My new music production workspace, 29th Dec 2021, last updated 23rd April 2024

[MajorFubar]

So my Xmas present to myself was a new home studio desk to replace this clutter which was my previous workspace:

I have a very small home studio, built into what here in the UK is laughably called a bedroom (because it's upstairs, it has a window and you can *just about* fit a bed in it) but stateside would be called a walk-in closet. It's barely 6'x7.5'.

I decided on a B-stock Thomann Combo Desk 88, which I found at a good price on Thomann's website, but had to wait three weeks for delivery, partly hindered by Christmas:

All 63kgs of it (~140lbs) turned up yesterday (Dec. 29th) in three separate packages. I'm only a fairly-small small guy (5' 6"), and a one-handed guy at that, and I'm pretty sure I must have burned-off a few pounds yesterday lugging that thing's a$$ upstairs and building it in a room which is barely an inch wider than the fully-assembled desk, but I did it:

I'm aware I still need to get some risers for the Alesis monitor speakers. They were sat on Gorilla stands behind my old desk, but with this new desk there isn't enough room to put the speakers behind. I also need to route-in my beloved Sennheiser HD580's which I use for mixing and general music consumption. I didn't get chance to do that last night before I collapsed in bed for the day.

The spare space on the left, currently being occupied by random stationery and my (disconnected) 2010 Mac Mini will eventually be home to my new M1 computer, whichever that ends up being; be it a laptop of some kind, or the pro Mini, after which the iMac will be replaced by a 28" Samsung monitor which I have already bought but is in storage.

Thanks for looking.

 

[Release]

MUCH better! Congrats!

 

[mikzn]

Very Nice - ? - looks less crowded - more fun to work / play

 

[Fabian90]

great improvement! congrats

 

[satcomer]

I hope you have NAS to save all music productions you'll make in near future!

 

[MajorFubar]

I hope you have NAS to save all music productions you'll make in near future!

I have a 3TB NAS which I mainly use for my ripped CDs. Call me stupid or just living dangerously but for everything else including my own music I rely on storing stuff in iCloud, for which I bought the 3TB monthly plan, about five years ago.

Using iCloud has the benefit I can access my data on any of my Apple devices. The downside is the glacial upload speed, but that's as much the fault of my broadband internet as anything else. I live in a rural corner of NW England, my download speed never betters 24m/bits and my upload speed is typically 1/10th of that. It would shock Apple to discover people like me actually exist in a first-world country in 2022.

 

[satcomer]

I have a 3TB NAS which I mainly use for my ripped CDs. Call me stupid or just living dangerously but for everything else including my own music I rely on storing stuff in iCloud, for which I bought the 3TB monthly plan, about five years ago.

Using iCloud has the benefit I can access my data on any of my Apple devices. The downside is the glacial upload speed, but that's as much the fault of my broadband internet as anything else. I live in a rural corner of NW England, my download speed never betters 24m/bits and my upload speed is typically 1/10th of that. It would shock Apple to discover people like me actually exist in a first-world country in 2022.

the thing that gets me on iCloud is iCloud doesn't upload your CD rips! That's why in Music I always point the NAS so I can enjoy my retirement!

 

[MajorFubar]

It does if you move your iTunes / Music library to your iCloud folder. I haven't however, for the reason it would take literally a full week to upload my lossless ripped CD collection, because of my glacially slow internet connection.

 

[MajorFubar]

Slightly more progress since my last post, chiefly being the IsoAcoustics monitor risers. Not cheap compared to the sponge stands most people seem to use, but I'd say definitely believe the hype, they do make their money's worth of difference to the tightness of the sound

Next will be a separate audio interface (currently using the DAC and ADC built into the Alesis monitors) and then likely a new Mac Mini.

 

[MarkC426]

I am still trying to figure how you got the desk in......
Wow that was a tight squeeze.
Looks really nice now though...?

Maybe should have fitted an electric blind, before putting the table in...

