# My new composing desk



## synthetic (Jun 17, 2006)

I'm very happy with how my desk turned out, and thought I'd share.  







I designed and built the desk from scratch out of 3/4" oak plywood and oak 1x2 edging. The Fatar keyboard fits right into the keyboard cubby, with synth racks to the left of that and mix processors in the far rack. I have dual computer setups for the Mac and Giga PC right where I'm composing, and even some room for a notation notebook or cup of coffee.  

The DM-3200 is also a new addition. I'm going to experiment with mixing "outside the box." I was running a bunch of aux inputs into Logic and running that way, but the console allows me to insert analog processors and switch between inputs more easily. I can always use the board as a control surface in Logic if I want to, and use it as a 24x24 computer interface for aux inputs into Logic. So if I want to go back to ITB mixing, I can do that too. The board also has two built-in TC reverbs that sound not too bad. (Full disclosure, I sell TASCAM gear for a living.) 

More pics here:

http://www.jefflaity.com/gallery/desk

Let me know what you think, -jl


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## Doug Wellington (Jun 17, 2006)

[woodworking geek hat on] :wink:

Cool! How did you attach the edging? Biscuits? What stain did you use? Did you use those pieces of drilled angle iron for the rack mounts?


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## Thonex (Jun 17, 2006)

Beautiful desk Synthetic!!!!!!

Nice and warm and very pro looking. How long did it take to put that together, stain it, varnish and finnish it?

Great job,

T


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## Doug Wellington (Jun 17, 2006)

[tries to clean cobwebs out of skull]

Jeff,

You used to have an MOTM rig, didn't you?

Doug

P.S. love your pictures!


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## Simon Ravn (Jun 17, 2006)

Great! I wish I could build something like that. Exactly how I would like it with the keyboard (music) only taking up minimal space so you can still sit close to the monitors and computer keyboard etc.


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## José Herring (Jun 17, 2006)

It's one of the best units I've seen. I really like the old world charm of it.


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## Craig Sharmat (Jun 17, 2006)

Want a job?


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## Nick Batzdorf (Jun 17, 2006)

That looks great, Jeff. Nice design.

Where did you find the plywood, just out of interest? I recently had some shelves cut out of 1" birch plywood at House of Hardwood in West LA, and they did a great job. They're rounded like half a surfboard, so it wasn't straightforward. And because of that the price wasn't straightforward either.  That's why I'm curious to know about other places where you can get furniture-grade plywood...not that I'd attempt to cut it myself anyway, so it may be a moot question.


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## ComposerDude (Jun 17, 2006)

Beautiful work Jeff!!

-Peter


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## synthetic (Jun 17, 2006)

Wow, thanks for all the compliments. I'll try to answer the questions. 



Doug Wellington said:


> How did you attach the edging? Biscuits? What stain did you use? Did you use those pieces of drilled angle iron for the rack mounts?



No biscuits, just routed a groove in the 1x2 and glued it together. I probably should have bought a biscuit cutter, all I used was a rotary saw, router and skil saw. Minwax prestain, redwood stain and Polycrylic for the finish. (Love the Polycrylic.) The rack ears are from Middle Atlantic, standard bent ears. My advice for anyone building a rack is to screw blank panels on the top and bottom of the rails to make a perfectly-spaced square. Then you don't end up with something too wide or narrow at the end. I speak from prior experience... :oops: 



Thonex said:


> How long did it take to put that together, stain it, varnish and finnish it?



Months. I live in a two-bedroom apartment, and there was crap everywhere for months. Plus I'm contantly traveling for work, so I didn't get 4-5 solid weekends to bang it out. 



Doug Wellington said:


> You used to have an MOTM rig, didn't you?



No, I had a TASCAM FW-1884 before this. (I work for TASCAM.) Never had a MOTU anything, although I'm thinking about getting a MIDI Express 128 because it's about the only rackmount MIDI interface that isn't the M-Audio MIDIsport. Which kinda sucked. 



Craig Sharmat said:


> Want a job?



Wow, thanks. But see #2 above. If I had a woodshop, I'd entertain building another one of these. But as it is, I don't know how I'd do it. Plus my wife would kill me. I can give you my limited plans if you want them. (All I ask in return is PP  )



Nick Batzdorf said:


> Where did you find the plywood ...



It's just 3/4" Oak plywood from Home Depot. Made in China. If you brush on pre-stain before staining, it comes out OK. The desktop right in front of the keyboard, of all places, came out the worst. But in studio lighting I can't tell at all, especially now that there's stuff on it. 

Thanks again everyone. Now that this procrastination excuse is over, maybe I can start recording some music again. Right after I clean the apartment. :???:


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## Doug Wellington (Jun 17, 2006)

synthetic @ Sat Jun 17 said:


> Doug Wellington said:
> 
> 
> > You used to have an MOTM rig, didn't you?
> ...


No... :smile: MOT*M*, not MOT*U*... Paul Schreiber's analog synth modules. Speaking of that, I better get out to my woodshop and finish my MOTM cabinet... My other hobby is woodworking - I'm lucky enough to have a three car garage for a shop.  Everything I've made so far has been for local delivery, but if anyone is interested, I can look into shipping...

P.S. I think I still have a Peavey Midi Master II around here somewhere...


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## TheoKrueger (Jun 18, 2006)

Woah Jeff, that's beautiful!


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## TARI (Jun 18, 2006)

Fantastic Jeff!! It is wonderful. Sure you will spend a lot of hours there. Good luck! :wink:


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## Waywyn (Jun 18, 2006)

wow really cool production place!

besides the fact that i personally love more brighter wood, i really love this desk and it's design.
especially the cut out piece for the main controllers on the keyboard ... and I'm definitely jealous about the adams 

the funny thing is you really seem to have the same taste like me, because i thought about placing some african masks and tribal objects myself in my room.
unfortunately our house is an old building so the walls are still made of natural stones and plaster (?) ... and it could be pretty difficult to put a nail in the wall 

jealous, jealous ... ah, what the heck, i would also take that wood color :mrgreen:


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## Scott Cairns (Jun 18, 2006)

Beautiful desk! I agree with Alex, the Adam monitors are just as pleasing to the eyes. 

I recently paid a guy to custom make a desk for me, I copied some of the design ideas Id seen in a James Newton Howard video for King Kong. Keys are nice and close, right height, LCD monitors close by, etc.

I have to say, even though I splashed out nearly $1000 at the time, making my work environment ergonomic and pleasant to be in has been one of the best things I did for my studio.

Great work!


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## Waywyn (Jun 18, 2006)

ya know Scott, the thing is, 1000$ are not really expensive for a desk.
i checked some stuff at our local dealer and they are around 2000-3500 Euros, which is again around 4300 bucks.


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## IvanP (Jun 18, 2006)

Beautiful!!

I am planning to do something similar....one of those....lifes?

My main concern is the acoustic isolation...

1) Did you had to isolate the room before? (I would like to put inside a baby grand piano as well, so I guess neighbours could become crazy once I set up everything

2) Btw, regarding putting a baby grand in a...not too big room + synths and stuff + isolating the room, would it make frequencies bounce in an out inside the room and therefore provoking noise fatigue soon? 

What do you guys think?

Iván


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## Frederick Russ (Jun 18, 2006)

synthetic @ Sat Jun 17 said:


> I'm very happy with how my desk turned out, and thought I'd share.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Beautiful! You did a great job - looks very pro and functional. You could probably have a side biz making these to spec for the many composers in your area. I wonder about your mixes now that you have a sum buss outside the box. I've heard you get bigger headroom doing it this way.


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## sbkp (Jun 18, 2006)

~~

(drool)


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## synthetic (Jun 18, 2006)

Doug Wellington @ Sat Jun 17 said:


> No... :smile: MOT*M*, not MOT*U*... Paul Schreiber's analog synth modules.



Oh. :oops: Yeah, I started a small MOTM rig, but decided it wasn't my thing. It seemed better at making sound effects than music. One of these days I'll get a Minimoog Voyager, which is what I really wanted when I started the MOTM. But I think a TC Reverb 4000 is first on my list. 

My studio history, for anyone interested: 

http://www.jefflaity.com/studio/


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## synthetic (Jun 18, 2006)

Scott Cairns @ Sun Jun 18 said:


> I recently paid a guy to custom make a desk for me, I copied some of the design ideas Id seen in a James Newton Howard video for King Kong. Keys are nice and close, right height, LCD monitors close by, etc.



I did a lot of research before building mine. I got to visit Jeff Rona, Mark Isham and Hans Zimmer's studios when filming a promo video for GigaStudio, and took pictures of their desks.  I also did an ergonomic study where I measured what was comfortable for me - chair height, monitor height, keyboard height, where my ears were so I could arrange the monitors there, etc. 

