9 years in the past I made a decision to get again to creating music after a really lengthy hiatus. To start with, my setup was extraordinarily humble, that includes an ageing ThinkPad and an inexpensive MIDI controller. I didn’t even have an audio interface for correctly recording my guitar.
Since then, nicely, issues have gotten a bit out of hand. My synth assortment grew from a pair toys (a Casio VL-1 and a Stylophone) to nicely over a dozen devices. I’ve extra MIDI controllers than any human may ever want. I picked up respectable studio displays, an audio interface, and even some ADAT expansions so I may maintain extra of my ever rising gear assortment completely linked.
One factor that didn’t change, nevertheless, was my desk. Up till simply a few weeks in the past, I used to be nonetheless making do with the identical low-cost Ikea Lagkapten/Alex combo ($220). It was a big desk, but it surely didn’t give me a number of flexibility for laying out my setup. Now that I’ve had a chance to take a look at the up to date model of De-Fi’s Platform Studio Manufacturing Desk, which has devoted mounting factors for rack gear, house for audio system, and a pull-out keyboard tray, I don’t know that I can ever return. In the event you’re out there for an inexpensive studio desk to your music-making and try to determine between cheaper choices and a devoted desk like this one, learn on.
Getting Settled
For all of its aesthetic angles and recording studio glamour, the Platform Desk, which was initially made by a model known as Output that has now rebranded to De-Fi, nonetheless goes collectively like Ikea furnishings. It’s a chunk of flatpack that you should assemble with the help of a screwdriver and an Allen wrench. It’s undoubtedly extra substantial than your common Malm piece (what with it being made out of plywood as an alternative of particle board), however the fundamental idea is similar.
{Photograph}: Terrence O’Brien
As onerous as it’s to imagine, one space the place Ikea does have a leg up on De-Fi is the standard of the directions. There may be a video walk-through of the meeting that’s OK, but it surely could possibly be extra detailed. The “print” model, nicely, don’t hassle printing it. For no matter purpose, it’s formatted as a single-page PDF when it ought to clearly be 5 – 6. Whenever you attempt to print it out you find yourself with a slender, illegible strip down the center of a single piece of paper.
The components record additionally failed to say that there was an influence drill bit for the hex screws in one of many luggage. I solely found it midway by meeting, after my palms have been aching and I’d stripped a couple of screws with the Allen wrench.
It’s additionally value mentioning a few small quality-control points I encountered throughout meeting. The shelf pin holes for the highest stage have been lacking on one facet, and I needed to drill them in myself. And among the edges weren’t notably neat. I even bought a fairly nasty splinter from the lip of the desktop.
Residing in Tight Areas
There was one fairly apparent con as soon as every part was absolutely assembled: the dimensions of this desk. I reside in NYC, so house is at a premium, and becoming the 60-inch-wide by 38-inch-deep desk was troublesome. People with a number of house will not have the identical problem, but it surely’s value trying into the dimensions earlier than ordering. My residence studio can be my workplace and my visitor bed room; it was a bit cramped to start with. Beforehand there was sufficient room to stroll between the unfolded pullout sofa and my desk. Now even my chair received’t match between the desk and the foot of the pullout. With a purpose to make room for the desk, I needed to ditch my monitor stands (the desk has elevated areas for displays to be positioned).
One other instantly apparent con is that the Platform Desk has no drawers. Granted, studio desks typically don’t, but it surely did imply I needed to maintain across the Alex drawer unit from my previous desk for typical desk-y storage. The whole ground house taken up by my revamped recording space had all of the sudden exploded.
