Your setups [ 10k Archive]

Yes. The desktop is custom made by me. The shelving and alu strips are Vitsoe.

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Trying to get rid of cables and make everything easier to transport for live performances.

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Dang!
Similar selected gear. My picks since I started getting into synths around 3 yrs ago. A guitarist turned synth enthusiast…:star_struck:

My Gear

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They’ll last a lot longer than guitar picks (but maybe not the guitar :joy:) What made you decide on them? I was using Ableton with Operator, Analog, and old drum machine samples, felt limited by CPU with my workflow and wanted to switch to hardware. I went with Elektron for the sequencer.

Is that AK lid from Decksavers? I didn’t realize they were available but I did a google search when I saw you had one. I’ve been using a piece of fabric…

I’m curious what the transition from guitar to synthesizer looks like in terms of genre. Do you make similar music with synthesizers as you did with guitar?

I just picked up an analog four, completing my dark trinity. Now I can finally unleash my inner Sith.

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From this…

To this…

Three more months rent!

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very cool!

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Sub37, Prophet 12, Rytm, Octatrack, Seaboard Rise, Bigsky+Capistan, Custom 69 Stratocaster, iMac 2011 with Bitwig and Kontakt and a focusrite saffire Pro40. + a record player.

Very happy with this, I like that there’s so little overlap. Each instrument fills one category of gear I like to play with. Mono, Poly, Drums, samples, expressive controller and guitar.

I’m saving up to fill the last two “essential categories” right now…a vocal microphone and a 7u Eurorack Modular based on the shared system. https://www.modulargrid.net/e/racks/view/667633 The modular will sit where the elektrons are now. At that point the desk will officially be out of real estate. Which means the setup will be complete, this is in a studio apartment, so the desk sets the limit :yum:

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Spent the last few days building the new desk and arranging everything just so. It does hurt a bit that Overbridge isn’t available for the A4mkII at this point.

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That’s the output desk?
How is it, I really want to grab one.

It is (Platform), I had my eye on it for a while.
Not too tough to build, though since it’s hardwood the screws can be a bit tough to get in. It’s not made of pressboard so it’s likewise also much heavier than an ikea desk. The keyboard drawer option also comes with wooden blocks as risers to put under the feet to the drawer doesn’t hang too low; which is a nice touch.

I expect this to be the last desk I ever buy. It’s rock solid. The cable management is genius; not just in the rack on the back but the strategic holes for cabling in the top of the main desk and on the top shelf - which I didn’t realize were there when I bought it. So I can have Push 2 on th eleft side and the cables go through the hole under the desk rather than around or over, etc. Smart that you can flip the front rack pieces so you can regain the 2-3" of table top space as well.

With the keyboard drawer out it does put the monitor a bit further away from me than I like but it’s not the end of the world. I might get a VESA monitor arm to move it closer.

I ordered it on a Friday and got it on a Wednesday, pretty quick.

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@Dream-Synthesizer

You realize your monitors are upside down right ?

What!? oh…

It’s to have the tweeters at ear height. Much better that way :wink:

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That is a lovely looking desk! I know the monitor being far away is not ideal for you, but is the height okay?

I notice tons of these music desks with similar overall plan - pullout keyboard tray, main desk level, and upper shelf with audio and visual monitors.

I’ve Frankensteined a desk for myself out of a Geekdesk stand-up desk, a self-built sliding keyboard drawer, and a plywood shelf with 8" Ikea Capita legs (to squeeze my MS20 mini underneath). On the upper plywood shelf rests my monitors and 27" imac.

It looks okay and seems ideal to have everything on one desk, at first, but after a week or two I’ve noticed having the imac so high and far back really disconnects me from Ableton. I strain to look up and squint to see the tiny font or controls on various gui’s (I’m in my forties!). I’m starting to miss when I had the imac right up close and could feel drawn into the screen and more connected with Ableton.

Anybody else feel this way and have solutions for it? I’m thinking of scrapping this layout already!

Get a wall mount.

Your imac attaches to the wall, and then you can pull it out right up into your face, I was planning to do the same for a while.

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Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, my desk is a motorized desk, raises up and down. So, the wall mount might be problematic unless it also easily goes up and down as well as back and forward.

At this point I’m thinking of just cutting up the shelf and making monitor stands out of them, and lowering the imac back down to main desk level. Back to the workshop.

I haven’t seen any wallmounts that move vertically :confused:

You could of course just make that… A simple mechanism that you attach to the wall that moves up and down. And then you can can then attach the wallmount to that instead…

Scratch that. Check this out! https://www.amazon.com/Ergotech-Freedom-2007-2011-Models-FDM-MAC-S01/dp/B00BZC05WU

I think I want one for myself :star_struck:

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Get a desk mount then, many on the market, amazon has one of the cheapest in their “basic” line and it is quite well made and has enough height/ angle and distance adjustments.

Monitor arms (either desk or wall mounted) are great for ergonomics, place the far when just playing with synths, place them near when editing in the DAW.

As for the desks themselves I keep seeing one, IMHO, mistake: the computer keyboard above the music keyboard tray, I find that position very uncomfortable after a while, you either press your wrist against the border of the desk or yu create a lot of tension in your back, and I wonder if it is just me or others also suffer form this kind of arrangement?

I made my own desk and I made it large enough that I can place the computer KB in front of my main music keyboard, both at the recommended ideal height.

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Roland SH 101 is a very nice Synth!

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I guess I never thought they would be sturdy enough to handle an older (and heavier) imac 27". Plus the desk already is annoyingly wobbly (especially in full stand-up mode). I guess I just don’t trust an arm to hold up that old beast of an imac. Thanks for the suggestions, @login and @Dream-Synthesizer but I’m probably just going to go cheap and simple route and turn the single long upper shelf into two separate monitor stands and lower imac back onto main desk level, and slide it forwards towards me. The endless search for the perfect ergonomic setup continues. It’s just very difficult, if not impossible, to squeeze in all the various devices into one desk and have perfect ergonomics.