Custom-built furniture for a neat setup?

If you can get over the separate entrance, could you use some funds to frame out and heat a small room in the garage?

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At one point I was thinking about that but I don’t think it’d be possible - would probably feel a bit claustrophobic. The first picture shows pretty much the entire space I have in the garage - immediately to the left there’s a big rack for off-season clothes and to the right there’s winter sports gear etc.

When I first cleared out the space about three years ago and made the table I was ecstatic and spent almost every night in the garage making crappy jams. But quite soon I started to take gear from that main setup and play with just one box on the kitchen table. I think it’s a combination of a number of small things that makes the garage not a very inviting place (anymore).

One factor is the size of the setup tho! The amount of stuff I have plugged in in the first picture would put me off today - frankly it did back then, and I found out I was much more productive with a smaller setup.

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I like this advice. At the beginning of lockdown, I made an angled desktop synth stand with some spare 2x4’s. I was tried of the neck pain from looking down at the screen. I made it wide enough to fit two Elektron boxes, and raised to allow midi/audio cables to snake through the bottom. I had planned to paint it, but here we are, 2.5 years later still not painted.

Based on your advice, maybe it’s time for a MK2 build :slightly_smiling_face:

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I would put the OT and the moog right in front. Stack the silver boxes right behind that.
Then make a shelf so the keyboard sat right above the silver boxes.
You’d have to reach over the boxes to hit key, but to me that makes sense. It’s not a far reach.

Put the OTOs one on each side of the front row.

By Moog do you mean the Matriarch? Or the Subharmonicon? The latter isn’t part of my main setup right now. (What is, one might ask, as I’m mostly pulling stuff out of the cupboard for 1-2 hours of jamming in the evening.)

I was talking about the sub harmonicon.
So what all is in your current set up?
Or what are you trying to put together?

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Would probably start with something like this:

(I have some other pieces here as well which I’d rotate.)

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:blush:
Thank you!

You need one of those desk armoire’s but one that is wide enough for your keyboards.

Something similar to this type:

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Then you can add more custom slide out keyboard shelves as needed.

You can see the slide out keyboard tray in the picture. You just add enough of those for your synths and desktop modules and then the top shelf can be a computer (if a computer is your bag).

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I had one more idea that could work if you find the right wardrobe (Ikea maybe).

You’d have to verify the width, height, and depth but it might work.

So you get a wardrobe (of sufficient size). Leave the shelves and clothes hangers out of it and then put one of those jasper keyboard stands inside of it.


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Something like that would be awesome indeed! Thanks for chiming in! Early this week I almost pulled the trigger on the Audio Housing desk but decided to think about it a little more. It’s a great looking desk but initially I was looking for a more ”camouflage” solution. And while I think it’d be a fairly flexible foundation for my setup, I think I need to think more about what exactly I want to set up before I’ll pay 1k for a desk. I still want to have a space for the Matriarch but having five pieces of gear set up would be quite a lot for me.

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The Your Setups thread has some really lovely compact/gear blending in with decor examples. Ignore the OOOoooh shinies and you can get some practical and elegant ideas (that is my primary reason for browsing that thread! The furniture… :star_struck:).

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… or you’ll be like me and never get around to actually building it for real .

I totally understand that and it’s why I have this one.

image

I had a house with a dedicated music room at one point, which was great, but my wife always complained if I would be in there too long, so it ended up being not ideal. I finally ended up buying a place and it has more of an open floor plan, so now my music gear is relegated to a corner, so I’m kind of in the same boat as you.

While it’s way too expensive my ideal for this kind of thing is something like the Dieter Rams modular shelving system. I need to really make use of vertical space. Maybe it will provide you with some inspiration as well.

Sort of this kind of a vibe, but with music gear instead of audio gear.

image

The advantage of something like the modular shelving system is that it can be moved around and adapted as your stuff changes. If you build a custom box it will be for what you own now, and if your gear changes you might find it no longer suits your needs.

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I build all my own stuff. I turned a crap wal mart desk into a three tier studio desk with rack spaces and cable management on the back. Just buy some 2x4s and plywood. Pretty easy and I barely know what I’m doing.

Same!

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@papertiger I actually browsed both Your Setups threads before I started this one. Not quite all of the 10k posts tho. :smiley: But I was probably looking for something too specific cos I didn’t see anything that would solve the problem for me right away. I mean, a lot of gorgeous looking setups (not just the gear) there but the problem here is probably the size of the setup (Matriarch AND other pieces) I’d like to hide/blend with decor, ha! If you have any specific setups in mind from that thread, I’ll gladly take another look (via pm or here).

@DimensionsTomorrow Thanks for the pics, that’s a lot of food for thought! I’m gonna give it some time but I’m starting to think I’m just being stubborn about keeping the Matriarch. I love it but I haven’t really used it in more than a year, so it’s more like I love the idea of using it cos I know what it can or could do. Moving to a Grandmother wouldn’t quite solve the problem either tho.

Also thinking about trying to make my current space (the one in the garage with a separate entrance) more comfy, practical and usable. I mean, the desk is big enough for me to set up what I want - all I need to do is start going there (how’s that for a first world problem).

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There are a couple of things I don’t like about the Audio Housing desk.

The main one is that I can’t use it standing. Another is that it isn’t very laptop friendly. If you put it on the top shelf, it’s too high to use. On any other shelves, you can’t moves the drawers without hitting the screen.

I would really like a sit/stand desk, but once you mount speakers and all that, you need a really sturdy desk to handle it.

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This sounds like a good plan. I’m actually jealous you have that option. :slight_smile:

I will see if I can find of the posts that I “liked.”

Incidentally, the problem you are describing is similar to the one I had with my Virus Polar, which I have owned for years and years and years. The short version is that it is now in storage, for my sons or for when my life changes again, as they change. I didn’t want to be tied to a room; I never use even the relatively small number of instruments I have at once (at this stage, I don’t I even have the mental capacity to do so lol). So I have opted for a setup that is modular (which includes a modular itself, heh).

I am very happy because I have the freedom to work where I want, and just need a surface.

Good luck! :slight_smile:

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Haha. It’s funny the lengths we’ll consider going to - figuring out this furniture option is probably the energy equivalent of a hundred trips out to the garage. Don’t let that stop you though, I’m on team custom furniture.

I don’t know what your living room decor or available space is like, but I reckon the Matriarch with the colours is pretty damn cool to look at, so maybe the solution is to display it, but then find a way to hide the few smaller boxes that you want to use with it?

Also check out this website…. lots of weird and funky space saving ideas that might give some food for thought.

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