Let's See Those Budget Studio Desks

Rich_S

Rich_S

HomeGrownToneBrewologist
I want to set up my modest sound and recording gear in their own area of the family room. It's not much, at this point just a laptop and a Focusrite Scarlett interface, maybe the old Yamaha 6-channel PA mixer I use for practice. I'm looking for ideas for a desk. My budget is low, ideally zero. So I want to see those low-buck installations. What do you use? Milk crates? Walmart desk? Cast-off recycled furniture? What keeps gravity from pulling your studio gear to the floor?
 
Re: Let's See Those Budget Studio Desks

How much outboard are you looking to use? This is my setup, more or less:



- 5 ft folding table
- a few 6U racks
- a lot of patch bays!!!
- monitor stands


My very un-pretty setup uses:
Mac Mini running Logic Pro X
Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 and 2i2 interfaces
16 channels of mic/line inputs using Octopre II/18i20
16 channels of analogue output using 18i20/Behringer ADAT converter
1 channel of SSL Alpha channel strip/EQ
Lot of Waves plugins
6 channels of outboard compression
3x Lexicon reverb units
1x Eventide fx unit
3x outboard echo units
1x Roland JV1080 w 3x expansion cards
1x E-Mu Classic Keys
1x DSI MOPHO
1x Alesis Q49 keyboard
1x Arturia Beatstep sequencer
LOT of stomp boxes!!
16 channel Mackie CR1644 mixer for analogue summing
strymon DECO for tape saturation on the bus input
1x pr Samson 5" monitors
1x pr JBL 8" monitors
 
Re: Let's See Those Budget Studio Desks

+1 for the older US-made Mackie consoles. (I run my hardware MIDI modules through LM3204 racks.)
 
Re: Let's See Those Budget Studio Desks

I have one of those folding tables that I schlep around in my car trunk as a computer table at customer job sites. Beats the old cardboard-on-a-trashcan setup.
 
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Re: Let's See Those Budget Studio Desks

I use a folding table and some speaker standz

its kewel since its very transportable and cheap$$

and also you can adjust so that they are the right height and distance from yer noggin!
 
Re: Let's See Those Budget Studio Desks

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I've since gotten a taller desk

Tune up, Plug in and Rock out
 
Re: Let's See Those Budget Studio Desks

I picked up an Ikea Frederik desk on craigslist for $60 because ergonomics and proper desk height is really important to me. I'd post pictures, but I'm currently reworking my 'studio space', so there really isn't a whole lot to see.

I'll be sure to post a 'new studio day' or similar when I get it ready to go.
 
Re: Let's See Those Budget Studio Desks

After spending WAY too much time thinking about DIY designs (all of which would have looked like crap) I splurged and bought one of these at Wally World:

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Its top is 36" x 20", big enough for my laptop and Scarlett 2i4. I was already familiar with this desk since two of my daughters have them in their rooms. I like the steel frame; it holds up better than the chipboard-box kind of desks. No drawers, either, which is good 1) because I don't need them, and 2) because drawers are always the worst part about cheap desks. They never line up, look like hell, and usually fall out, dumping their contents in your lap, whenever you try to open them.

They point out that by leaving out the middle shelf, you can make a tall space for a computer CPU. I'm debating whether I should do that and use it to hold the '80s Yamaha receiver (standing on end) which will power my monitors. Or I might add a cubby/shelf kind of arrangement on top using some spare MDF shelving.
 
Re: Let's See Those Budget Studio Desks

cool brutha! make sure to have monitors equal lenghts of a triangle, with your head being the third point of the triangle. speakers should be level with your ears and pointed toward your ears. keep the speakers far from your ears so you dont get hearing damage. you can mix quietly but its harder.


my videos show my setup that I recommended and setup, here is one of my videos:

 
Re: Let's See Those Budget Studio Desks

Desk problem solved, but now I need to get the speakers off the desk, because they're too low and they're taking up all the desk space. Looks like I need a pair of speaker stands about 40-42" high. (Checks Parts Express and Sweetwater.) HOLY CRAP! Speaker stands are expensive!

So, same discussion, different subject - ideas for inexpensive speaker stands? Wood? Thin-wall steel? PVC? Gimme some ideas.
 
