*if* you were designing your own editing desk, what would you do?

I met up with my carpenter friend and showed him the Winsted catalog. He said it would be cake to build something like that. Since he regularly does the whole trade show booth thing, I trust his word. Since he's not really charging for labor, all I have to pay for is material, so that will cut costs by alot. Now I just have to figure out exactly what I want. I was considering maybe trying to make some sort of rack space in between the monitor shelf and main desk area. I believe I'll have the CPU's on the lower right, and to the left I'll have a spot with drawers. I hate keyboard trays, so I'm just going to have my keyboard on the main desk area. Now its time to draw it!
 
editstation.jpg


I guess its kinda convenient..everything is rite next to each other...
 
highway robbery

highway robbery

Here check these fools out. Their prices are ridiculous. You'll notice they had pdf files of all the desks..a semi-blue print of sorts. With a little brain work you could easily put one of these together for a lot less.

http://www.tbcconsoles.com/hotdog.htm
 
what are those 12 inch monitors that they use for previews from the computer editing desk? I thought it was a called a studio monitor. I did a search up on ebay. but just head phones and regular computer monitors show up.
 
you can also try Broadcast monitor or video monitor - that will bring up results as well. But you have to weed out the non professional monitors.
 
Make sure any "production monitor" you buy has blue gun, chroma, phase, underscan. If it doesn't have this, you may as well get a regular TV. These features are essential to calibrating the monitor so that your picture is as accurate as possible. While they arent essential for simply viewing your footage, if you're spending some cash on a production monitor, you may as well get the right one. Some other things to look for are aspect ratio switchable, component inputs, and good resolution. By the way those TBC consoles look amazing! I would love to have something like that! But I am too poor, so I am still going to build mine. I am trying to decide wether I want to get traditional table legs for it, or wether I want the sides to be enclosed boxes, similar to the rack mounts you see on some consoles. I have 2 CPU's that will need to go under the desk, and I would rather keep them off of my carpeted floor. I guess I am just going to have to brainstorm various designs....
 
We're in the process of remodeling the house we bought. Early on I claimed a bedroom for my office and am planning to build my desk into the 8-foot closet (6-foot opening). For materials, I was considering using some of the doors we're going to replace. Don't know if I like that idea, though.

One thing I for sure want to do: Lazy susan for the mid-tower case, on the floor and to the right. I'm tired of crawling on my belly to access the rear connections when I want to upgrade and whatnot. One simple thing I want to do is use hooks to manage and hide cords.

Gotta have a monitor shelf. Hmmm, maybe I'll put some rope lights on the underside of the monitor shelf, that would look nice.

I'll try to find this thread when i finally build this thing. but building is for sure the way to go, if you have tools and know-how, or know someone who does.
 
I agree, you can really keep the quality up if you build it yourself. Not to mention you get a custom tailored desk to fit you and your needs. And it keeps costs down. I like the rope light idea under the monitor shelf. It would give the desk area a nice light so that you can see what you're doing while editing in a dark room. I am deffinetly using a wrap around design on my desk. I want to have the monitor shelf relatively low, because I hate looking up at monitors. One of the biggest things I want though is the easily accessible yet clean looking cable setup. I was considering using some sort of angle aluminum with holes drilled in it to aid in zip tying cables onto it, or possible using peg board to route cables with zip ties. I think now I might also put the thing on casters to make the whole desk easier to move. The ideal thing for me would be to have most of the wires self contained on the desk, so that when you want to get behind it, the only thing attaching it to the wall is a power cord. While we're at it, what sort of chairs do you guys use? I know I need a new one, but I don't want to pay an arm and a leg. The one I have now absolutely sucks. It's basically a ridgid chair you would find in a hospital waiting room.
 
PDX, I like the idea of only having one thing plugged into the wall, and the rest is hidden from sight. I'm going to get something like this I think:

http://cableorganizer.com/wire-loom/

Should be able to pick it up at hardware or car parts stores, and I'm sure Radio Shack has 'em. That website has a nice variety of colors, though.
 
That looks like a pretty good solution. It would be easy enough to attatch to the desk. It would be awsome for wrangling all of those annoying small diameter cables.
 
You might consider these, they really do work:

http://www.monstercable.com/power/

Under your monitor shelf I would put in some small racks for rackmount gear that you might like to have handy.

Again though, building a desk into a closet (just like any of these corner units or wall units) will not lead to good sound. I understand that compromises have to be made, my set up is like that now until I move in a month, but if you have the room, you might want to do some research on tuning a room for audio mixing and setting up speakers for audio mixing.

Best,

Matt
 
matt, any suggestions for where to look on this subject? yeah, i don't have much of a choice on the location of the desk.
 
Start here, they have a tone of good resources (even though they are hoping you buy stuff):

http://www.auralex.com/

For a small room, it will be the cheapest best thing you can do for your audio. After that is good monitors placed on good isolating stands. These you can also make yourself. Simple wooden speaker stands that you can fill with sand work great. The heavier the better. Set the speakers on a set of Mopads (auralex) and you're good to go.

Matt
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top