIll help with stability, and also provide cover to hide things like my audio interface, guitar bits like plectrums and eBows etc underneath:

 

btw "cool" design was original Beat by StudioDesk which had movable tray at desk level,
so you could have midi keyboard on fixed sturdy board, and actually slide desk backward,
that said, not at all convenient since you couldn't have anything permanently there (hence why wireless keyboard+mouse in most pics),
they no longer produce it I guess:

 

or you can just use an lcd monitor....

 

More expensive, harder to build and most inconvenient. Certainly inspiring that they actually build this.

 

I know it is a matter of choice or taste, you name it, but why would someone prefer to place midi keyboards/synthesizers anywhere except in the front of lcd monitors.

I would not do that never. But, in general, yep a great desk.

 

Last edited: Apr 19, 2024

This one is definitely interesting! I'm hoping to be able to also build in a DJ booth into the room, and I can already envisage a wing to house the MIDI keyboard such as on the right of this photo which can then also be designed to also place my Pioneer DJ gear onto.

 

It's hard to make an 88 key sliding shelf sturdy enough for proper playing. They always move a bit as you play, which is a bit annoying. I'd suggest accommodating a smaller MIDI controller keyboard at the front and putting the 88 key on a proper stand to the side. It also has the advantage of giving you more knee room.

 

A total must have for me in any desk or studio furniture is that the legs go all the way down to the floor.

 

Its from this company

https://www.wavenature.de/index.asp?site=Furniture&furniture=mastersdouble

They taken 2 different units and put them together. They've also got the dimensional drawings for them as well which could be useful if your trying to get something similar.

 

Not everyone wants to be constantly staring at a screen when coming up with ideas/writing music. Plus if you have multiple synths you cant put them all in front of you on the desk.

 

because a lot of people can play keyboards and use their ears not the eyes. if you have a hardware synth you don't need a screen and if you have a hardware recorder like the zoom series, you don't need a computer screen in front of you. boots in seconds and you are making music without plugins or software updates or glitches. there are many ways to make music and many ways to setup a studio.

some people only use computers for mixing and mastering after tracking their music on dedicated hardware. it helps maintain the creative flow and limits distractions.

just because you can do something on a computer, doesn't mean its a good idea to do it on a computer.. thats the lesson of electronic music.

 

and you can have it at a proper playing height, and have room for a music stand, among many other reasons.....

 

Hot take: it's unusable. Beside placing monitors wood on wood on the pic, there is no room for multiple BIG screens. A 14" or 15" laptop won't cut it. There need to be two 32" side by side (optimally a 65" on the wall for video). The monitors should be on stands behind the desk, because I wilI poke the sub membrane in with my nose otherwise.
And then the keyboard beneath the desk: How do you play that synth on the pic without growing tentacles? For some reason the pc keyboard has a dedicated space, which is unnecessary.
I prefer a flat desk like a long and thiccc woodplate with legs screwed under it and drilled holes for the cables and theres plenty of room to the sides for the stuff with knobs.
I know preferences and opinions differ but I am still right in every way and form.
Have a good day everyone.

 

it also burns well and makes lots of pretty colours, however the fumes maybe toxic, don't inhale or you may become Justin Beiber.
beleive there is a warinng sticker regarding all this on the bottom of the desk, some owners remove it, so always good to repeat it here in a public forum for user safety....

 

Last edited: Apr 19, 2024

So you are saying I will become a lot younger, get a sixpack, plenty of money, stupid girls will like me? I guess I want to be the "Bieb". That's good advice. I will rip a huge drywall bong hit right now.