Desk Design

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funkdrmr

New member
I just bought a Tascam US-2400 to work with my DAW (Sonar). The only problem I'm having now, is my desk is a little small. It fits, but I don't have room for other stuff at the same time (keyboard, etc...).

Does anyone have a link to a desk or plans to build a desk that will work with this control surface? I think I've seen a few desks, but I'm not sure when / where I came across them.

If it helps, I'm also running 2 17" LCDs and KRK RP8 monitors, so the space on the top shelf needs to be plenty too!
 
Offhand? no.

But here are some links that you might want to view, then consider making something similar. We had a couple of really good threads pass through here with people making their own console table furniture. Of course, instead you could purchase any of the following, or similar. Also check out Ikea...

http://www.iso-box.com/recording_studio_furniture.php

http://www.studiorta.com/
(specifically this page: http://www.studiorta.com/catalog/list.cfm?category_id=31)

http://www.anthro.com/

http://www.custom-consoles.com/index.htm

http://www.omnirax.com/site/
 
I had the same problem... I had a ton of gear (mostly an odd mix of stuff too) to go into a console table, and I couldnt' find anything remotely close, so i welded together a steel open frame table and sat the gear on top. I like welding so I'm always looking for an excuse.

Here was my project, step by step. Being 12' 6" wide, it attracted a lot of attention from several of my neighbors who wandered over while scratching their heads. :D Turned out pretty good considering it was engineered "on the fly" so to speak. I wish I made the monitor shelf 1" higher than it is, as plugging into the top of the TMD4000 requires my removing the video monitors, all the wiring tied to the shelf (all my wordclock stuff), and the shelf itself in order to insert or remove plugs. Once I permanently wire it to the patch bay I'm just starting to solder up, I won't have to change plugs on the mixer so eventually this "problem" goes away. I just don't like to make things quite that tight. But it reminds me yet again to pull out the tape measure rather than say "this looks about right".

http://frederic.midimonkey.com/studio-consoletable.html


If you just want the highlights instead...

Unassembled in primer:
IM000780.JPG



Unassembled, painted, and shoved in a corner while I finished the flooring:
IM000783.JPG



Assembled without gear:
IM000786.JPG



Search this site too, a lot of guys made beautiful console tables out of wood, MDF, etc. Some really slick stuff. Give a search here a try as well.
 
WOW....great work you've done there. I'm pretty handy in the woodshop, so I've been contemplating building my own desk. IIRC, the Air Force base out here (hawaii) has a wood shop that I can use for free.....on to the drawing board!

On a side note, the Studio RTA desks looked nice, but I keep seeing a lot of bad reviews of them (made in China crap, etc...). Are they really that bad?
 
An aquantance of mine has one for several years now, and his only complaint was when he bumped the front edge of it with a rack (on casters) the laminate, or veneer, or whatever it is, across the front of the table just flew off. He glued it back on, no problem, and it's been fine since as far as I know.

If you're "wood compatible" as I often say (since I'm not) making a custom console table should be easy for you. Just make sure as your designing it, you leave room for cabling, and if your gear has vent holes and possibly fans on the back, top, bottom or sides, you locate them in the table where they can breathe.

I built an under-table 3-bay rack (http://frederic.midimonkey.com/studio-recorderrack.html) and I made the mistake of installing two power amps, one on top of the other. The top amp kept resetting because the bottom amp, being much larger, essentially baked the amp just above it to "medium well".

The back of this rack is completely open, but I didn't take into consideration that this one particular amp had it's two fans on the top, rather than the back. Because of this, I dumped it on ebay and got a bunch of Alesis RA300's or whatever they are. No fans, quiet, and they don't bake each other.
 
Very nice! I'm currently designing my desk right now. I'm at the mid-point of aquiring my gear to start with (2 Firepods are next), so I have to keep in my other outboard gear that will come my way within the next year or so, at least.

Also, I get out of the military in November, so I'll be moving all of this to who-knows-where within the year....maybe a cool modular design is stuck in my head somewhere?
 
Here's one I built this past summer. The design is based on Argosy consoles, but it only cost me roughly $80 after I was done, instead of $1200 or so.

It's not the best picture but I can take a better picture if you'd like.

2aea.jpg


The base is a desk that had very similar legs as the Argosy which cost me $32 at a local hardware shop. I then picked up some MDFs (2'x6') for the sides, and the top to enclose the Mackie, placed a support (2"x4") under the top panel to support the dual monitors, and installed the mahogany sides. I then picked up pleather and those sheets of thin foam for the arm rest from a fabric store, stapled them under and around the armrest frames, and voila! A pseudo Argosy console.
 
kennycarvajal said:
Here's one I built this past summer. The design is based on Argosy consoles, but it only cost me roughly $80 after I was done, instead of $1200 or so.

It's not the best picture but I can take a better picture if you'd like.

2aea.jpg


The base is a desk that had very similar legs as the Argosy which cost me $32 at a local hardware shop. I then picked up some MDFs (2'x6') for the sides, and the top to enclose the Mackie, placed a support (2"x4") under the top panel to support the dual monitors, and installed the mahogany sides. I then picked up pleather and those sheets of thin foam for the arm rest from a fabric store, stapled them under and around the armrest frames, and voila! A pseudo Argosy console.
Click to expand...

The link to your pic is dead.
 
Fixed Link. Sorry

Sorry guys! Here you go. Can y'all see?

console.jpg


How is that US-2400? I was interested in having a new desk with a DAW controller since I'm being booted out of the room I'm in now to the basement (more room anyway, just low ceiling) that I need to have done by summer.

Kenny
 
Last edited:
kennycarvajal said:
Sorry guys! Here you go. Can y'all see?

console.jpg


How is that US-2400? I was interested in having a new desk with a DAW controller since I'm being booted out of the room I'm in now to the basement (more room anyway, just low ceiling) that I need to have done by summer.

Kenny
Click to expand...
I'm really liking it so far. I work with computers at my job, so the setup was a breeze with Sonar. I can see why people get frustrated with the setup sometimes.....if they don't pay total attention to the steps, you miss one & then it's hard to find which one you missed.

As for how it works.......so far it's working like a champ. It's my first controller (my first DAW....hell, my first setup PERIOD!), so I don't really have much to compare it to. It does what I need it to do very easily.

BTW....very nice desk. Definitely a direction I'm looking in.
 
Thanks guys. It's much simpler than it looks so I encourage you to try it out. I just highly advice to take your time when measuring and cutting.

Frederic, I'd love to see the finished product if you have any pics avail. Going by the pics you've shared, that would look wonderful.

Kenny
 
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