 

[MajorFubar]

It was built in situ, there's two inches of space at each side of the main surface. It would definitely need to be at least partly disassembled to be removed.

It's possible to reach behind and open the curtains. The small focal length of my iPhone camera exaggerates the apparent depth: it's only 30" deep once the keyboard drawer is pushed in.

 

[satcomer]

Slightly more progress since my last post, chiefly being the IsoAcoustics monitor risers. Not cheap compared to the sponge stands most people seem to use, but I'd say definitely believe the hype, they do make their money's worth of difference to the tightness of the sound

Next will be a separate audio interface (currently using the DAC and ADC built into the Alesis monitors) and then likely a new Mac Mini.

View attachment 1945787

You should get some Acoustic Foam on your walls for sound recording!

 

[satcomer]

Plus I found this video that you might like:

 

[MajorFubar]

Nice!

Re the acoustic foam, because I rent I'm reticent about doing anything which may mark the walls and require me to re-decorate. I'm trying to think about what I can put up which is temporary enough to not mark the walls but good enough to dampen the acoustics and dull some of the crazy upper-bass nodes.

I do however have a few updates. First of all I was pleased to welcome to the studio in January my new Motu M4 audio interface. The is a 4-channel USB interface with ESS Sabre32 Ultra DACs. Two of the inputs are line-level, which is ideal when myself or clients need to digitise material from the analogue domain like records or tapes. It can record up to 24 bit / 192kHz:

The ADCs are exceptionally quiet, I think the only limitation is there isn't exactly a staggering amount of gain on the inputs, so fairly quiet microphones might need a booster in the signal chain, like a Cloud Lifter. DI from electric guitars and basses though, absolutely no issue whatsoever. Loving the individual phantom power switches for inputs 1 & 2; that's quite unusual at this price point (215GBP).

Next I upgraded my studio monitors. For over a decade I have been using Alesis 520USB powered speakers, which have a built-in audio interface. These have been passed on to one of my sons for his home-studio build, and after much consideration and reading literally dozens of reviews, I brought in a pair of Kali IN-5 three-way monitors:

I am really pleased with the sound and versatility of this set-up. The final piece of the jigsaw - for now - will be replacing the 2011 iMac. I have already bought a 28" 4K Samsung monitor, which is in storage. The newcomer will either be a Mini or a Macbook Air, all largely depending on what Apple announce on March 8th. The engine of my whole studio is kind of hanging in the balance until then.

Loving the ambience of this place after dark.

 

[satcomer]

You should use green light in background!

 

[vemac575]

Hey good for you man! I’m happy for you. I was going to tell you to ditch the old monitors for front ported ones but I read through and BAM, you did. Rear ported speakers are terrible for small rooms. As far as what to do to better your sound, and considering you don’t want to mark the walls, build a 2inch thick absorption panel that will sit behind your desk and on each side of the window. It will help dissipate the low end that tends to build up. Also, you should build one that can stand against the wall behind you. You don’t have to hang them, you can just stand em up. As for foam, don’t do it. Foam doesn’t do much to treat a room. At best it helps the highest end of the frequency range but not even too much to tell unless you’re just using it for speaking into a mic. For music producers, it’s useless. Use very dense insolation, built into a wood frame, covered with cotton and fabric to make it nice, and prevent fibers from filling the room.

Anyway, enjoy the new room. Looks great!

 

[MajorFubar]

Studio revamp coming end of March...I've decided to move my bed in here and turn the larger front bedroom into my studio, because like who needs a big bedroom when I live alone and I only sleep in it. Quite a few changes coming so watch this space.

 

[MajorFubar]

Probably not one of my wisest decisions considering I am going to be completely dismantling this workspace at the end of March and moving it to a bigger room (which will be a complete nightmare because this room is so tiny I literally had to assemble the desk in here and will need to at least half-disassemble it to get it out), but I've started to upgrade the gear in my studio by adding a Icon Qcon Pro X control surface and and three Pro XS slaves, for my DAW.

