Show us your studio / creative workspace

[MajorFubar]

On a forum which is primarily populated by short-stayers who only come here to ask for help, I thought it would be an idea to lighten the mood with a sticky-thread for regulars or newbies to show their studio / creative workspace.

So I'll go first...

My 'home studio' is a 7.5 ft x 6 ft boxroom, into which I've built a Thomann Combo Desk 88 along the window-wall with just two inches of space either side, facing the longer length.

I'm an in-the-box keyboard player and bedroom producer, running my modest home studio around a ten year old iMac, a mk1 KeyLab 88 Black and a black Keystep. My primary DAW is Logic Pro which I use to host V Collection 6. My mixer is a Presonus Faderport 16 which integrates well with Logic. My monitor speakers are Alesis 520USB powered monitors, sat on recently-purchased isoAcoustics stands (they make a huge difference), and my mic is an Audio Technica AT2020USB.

I double-check my mixes using a pair of Sennheiser HD580 headphones which I bought new nearly 20 years ago. Despite having bought 'better' headphones since then (including HD650's) these HD580's are 'home' to my ears and I can use them to judge exactly what a mix will sound like on anything else I play it on.
 
The studio is still work-in-progress with items to be changed and added as funds allow, including a new computer, audio interface, and different near-field monitors all on this year's to-do list.

[DrJustice]

I'm almost embarrassed to post after The Major's exemplary tidy workspace 

But hey, here's my place where I mess around with some gear, both for my own enjoyment and for product testing. And yes, that's also mess, as in a bloody mess - it always is, complete with feeding station and sleeping spots for cats, and stuff changing around. It looks a bit different right now - maybe even a bit tidier, honest guv! Hopefully some of you can relate

There's a DAW station opposite this with a pair of JBL LSR2328P monitors and MOTU and Arturia audio interfaces, and there's more stuff that can't be seen in the picture, like a hi-fi setup, a Sub 37 and some mixers, FX and other gear. I also have a setup in a small dedicated house, which is more of a jamming/recording studio, not that anything gets recorded these days, and jams are but a distant pre COVID memory by now...

Now, let's see your messes, or even tidy spaces

[MajorFubar]

Wow, Dr.
I have gear envy...
Great studio.

[DrJustice]

Your setup looks to be sharply focused on the tools at hand. I'm just getting into softsynths, a few decennia late... And I have organization and tidiness envy, so that bit evens out

[MajorFubar]

Probably not one of my wisest moves considering I am going to be completely dismantling this workspace at the end of March and moving it to a bigger room (which will be a complete nightmare because this room is so tiny I literally had to assemble the desk in here and will need to at least half-disassemble it to get it out), but I've started to upgrade the gear in my studio by adding a Icon Qcon Pro X control surface and and three Pro XS slaves, for my DAW.

I am still waiting for the third XS slave unit to arrive (my distributor was OOS), and unfortunately the Pro X master unit arrived faulty, so is being returned tomorrow (Saturday) to the main Europe warehouse in Germany for an exchange. According to the invoice, the country of origin for the XS slaves was Italy while the Pro X master unit was built in China. I know how wrong it is to stereotype, but OMG sometimes it's hard not to roll your eyes and go 'that figures'...

I had to lift the upper shelf to give room for the meter-bridges to slide underneath, so I raised it on eight adjustable metal feet intended for supporting sofas, all carefully positioned so that the master controller and three slaves will fit neatly between its front two legs. So I hope my calculations are correct, based on the measurements on Icon's website, that I need a width of no more than 55" between the outermost front legs, because I didn't have the luxury to allow much margin for error.

I've had to come up with an innovative solution for a DIY wrist-rest to go in front of the keyboard and trackpad because the gel mats I am currently using will be far too wide when I fit the master controller behind it, leaving me only about 1". So I've ordered a roll of 8mm-thick 19mm-wide stickyback foam off eBay, which I think is probably intended as draught excluder, that I'll put across the edge of the work-surface in two stacked layers.

[MajorFubar]

Shame that only me and the good Dr seem to be the only ones using this thread.

Big upheaval at Fubar Towers last week saw me shift my studio into a bigger room, while at the same time expanding my mixing console into a full 32-track desk which I use with Logic Pro. Shortly I will be receiving my new Apple Studio Max computer to replace my 11 year old iMac (pictured).

Still in daily use is my Arturia Keylab 88 mk1 and my black KeyStep, which is just fresh from a stripdown and cleanup to fix a couple of dead keys (2nd F, highest B).

[DrJustice]

That's a pretty sweet upgrade - huge console & new monitors! 

I have a Mackie MCU Pro in my other studio. Only the main unit though - those side-cars are getting rare... The Qcon looks like a better proposition now.

[MajorFubar]

Thanks Doctor.

I was persuaded to buy the Icon for three reasons: the 'meter bridges', the fact the whole package is quite a bit cheaper than any equivalent by Mackie, and that the online recent reviews have been positive. (Go back to the launch in 2017 and that wasn't the case: seems it took a fair few firmware-patches to make the system reliable.)

It's still not without its faults however: it took me two attempts to get a working master unit (first one froze all the time), also last week I bought an Icon One Hub which acts as a single power supply and USB hub for all four units instead of using four power-supplies and four USB sockets, but it arrived DOA from Gear4Music. So it seems to me that products from Icon can have QC issues which aren't being identified by professional reviewers on YT and other sites, who have no doubt been sent carefully-selected and pre-tested models to review, not just the next boxes on the shelf like you or I.

DPD (UK courier) were supposed to collect the faulty unit from me yesterday, but they never showed; I phoned Gear4Music this morning and rearranged collection for Monday. Time will tell if they actually show. I live in rural NW England not the Outer Hebrides so I don't know what went on there. Maybe DPD are overworked and short-staffed, but no-show and no comm's does not equal a customer experience that would tempt me to use them myself for anything.

[esquiremusic111]

Can't go wrong with my Barefoot monitors!!! Thanks for the forum!

[DrJustice]

Are you sure that's not the bridge of Starship Enterprise :-o

Thinking about those slanted panels - are they computer displays, even touch screens perhaps?

Barefoot, eh... and that room treatment... Well, you can't blame any bad mixes on the monitors or the room :-))

Edit: the link in your signature gives a 404, but if I remove those "ghost characters" after "https://tell.ie/Esquiremusic111" it works - you may want to edit that.

[MajorFubar]

That looks fantastic...

[AeonHorus]

Shame that only me and the good Dr seem to be the only ones using this thread.

I'll post some images up soon. I'm new to the forums, but I will try to be active 

[MajorFubar]

Slight update to the studio. Couple of weeks ago I rearranged the desk to move it away from under the window because sunlight was an issue unless I drew the curtains, which is sinful considering how little sunlight we get here in NW England.

Still happily rocking my Mk1 Keylab 88 and Keystep.

[MajorFubar]

Ok, seeing it seems to me mainly me just using this as a personal blog...

I bought two cheap rolls of self-adhesive LED lighting over the weekend (the kind which can be set to various colours, or made to pulsate or fade between them), and fit these under the two shelves to light up the control surfaces and the Arturia KeyLab 88 MIDI controller.

I quite like the ambience this adds, and the colours can be changed to reflect mood.

I need to change the bulb in the overhead desk-lamp to be daylight balanced because there is a WB conflict going on which screws with my eyes when I switch it on along with the LED strips. I didn't think about that when I bought the strips, so that's a job for next weekend.

[tartpop]

Here's mine, last time I took a picture of it: