#24

Almost all modern mass-produced furniture is constructed out of MDF and/or chipboard with a formica veneer. Argosy makes smaller desks, but this one seems large enough to place a 37-key keyboard and 32-channel mixer side by side. If I got the smaller version, I could skip the top rack spaces, leave the desk entirely flat, put the mixer to one side. Need to get out the tape measure and think about it.

The Platform looks great! Too small for my needs, but it looks really nice. I can’t imagine what might be “wrong” with it. It seems to use pretty standard construction techniques for modern mass production furniture.

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#25

I move my stuff around too much to invest heavily in studio furniture. I ended up building almost all of mine using cabinet grade plywood and hairpin legs (just like the look of them and they are inexpensive).

Take two pieces of 3/4" birch plywood, glue them together face to face, attach legs, done. I have a large 60x30" desk with 28" legs and a smaller 20x48" sideboard table with 24" legs for my eurorack. My plan is to build a 24x60" sidetable with taller legs so I can nest the two sideboards together with one surface above and behind the other to help hide cables and give a nice surface for tactile stuff.

I built a 12u 19" rolling rack for my “studio” gear that matches the desks perfectly - it is still mostly empty but I keep a Furman PSU, Behringer ADA, and patchbay in there. It looks like this but completely DIY and around $50:

http://soniccircus.com/sterling_modular_faceup_maple_f.jpg

My only thoughts on the Argosy would be how would you work between the two rack units? What if you wanted to patch them together?

4 Likes
#26

It’s a good point. It’d better to have only one. DIY is not a bad suggestion, but time is valuable, so I’m going to look for commercial solutions first. And probably eventually conclude that I need to build something to get it “right”, but we’ll see.

#27

this is also a really big point of interest for me as well,

Right now I’ve got just a couple of ikea tables side by side and gear stacked on top and underneath them,

but this has looked really appealing, and for pretty darn cheap,
Thinking about having one 3U row of euro in one side, and the other for my rack gear, with my performance 6U and drum machines in the middle…

but some alternatives would be much appreciated!

#28

I bought the Output studio desk and it is awesome. The construction is super solid, and it was relatively inexpensive even with the $100 shipping to Canada. Took me about 3 hours to assemble. It’s perfect fit for my small studio room, and now everything is way more organized than it ever was before. I’ll have to post some photos later when I get the chance…

3 Likes
#29

That’s what I wanted to hear (although that’s 0% what my wallet wanted to hear but who cares about this right?)

#30

how strange.
spent half of today looking at desks. I like Zaor’s Miza Z, but also the spaceship-y 88. wallet says no + have too many ikea desks already.

1 Like
#31

Oooh, Zaor looks very good. Thank you!

#32

I’m realizing Argosy can customize your desk in pretty much any way you please.

EDIT: But after all that research, I’m going to rearrange my stuff once more without buying any new furniture. It’s the never-ending game of studio tetris.

1 Like
#33

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Here’s a pano of my studio setup with the output desk in the middle. Usually there’s a laptop where those middle two cables are, it serves as my computer keyboard and second monitor. The rack on the right is all wired up to the patchbay on the right side of the desk bridge, which is then pre-patched into the soundard just below it.

All the MIDI is prepatched to a MIDI router as well, so at this point I (hopefully) never need to do any wiring to route things around. The desk comes with a handy cable organizer hanging below the rear desk surface so even below it’s very clean. If I ever need to get behind there it all slides forward really easily and I can crawl under to get to the back.

6 Likes
#34

My random furniture situation will persist a bit longer, because I was able to carve out a space for the imminent arrival of a new mixing console (which was the the thing that originally inspired these furniture thoughts).

My lack of cable organization is a bit embarrassing, please try to overlook that bit. I should also do some sewing and make myself some actual curtains… there’s always something.

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6 Likes
#35

Looking forward to more photos of the Output desk.
This would also be perfect for me.
But need to find out from when they are planning to ship to Asia as well.

#36

Apparently they just started shipping to Europe, so maybe Asia will happen…

1 Like
#37

this

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#38

Hairpin legs + plywood is a great idea! I was looking for an inexpensive second desk, I will do that instead.

#39

The nice thing is if you ever need to change it, just unscrew the legs and put them on something new.

I will say that for my larger desk, I didn’t sandwich two pieces completely. I cut pieces about 8" wide and glued them around the outer edge of the larger piece and then one down the middle (like an 8 on an LCD calculator). I did it this way to cut down on weight but still give the desk appropriate strength (to use 1.5" screws for the legs) and thickness for aesthetic.

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#40

Usually you have everything wired into a patchbay, which will be on one of the units. Then patching stuff together is just a matter of using some short patch cables.

#41

I’m just about to set up a new mixer, which will be on a different desk than the modular rack. My plan for interconnection is to get an XLR snake and then convert to 3.5mm as necessary.

Unless someone makes a patch bay that does that XLR/3.5mm conversion for me?

#42

Yea - I thought about this afterwards and there are some nifty DB25 modules out there that you could connect the two together. Still, I think the point is still valid that this is a relatively arbitrary and unnecessary obstacle/limitation of that layout - you’ll never be able to manipulate both sides at the same time. I belabored it over and over before in the past when I was going through the same thing. At the end of the day, I resigned that there are two different things going on here: creative producing/recording and technical mixing/mastering. I spend more time on the creative side of it so I dedicated the space and investment accordingly. I may have a synth or two out on the “production desk” at any given time but I’m usually hitting the record button then moving over to my sidetable with all the gear on it. That being said, I don’t work ITB very much on software synths or max/msp. If I did, I might setup differently.

If I were going to have a nice, large mixing console, I would probably invest in a dedicated mixing desk and fight the urge to fill the rack with synths and other stuff in order to save room for future recording gear down the road (maybe some 500 series racks, compressors, patchbays, etc.).

#43

How are you going to incorporate the mixing desk into your setup? Recording a stereo output? Multitracking and mixing down with the board?