Re: Let's See Those Budget Studio Desks

I have a Staples corner desk with two layers (monitor not on main level so that you can shove things under the monitor stand) and a drawer for the keyboard.

The mixer stands to the right on top of the full tower PC, secured for cat balance.
 
Re: Let's See Those Budget Studio Desks

Rich_S said:
Desk problem solved, but now I need to get the speakers off the desk, because they're too low and they're taking up all the desk space. Looks like I need a pair of speaker stands about 40-42" high. (Checks Parts Express and Sweetwater.) HOLY CRAP! Speaker stands are expensive!

So, same discussion, different subject - ideas for inexpensive speaker stands? Wood? Thin-wall steel? PVC? Gimme some ideas.
Click to expand...
mine were only $50 each, I dont think that is expensive as it is the same price as an amp stand. You will like it that you can adjust the height on them, that is important. something sturdy that you can trust, that has ability to be used on carpet if need be. I have auralex pads so I can adjust the angle of the speaker as well and minimize vibration noise.

here are my stands, read the reviews: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MonitorStd
 
Re: Let's See Those Budget Studio Desks

When I had a studio ('tis closed now), I just bought a corner computer desk kit (assembly required) from a local computer shop. That way I could raise/lower the monitor and tilt the keyboard, etc., and because it was a corner unit, I could have my monitors in a proper equilateral triangle to my ears; and if needed move it into a corner and leverage the wall angles to reflect out past my ears.

IMG_8980.png
 
Re: Let's See Those Budget Studio Desks

Rich_S said:
Desk problem solved, but now I need to get the speakers off the desk, because they're too low and they're taking up all the desk space. Looks like I need a pair of speaker stands about 40-42" high. (Checks Parts Express and Sweetwater.) HOLY CRAP! Speaker stands are expensive!

So, same discussion, different subject - ideas for inexpensive speaker stands? Wood? Thin-wall steel? PVC? Gimme some ideas.
Click to expand...

You don't want anything that is going to vibrate or resonate. I bought those solid-looking ones made out of pressed/glued wood shavings. A touch pricy but there's little point if your set up is going to sound inaccurate to your ears.

I also used these plastic $1-for-4 pyramid things from the hardware store (normally used for painting) to lift the speakers off the surface of the stands (not seen in my photo above - under the HS-7 I used this felt-like door seal/trim to lift the speakers off the pedestal; it's barely noticeable in the photo).
 
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Re: Let's See Those Budget Studio Desks

My speaker stand project is finally moving forward, after a long period of "thinking about it". So far, I have about $12 into them for some 5/4" x 6 pine from Lowes. Pretty much everything else is scrap from around the house. The uprights will be 1 1/2" thin wall tubing, salvaged from the kids' old trampoline when we finally tore it down last year. The tubes will be filled with sand from the winter-weather-survival supply in the garage.

The tops will be 5/4" red oak, trimmed off stair treads when I finished the stairs to out second-floor addition a few years ago. Stain and poly are left over from that project as well.

The lumber I bought was for the bases, which are triangular. After a lengthy design process, some work with the miter saw, and some gluing and screwing (which would have been a lot easier if I had three hands) they looked like this:



Tonight, I painted them black. The half can of "flat black" that I had on the shelf doesn't look very flat. They need at least one more coat. I might splurge on a rattle can of textured black for the final coat, though that would run counter to the low-budget nature of the project.

 
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Re: Let's See Those Budget Studio Desks

Looks cool! You will need something to decouple the stands from the floor, such as spikes...
 
Re: Let's See Those Budget Studio Desks

Oh, no!!!! You opened the "spikes" can o' worms. Funny, Parts Express' description of their spikes says they are for "rigidly coupling a loudspeaker enclosure to a floor". Coupling? Decoupling? What? How? Aaaaaaaaaaagh!!!!

This is low-budget. I'll probably just stick some rubber feet on there to keep them from rocking.
 
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Re: Let's See Those Budget Studio Desks

2/3 complete... bases with uprights.



When finished, they'll be about 39" high, putting the speakers at ear height when I'm sitting in my desk chair. Over the weekend, I'll get to staining and clear-coating the oak tops. The end is in sight.
 
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