#125

I have a small amount of space for my gear, in fact until the extension is built it’s a tiny space.

I was thinking of building a stand that holds my gear as if the wall was the desk, sort of like a modular wall but for desktop gear. I wondered if anyone here had done similar?

I have an OP-1, Modal Skulpt, Drumbrute Impact, Norns (soon), Keystep.

I’ll post a sketch of what I was thinking, but I’m very open to ideas.

I know you can get a Keystep wooden stand with a Eurorack case built it, possibly I could extend off of that.

#126

image

This is what I was thinking to build off of.

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#127

You might find some inspiration in this thread:

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#128

I’ve seen a lot of great solutions for safely and compactly storing 1/4” and XLR cables (door racks, hanging wall track) and of course comb racks work great for 1/8” patch cables. But what are people doing for USB/FireWire/etc.? accumulated a fairy large number of A/B/micro/mini/USB-C/lightning and I don’t think a bin that despite best efforts with Velcro ties always devolves into a wad of spaghetti represents the peak of human achievement.

#129

I put them, by category, velcro-tied into separate gallon or larger ziploc bags (one bag per category, so B, Micro-B, Mini-B, C, etc… each get their own bag), which I then store vertically in an IKEA bin (the kind that fit in a Kallax opening). I do sometimes get them out of order, but just having them in their own ziploc makes finding and replacing them that much easier.

I store most of the USB sub-bags in one larger meta-bag for all of my USB stuff, but the audio cables are so bulky that they tend to get multiple bags per type (in which case I sort them by other criteria too such as average length or TS vs TRS).

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#130

This is a fantastic idea, thank you for sharing.

I’ve been doing something similar (multiple zip lock bags for different euro patch cable lengths/types (0hp and doo dads, super short, normal, normal stackable, very long) which works great for me when I need to take the synth for a live performance, but I had never thought about this method for my data and 1/4/xlr collection. I just drape them in the closet which works okay (at least no detangling hell) but things fall all the time and it is kind of precarious and messy

#131

I specifically came looking for a thread that talks about this sort of thing as my “usb cable” drawer is presently killing me…

I keep all of my commonly used cables in an IKEA VEBERÖD room divider (pic thread) with cable ties and all, but its the small cables I don’t use too often that are a pain to organize.

The ziplock idea is probably handy, but it feels like it would be a pain having to shuffle through them each time you want a cable.

I remember seeing some lifehacker shit where you would coil cables up in toiletpaper cardboard tubes and then put them vertically, but some of the cables I have are too big/long for that.

I’ve even had a look on Thingiverse and nothing good/ideal comes up.

Surely this is a solved problem…

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#132

I remember checking this for a similar issue http://cablehive.com.au/index.php/what-is-the-cable-hive

But yes small various cable storage is a nightmare…

#133

Hmm, I think I had seen that before.

Looks like a few similar things on Thingiverse. I’ll try printing one and see if it works out ok.

#134

You could always use a modular cable hanger and the back of a convenient door, I suppose. The ziploc thing works well enough for me since, with them top-up, reaching in to get whatever I want is pretty easy. But I can see how a per-cable organization system might suit others better.

#135

Here’s a desk I had my brother build for me in my studio. I think it was, max, two sheets of nice one side plywood. Didn’t take him too long. The only thing I’d change is the left and right uprights I’d prefer a little further setback so the space infront was large enough for a notebook. It’s just a bit small. Fits pedals nicely though.

IMG_20190330_120925
IMG_20190330_120925.jpg4032×3024 1.45 MB

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#136

Ordered myself an Output desk as a necessary step in fitting into a smaller apartment. Now to try and sell off all the other stuff it’s replacing…

#137

anyone who wants something like the Output desk and happens to have access to a decent-sized CNC table, it would be a very easy thing to make for dramatically cheaper. there’s .svg files here for something that is exactly the same, minus the keyboard drawer (which would be easy to add).

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#138

It’s not exactly the same though (the main table seems to be “hanging”, when on the Output version there’s a vertical pannel underneath on both sides, which incidentally is where you attach the keyboard trey) and also I find what’s missing is the cable management system behind which is one of the things I love about the Platform. Just specifying because it’s those clever little things (the holes inside the main desk are also missing which is weird since they added the ones on the lower pannel beneath the main desk which doesn’t make much sense without the holes in the main desk…) that makes it all a little more than the sum of its (very simple looking) parts.

Also, what you need to do this is not a decent-sized CNC table, it’s the knowledge of how to use one correctly ^^

It’s funny because I keep seeing this thing about the platform being expensive but it doesn’t strike me as that brutal of a price ? It’s a well thought out, easy and quick to build (AND dismantle ! that’s also a good thing), desk with clever sorting tricks in pretty decent materials. It’s one of those cases where I didn’t feel ripped off paying a price that was quite a lot for my budget, although I completely realized once you have it in front of you you’re like “well if I was a woodwork kinda guy I could probably make this myself”.

But damn how I’d love to be good at woodwork… and I admire anyone who is, it used to be a thing in my family but it got lost.

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#139

I wasn’t really trying to impugn the price of the platform, just wanted to point out another option. it’s a well-designed thing

the sheet of plywood you’d need to cut the parts for that size desk is relatively very cheap ($50-60) and the additional details (the straight cut drop pieces, the keyboard tray, and the additional cable storage cuts/pieces) are very straightforward. obviously is takes some knowledge, but if anyone has a local maker space with a CNC table, some kind person will likely help you out with the rest.

#140

There’s a thing like that around town I think where you can build your own wood things it’s pretty cool, I keep postponing going there and I shouldn’t !

And also, yeah I understand you weren’t speaking from a bad place, it’s just there’s always this sense that things are overpriced that floats around (I spoke at length about that concerning Norns and its price as well actually) and sometimes I’m just a bit concerned we forget how much thoughts and work went into designing things we can then build for ourselves, or also that we’re forgetting the time necessary to know how to build this (and then the time to do it!) has a lot of value too and this value seems depreciated more often than not.

Sorry if it felt a bit agressive, I think it was a little and I didn’t mean that !

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#141

no problem. anyone who has experience building things with wood is unlikely to complain that a $600 desk is too expensive. if anything, building stuff by hand (even designing and assembling mostly cnc cut parts) teaches that everything should be more expensive than it typically is.

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#142

Random thought here, as a US person my general impression of Europe, based on a decent amount of travel there, is that the price of common goods is often higher, but that seems to be offset by a higher quality…

So I’m extrapolating that translates into fewer but better material possessions…

Plus the higher consumption taxes which presumably help pay for a more humane social infrastructure than we have, which is largely crumbling under a dog eat dog ideology…

#143

speaking as an american living in a relatively poor part of europe, there’s plenty of cheap furniture and goods to go around here too, sadly…

#144

Output also released the Sidecar a few days ago while adding nice grey options to the furniture:

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