I am still waiting for the third XS slave unit to arrive (my distributor was OOS), and unfortunately the Pro X master unit arrived faulty, so is being returned tomorrow (Saturday) to the main Europe warehouse in Germany for an exchange. According to the invoice, the country of origin for the XS slaves was Italy while the Pro X master unit was built in China. I know how wrong it is to stereotype, but OMG sometimes it's hard not to roll your eyes and go 'that figures'...

I had to lift the upper shelf to give room for the meter-bridges to slide underneath, so I raised it on eight adjustable metal feet intended for supporting sofas, all carefully positioned so that the master controller and three slaves will fit neatly between its front two legs. So I hope my calculations are correct, based on the measurements on Icon's website, that I need a width of no more than 55" between the outermost front legs, because I didn't have the luxury to allow much margin for error.

I've had to come up with an innovative solution for a DIY wrist-rest to go in front of the keyboard and trackpad because the gel mats I am currently using will be far too wide when I fit the master controller behind it, leaving me only about 1". So I've ordered a roll of 8mm-thick 19mm-wide stickyback foam off eBay, which I think is probably intended as draught excluder, that I'll put across the edge of the work-surface in two stacked layers.

 

[satcomer]

Also sense you getting a new Mac Mini you should look at Rogue Amoeba and their software LoopBack to connect audio from DAW to audio/video streaming software or web apps easily inside your new Mac!

 

[MajorFubar]

Yeah getting a Mac Studio Max. My audio interface already has loopback built in, which is a nice-to-have.

Well the 'big move' happened I referred to in post #17.

Took me over a day to do what I should have done at Christmas when I bought my new desk: move my bed into the small room and build the studio into this bigger bedroom. Because the huge 60Kg desk could not be moved out of the small room without disassembly, I had to partly dismantle it to get it out, move my bed into the small room, then reassemble the desk in here.

My third slave controller finally arrived along with the replacement master controller. Ironically the only thing missing now from my studio is my (Mac) Studio, which still has a delivery date of 18-22 April even though it's already been on order about three weeks. I think they're still mining its silicon and aluminium from somewhere.

 

[StoneJack]

I am still trying to figure how you got the desk in......
Wow that was a tight squeeze.
Looks really nice now though...?

Maybe should have fitted an electric blind, before putting the table in...

He probably measured room before bringing that table. This is tight fit lol

 

[MajorFubar]

He probably measured room before bringing that table. This is tight fit lol

I did measure it but as explained I had to build it ‘in situ’. To remove it I had to partly dismantle it.

 

[MajorFubar]

Unfortunately this dovetails with my Studio Max blog, so forgive the unavoidably duplicated content.

On Friday I received my new Studio Max. I had some early issues where the monitor did not work via HDMI, plus there appears to be a bug in the most recent version of Logic Pro which initially prevented it from seeing my master control surface and the three extenders as separate units, but more by luck than judgement I managed to circumvent both those things. After that, it was just a matter of waiting for all my content to sync from the iCloud, because I store pretty much everything in the iCloud so I can see it from all my devices.

So here we are three days in, and I think everything has finally downloaded. After those two quite significant initial scares, I think I'm there.

Have to admit I'm extremely tempted to keep my old Time Machine drive as a permanent backup of my old machine as at 08 April and buy a new 4TB drive for this. It would give me peace of mind that, if it turns out something hasn't sync'd via the cloud, I do have a physical backup to go back to.

I have a few Logic plugins that are not yet M1 coded, and I'll be very sad to lose those, but I knew that going in. One is by a pretty big name in music (Korg) so Im hoping in time they pull-out the stops and give us an M1 version.

 

[satcomer]

By the look you should invest in Smart NAS to save your musical creations into it as well as other thing like
Synology Smart + NAS selection because you can turn it to anything using the Synology Package Store for their NAS devices!

 

[MajorFubar]

I do actually have a 3TB NAS , I haven't yet tried making the two things talk to each other yet. Figured I best do all this one step at a time.