The Tiny Studio Corner Thread

[PacificNorthWes]

Working on a more ambient performance in a month, and figured I’d use the time to get back into Teletype. My wife has started weaving so, while I have a more substantial setup in the basement, I figured I’d set up a little co-creation space at our ill-used dining table. Using a little folding laptop stand to angle my little Pittsburgh Move 104 case.

[feathers]

good setup! wondering how you feel about the cockpit? reading the manual left my brain a bit mushy but four channels + compressor + output in 6hp seems like a pretty sweet deal :

[PacificNorthWes]

It is a little strange, and maybe plays a little better with their intended purpose of integrating with an iOS device for sequencing/FX/etc (like in the full Shuttle system) with the TRRS cable send/return setup on the bottom two channels. But it is nice to have four channels of switchable (from the back of the module) mono or stereo audio, with a nice interface (click to mute, and you can adjust the volume while it’s muted) and a headphone out in 6hp. Channels 1 and 2 are normalled to use channels 3 and 4 as FX sends, also, which is… interesting. I do sometimes wish that I had a separate mixer and headphone out though so I could put in a master effect like Clouds.

I’ve never actually used the side-chain chain “compression” function! It isn’t a proper compressor though, just a way to do ducking via either an external envelope, an external trigger, or with audio using a built-in envelope follower.

[feathers]

thanks for the thoughts! it’s definitely making more sense to me now - was trying to figure out if the compression function would work as a compressor for the whole mix just by turning the knob without any cv/audio input but seems more like a sort of inverted vca thing! anyway, wishing luck with your performance : )

[dnealelo]

Omigosh, there are so many kinds of fabulous in this pic!

[doublecoolbossman]

Definitely an inverted VCA thing

[noahross]

My lil area!

[ESC_CODE]

Here is a picture of my desk. The music making section in our apartment is slowly being reduced as it is clear that this room will be needed soon by my kids.
One result of reducing myself is moving to modular and selling some of my other equipment to have maximum flexibility at a decent usage of space.
Not in the picture is a small rack containing my soundcard and mic-preamp. I am planing to move this under the desk once the available space gets more limited.

[Zordon]

very aesthetically pleasing ^

[sfd]

Lovely setup. Is your Intellijel case simply resting against the wall or is there something propping it up?

[ESC_CODE]

Thanks a lot I build my self a stand with some IKEA picture ledge https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/mosslanda-picture-ledge-white-40291766/ and some bookends like these https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/bottna-book-end-light-grey-green-anthracite-90394470/.

The picture ledge fits perfectly for the Intellijel case and lifts it up a little, too. So the case is not directly on the table which makes it easier to access the inputs of the modules on the last row. The stand worked very well on its own but for stability reasons I just screwed the whole construction to the table.

[dansimco]

People who do the “floor studio” type thing: Do you find dust to be a problem? I feel like I would be constantly dust busting.

[voidstar]

2 qs:

1. what desk do you have?
2. which dual-tier stand do you have for the Elektron gear?

Looks like a great setup!

[kirklandish]

Honestly, dust is not any more of a problem than when I had a desk studio. I just put the lid back on when I’ve finished for the day. My floor studio is a 7U plus an audio interface and monitors on a bookshelf though.

[ESC_CODE]

The desk is from IKEA https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/alex-desk-white-40260717/ It is super handy for using it as a studio desk as it has some clever cable management options. I basically have all my power strips, cables and an usb-hub hidden in the back. I only installed one of the drawers to have extra space for my monitor controller.

The dual tier stand is from this guy https://fractionindustries.com/collections/all/products/elektron-2-tier-stand. He ships very fast and the build quality is excellent.

[Catchthehare]

My little corner of the world, but I’ve pretty much reached max capacity without shelving and wall-mounting the modular (I rent a one bed in London so I don’t have the luxury of taking the DIY bull by the horns). But it works comfortably and it does limit my urge to get a A&H GL or Midas mixing desk (watch this space probably)

[rmro]

Did you base this desk design on anything it looks really great, just the sort of thing I could use?

Also how do you attach the movable lid to the bottom to extend it for the keyboard, can’t figure out how it works?

[nilhartman]

Yup, that’s an original, imperfect design ! As I said, I wanted it to be as discrete and elegant as possible yet convenient, as it’s in the middle of our living-room / creative room

I pretty much consider it a beta version though : I plan to build a new one with more solid wood (that one is made of pine) and to have the Amphion Amp100 stand vertically rather than horizontally and through the bottom part of the desk (it can be rackable and I think I’ve found a solution to handle that simply) to free up some space inside the desk.

I’m also considering a sort of sliding tray rather than the current system for the movable lid. It’s quite solid the way it is really but it’s more of a workaround than a properly reliable system.

Here are some pics:

These are solid, thick pieces of steal, about 30cm long each.

[mrspiral]

This photo is a bit of a cheat, as you can’t see the rest of my considerably larger studio, which is behind me but is hinted at by the corner of my console and the huge racks of cables:

I do a weekly radio show that includes live performance every week of a short ambient improv piece. While I often do longer compositions and improvs using my whole studio, sometimes it’s nice to focus on just a few items. To do this, I follow the rule that I will only use items that are right in front of my face as I work on my streaming/chat computer, most of which fit on or just above the slanted document shelf on my workstation desk (do they even put those on them any more?). The rest of the studio is on its own power circuit and stays switched off.

While I do move an iPad and put in a small hardware synth now and then, my main focus is on iOS work, and with four devices – well, three plus the iPhone doing Weeel – I can do a whole hell of a lot of music. I find this setup very inspiring, and while I know the pendulum will swing again someday, my larger studio is sitting dormant under dust covers most of the time, awaiting its return to center stage.

[eblomquist]

What is the black box with the silver knob on the left side in front of the monitor?