OMG! Where To Put All This Gear?

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DesertRatt

Member
Last week I dive into the deep end of the pool and got Reaper, a Focusrite USB interface, and several packages of VST instruments. Cool!

But now, I’m trying to arrange all this on a small spare room I use. I’ve got...
The computer and 24” monitor
The 49 key MIDI keyboard
The pc keyboard
The mouse
The Interface with headphones
The monitor amp and speakers
Guitars, music stand, mic booms
A stool for guitar playing, and a desk chair for the console!

What I’m really having trouble with is having the midi keyboard and the computer keyboard and mouse all in front of the screen. And then somewhere to put the score!

It feels like there should Be a remote to operate the DAW transport?

Overwhelmed
 
Big desk, and elevate the monitor (or alll-in-one) and stick some things underneath it if possible. I've got a little shelf built from scraps for the old Mini setup. The iMac upstairs just has the computer/monitor lifted enough for some monitor speaker cables or such to slip underneath, plus getting it at a better viewing height. I also have a shelf on the floor upstairs to get all of the power supply stuff, conditioner, UPS, tube mic pre, etc. off the floor so I can not kick it and can dust.

Wireless mouse and keyboard help. Downstairs there's a keyboard shelf, but upstairs it's all on the desk. I have a tiny keyboard and don't use it as a control surface, though.

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I have a 9x10 ft room. I built a J-shaped desk that wraps around 3 sides. The studio is not only my little man-cave, but it's also my office for work. My work stuff is on the long side of the J desk, and my music stuff is along the bottom of the J shape. I keep my piano/kybrd on the back wall and run cables when I use it. I don't need it right in front of my computer monitors when I record it.

My philosophy is to think vertical. Build shelves, stack PC monitors on top of each other. Stack storage bins. Hang guitars on walls.... stuff like that.

The room is tight, but I have enough space to be comfortable when working 8hrs/day. There are no windows, but I have security cameras. :)

This is a pano of my little room.

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A sliding keyboard drawer and an overbridge for the desk would go a long ways toward making space. If you do either build or buy a desk with an overbridge, just make sure that it's a standard width of 19" and a multiple of 1.75" tall, to accommodate any future rack-mountable equipment you may acquire.

I've got one buddy that built a desk without considering the 19" thing. He got a rackmount interface and had that "well, crap" moment when he realized it didn't fit.

I think the main considerations are that your knees still have clearance underneath the keyboard drawer, and that the overbridge isn't so tall that it makes you crane your neck to look at the computer monitor placed on top of it.
 
Yeah....what Tadpui says is good advice. I was able to modify the length of my sliding drawer to accommodate a 61 key keyboard. I had to drop it slightly and move the support brackets out while cutting a longer board for the support. I have room for my knees but the one thing I didn't take into consideration was that a chair with arms will no longer fit under the desk. Not a big deal....just took the arms off of one and moved on.
 
I took an idea from. a hospital room. I have a 12" shelf along most of one wall at a comfortable height when seated and the computer is on a simple plinth about 4" off the floor (my skirting board height and 'sideways' on so I can reach both ends easily (but does not look neat at the cabling end.
22" monitor (actually a cheap TV) is wall mounted with PC kbd and mouse underneath. A 49key kbd was at the left at right angles to shelf on an 'X' stand but no longer because 'player' is gone. Tannoy 5A monitors are again wall mounted either side of telly.

I now use a wired kbd and mouse but when son was home we made great use of a cheap wireless kbd and mouse.

I could draw you a plan of how it was all setup if you like? Room is 12'x12' x 8.5' high.

Dave.

Dave
 
Ah first world problems! :laughings:

I have a ton of room but I have my recording set up in a very tight n tidy spot..Being a keyboard player I have an 88 keyboard so I just set my keyboard on a stand and then have a 60 x 30 table behind it just high enough that the very back of the keyboard with the wires n all can't be seen. On the desk is a 27" Imac, a usb small mixer for my iphone videos and my Xr18..I have Behringer Truth monitors and they could go on there easy....but...for not torturing the neighbors or wife I record what I do in headphones..Good enough for my low standards.. Down below the sustain pedal and the TC Helicon voicelive...Microphone stand to the left of the keys...I'm golden.. I do everything in the box...no outside effects only what is in Reaper and the XR18 which is way more than I could ever afford or find 40 years ago.

So I looked at a lot of desk set ups that have the keyboard pull out tray and they range from $100 to $6K..