Some photos of other composer desks: 

http://www.jefflaity.com/blogq95/?p=60


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## synthetic (Jun 18, 2006)

IvanP @ Sun Jun 18 said:


> 1) Did you had to isolate the room before? ...



No, I don't even have any acoustic foam or anything to treat the room. My wife doesn't want our shared office to look "too much like a studio." Clearly, she's losing this battle. :twisted: :mrgreen:


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## Hans Adamson (Jun 18, 2006)

Nick Batzdorf @ Sat Jun 17 said:


> That looks great, Jeff. Nice design.
> 
> Where did you find the plywood, just out of interest? I recently had some shelves cut out of 1" birch plywood at House of Hardwood in West LA, and they did a great job. They're rounded like half a surfboard, so it wasn't straightforward. And because of that the price wasn't straightforward either.  That's why I'm curious to know about other places where you can get furniture-grade plywood...not that I'd attempt to cut it myself anyway, so it may be a moot question.



http://www.andersonplywood.com/

Best place for plywood in LA that I know of.


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## kid-surf (Jun 18, 2006)

Cool desk! I too like the forethought to cut away the desk over the wheels.

I really could use an ergonomic overhaul on my rig. It's set up to have the "video" monitor in front of me. Thing is, I don't use video anymore. :D So Now video is not directly in front of me. Not really ideal. When I move I'm gonna do a totally new desk.

BTW --- thanks for the pics of other composers desks. I like Hans's sofits. Bet clients LOVE that!  But I do wonder if he has then a bigger screen for them to view the film on -vs- looking at one of his monitors. 

Mark Isham's room is surprisingly not that great IMO. The placement of the monitors (audio) is far from ideal. And what's with the old CRTs? Old photo?


I aspire to have a room (and gigs  ) like Chris Beck. (or anyone else with a live room -- I think some people here are set up in that way. Those are the guys I'm jealous of :D)

Cool desk though.... Congrats!


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## Nick Batzdorf (Jun 18, 2006)

Thanks Hans. I've driven by that place many times.


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## synthetic (Jun 18, 2006)

kid-surf @ Sun Jun 18 said:


> BTW --- thanks for the pics of other composers desks. I like Hans's sofits. Bet clients LOVE that!  But I do wonder if he has then a bigger screen for them to view the film on -vs- looking at one of his monitors.



I hope I get the opportunity to go back and take some real photos of that place. Words cannot describe it. A working fireplace, bookcases lining the sides, and the rich red makes you feel like you're in a German castle. And the back wall is covered in modular synthesizer pieces. The last shot on this page gives you a sense of the room: 

http://www.analogindustries.com/blog/entry.jsp?msgid=1128063962771 (http://www.analogindustries.com/blog/en ... 8063962771)



> Mark Isham's room is surprisingly not that great IMO. The placement of the monitors (audio) is far from ideal. And what's with the old CRTs? Old photo?



That's the back of the room, where I assume he does his composing. Photo is from 2003 or so. The front of the room has a big Euphonix CS2000 desk and soffited monitors. It's built in a big barn with a big arched ceiling. 



> I aspire to have a room (and gigs  ) like Chris Beck. (or anyone else with a live room -- I think some people here are set up in that way. Those are the guys I'm jealous of :D)



That's one I haven't seen. My live room is the living room.


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## Scott Cairns (Jun 18, 2006)

synthetic @ Mon Jun 19 said:


> I did a lot of research before building mine. I got to visit Jeff Rona, Mark Isham and Hans Zimmer's studios when filming a promo video for GigaStudio, and took pictures of their desks.



Cool way to research composers desks! You could write a book on them Jeff. 

I noticed you mentioned building a "cubby hole" with an extraction fan at the back for your computer. I did the same thing. In fact the fan is wired to the computers powersupply and turns off and on with the machine itself.

Some of my ideas also came from Bill Brown (composer for CSI NY);

http://www.billbrownmusic.com/photos/Studio8-05-800Img_0146.jpg (http://www.billbrownmusic.com/photos/St ... g_0146.jpg)
http://www.billbrownmusic.com/photos/BB_Studio_1-Mar2005-800.JPG (http://www.billbrownmusic.com/photos/BB ... 05-800.JPG)

Cheers,

Scott.


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## tgfoo (Jun 19, 2006)

That's a really impressive looking desk. I was thinking about tettign a new desk sometime in the nearish future. Sadly I dont' have the woodworking skills to pull something like yours off.


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