After reading your post I went out to grab a few images and on Amazon I found the one below. I guess they're having a hard time selling the yellow ones cause they are substantially less than the Black ( $453 )or White ones ($295)...At $165 delivered to your door I might suggest this since you have a small enough keyboard for this set up to work.. Cheers!

Here's the link to it and here's a picture below

a desk.jpg
 
However little space one has, one finds a way to make it work.
When I lived in my one bedroom flat, my front room was the studio in which I'd set up the drum kit and record all the other instruments. I had a Fender Rhodes in there and a Hammond organ and when they weren't being used, they were just pieces of furniture. The double bass, cello and drums were stored in my bedroom and instead of a wardrobe, I had clothes rails high up so I had some ground space. I also had the piano permanently in the bedroom. I got rid of the double bed and just had a mattrass on the floor. Percussion, guitar, bass and portastudio were in a tiny storage cupboard meant for a coat or two. I learned progressively on the go. Recorded 5 albums and more albums worth of stuff in that cramped set up. My front room was also my video editing room and the windowless bathroom was my dark room in which I printed and developed thousands of pictures. The equipment used to be stored in one of the kitchen cupboards.
When I got married and my wife and I moved into our first proper space, we had, what was, until our first child was born, an extra bedroom which I commandeered as the music room. Everything was in there and to this day {we were there from '99~2003} it's the only time I've had a dedicated music room. It was cramped but again, I worked out ways to make it work for me. The drums were permanently set up for the only time in my life and that was great.
In our current situation with two children {now 19 & 16} I've had to be a true guerrilla home recorder and utilize every little bit of space in such a way that it doesn't impinge on every one else, even though arguably, it does. The kids' room is where most of the recording takes place and it's where I'll set up the drum kit. I have an Arbiter flat~lites kit which fits into 2 hold-alls. In the little space next to the stairs I keep the double bass with our coats and just behind it is a cupboard that used to be this huge flue that used to carry the heated air through the flat in the days when that was the kind of heating here. I cut out a huge part of that metal flue and created a cupboard that houses my guitars, keyboard, basses, banjo and mandolin and my spare DAWs. It was wasted space beforehand and converting it into a toilet would have been daft {unless you don't mind hearing people crapping and pissing right next to the front room while you watch TV or chat:cursing:}. I have a really heavy isocab that I built and it lives in the kitchen cupboard, fortunately out of the way. I just run a couple of leads to there and play in the front room when I'm tracking loud guitar. And on occasion, I might do a vocal or guitar part in the bathroom, for some weird reverb. I say weird because the tiles are both shiny and matted and the bathroom is a strange shape.
My point ? Just that whatever you find yourself with, you have to get creative if you want to record. While it would be lovely to have studio 2 at Abbey Road, that's not the real world for many home recorders and I keep in mind that the Rolling Stones' debut album was recorded in a studio that had egg cartons on the wall and Horslips recorded their first album in a barn, while using the Rolling Stones' mobile unit. Space is an issue, yes, but nothing is insurmountable if you don't want it to be.
 
So many here have these clean and pretty organized studios. Props to you that do that. I just don't clean much. Mine is messy and dusty. But it is a layed back kind of rehearsal studio environment.

Back to the OP question: stack shit and make the room as you best you can. Make it pretty if you like, or don't. Be aware that room treatment is likely the most important thing you can do to make your space worthy of recording/mixing in.

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jimmys69 said:
So many here have these clean and pretty organized studios. Props to you that do that. I just don't clean much. Mine is messy and dusty. But it is a layed back kind of rehearsal studio environment.

Back to the OP question: stack shit and make the room as you best you can. Make it pretty if you like, or don't. Be aware that room treatment is likely the most important thing you can do to make your space worthy of recording/mixing in.

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That’s your studio? Way different from what I remember it was. Do you still have your wall of sound? :D
 
CrowsofFritz said:
That’s your studio? Way different from what I remember it was. Do you still have your wall of sound? :D
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Naw man, that was a long time ago. Wall of sound was stupid in hindsight. It is actually now the memorial wall. Pieces and memories of friends that have left this world. I did rebuild the PA system on that wall so that when recording drums in isolation room, the rest of the band feels as if they are in with the drummer and can see on the video monitor. It works really well.

Control room is now treated really well. Also the drum room and guitar isolation room/smoking section. lol!

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foxwaves said:
Six screens...wow! +1 for the lava lamp :).
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No props for the kitty cat pillow? HAHA!
 
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