Modular Desk Extension (Part 4)

I also finished work last week on the newly installed extension on my modular desk. First of all I installed power in it with a 19 inch power switch bar. I move the PAIA 9700S into the 19 inch rack and in its place I installed an equalizer and DI. From here I wired the amplifier in the bottom 19 inch rack. This all works now, so I finally have good sound too (from the front) on this side of the studio. So far I used a couple of PC speakers, but this is way better of course. I also wired the power on the mobile modular rack that you seen on the right. There is just one power cable coming from it now in stead of four. The modular desk is really started to take shape now. I still have a lot of modules to finish and even some projects yet to start, but more and more starts to actually work :) I will post a new overview picture very soon.

Modular Desk Extension (Part 3)

Last week my furniture builder Gerrit came back to install the 19 inch profiles in the new modular desk extension he made. I put some stuff in there I had lying around just to see if it fits. Eventually this rack will be filled with some DIY I will be making on 19 inch format and I also plan to install some 19 inch cabinets in there that can hold eurorack format modules. I also moved the Roland Space Echo to this rack as you can see. It will stay there for sure. I plan to use this tape echo machine extensively in my new modular setup. I'm now looking actually for 2 good eurocard racks for a project I'm planning. It will be a clone of a TR909 and TR808. So yes more drum modules planned for the future, but I still have a lot of work to do before you will see anything of those. But I'm very happy with this new extension now.

And here is the lower part of the new extension. It is also fitted with 19 inch profile. On the bottom are some power sockets to hook up the equipment that is on my modular desk (the pedals) and also for the mobile rack in front of it that is in the picture below. I also mounted 3 19 inch drawers to hold the DIY stuff I'm working on. Now it is not lying around on the floor anymore so the studio looks much more tidied up now. Above those drawers is an amplifier that I will use for the speakers that are now on top of the modular cabinet. So hopefully I will have some good audio over there soon in stead of the PC speakers I have used so far. And on top in this cabinet is a power bar with switches that I'll use to switch the power for the modules in the cabinet on top and also the amplifier and the lower power bar.

And here is a last overview picture of this new corner of my studio. I think I really made optimal use of all the space that was left there. The mobile rack hold the Cwejman S1 MK2, Red Square and the Semtex. I used this set extensivly on my last album to create the various sound effects in the tracks. It is very convenient that I can roll this rack also to my main desk. I'm sure I'll use it on my next album as well next to some stuff I made on the big modular setup (at least when I have finished it in time). In the bottom of this rack is a Roland SH-09 that I also use as CV keyboard for this rack. Next thing to do for me now is to hook up all the power to the power bar in the lower rack. I have to shorten some cables for that and also change the connectors. Hopefully I'll have that ready next week. Not difficult, but just takes some time :)

Modular Desk Extension (Part 2)

Today my furniture builder Gerrit came by to add the second extension to my modular desk. It consists of two 19 inch cabinets on top of each other as you can see in the picture. Only the 19 inch profile is missing. Gerrit ordered it but it didn't arrive yet. But it fits perfectly. I'm planning to put some eurorack size modular stuff in the upper cabinet and on the lower part some equipment and probably also some more drawers. Gerrit was planning to come by next week again to put the 19 inch profiles in there and in the mean time I'm going to think what I put where. As you probably also noticed I moved my Mooger Froogers to the little table top extension that he also made. And if you are wondering why we didn't make it bigger. Well the mobile rack I had there with my other modulars will be standing in front of it later on. In the place of the Mooger Froogers is now the Arp 1611 sequencer and probably I will add some more FX pedals there. Since they are mostly monophonic they fit the modular setup better than my studio setup. I'll keep you posted on the progress.

Modular Desk Extension (Part 1)

I told you before that when I was trying to fit all the modules I build in my modular cabinet that it didn't really fit. So I talked to Gerrit my furniture builder about a solution. We decided to build two extensions to the existing modular desk. The first one of those is in place now. You can see it in the picture on the left. This cabinet can hold about 40 1U MOTM format modules. I will use the bottom row for the power supplies and I will fill the rest with all the drum modules I'm building and two gate sequencers. Probably also some logic modules like clock dividers and some other stuff. Gerrit used the same wood as on the modular desk so it really looks like it was supposed to be like this from the start. Gerrit is now building the extension for the other side. That one will be a bit different.

In the picture on the right you can see the extension from a bit further away. If you look closely you can also see the PC speaker in the cabinet. I used this one until now to have some sound on this side of the studio. But now I also have room on top to put some better speakers on there. Well for now I'm happy with the extra space. Even though I didn't all these modules yet, I do have plans for them and even some PCB's. Hopefully Gerrit will some with the other extension soon. That will be made on the right side of the desk and will hold only 19 inch modules.

Modular Desk Adjustment 2

Today my furniture builder Gerrit came back with the adjusted piece of my modular desk. We mounted the bar back in the cabinet, and tried to fit the synthesizers.com Q960 sequencers in, but they still didn't fit. Now just it is stuck in another place. It is just 1 mm, but Gerrit didn't bring any tools since he thought he was done. Well he was in the neighborhood again next week so he will do that final adjustment then. In the mean time also my black screws arrived so I can start fitting some modules now and try to think about a layout for the whole modular synthesizer. I'll make pictures of course ;)

Modular Desk Adjustment

Gerrit my Furniture builder was here today to look at the adjustment that needed to be done to my modular desk to fit in the Synthesizers.com modules. So in the morning I cleared everyhing out of the desk to make room for him to work. But he thought it would be better to do it in his workshop, because he has better tools there. So he actually sawed out the upper bar and took it with him. Hopefully I will get it back next week. So still no Q960 sequencers in there unfortunately. Ah well patience will pay out I'm sure Gerrit will make it even nicer than I though. We also discussed a little extension on the desk today. I'm thinking to put some stuff left and right of the desk since there is still space there, but for now it are just ideas. I'll let you know when he has been back here.

New Ikea Furniture

Last week I have been very busy building a lot of Ikea stuff. I don't understand why everybody hates it so much. It is actually very nice to see and it always fits. You just need to read the manual :) (several times). What you see here are four cabinets that hold my CD collection. In the left two cabinets is only synthesizer music and in the right two cabinets is the other music I bought on CD during the years. It is not only synthesizer based music by the way. My taste is actually quite wide, you will find some pop, rock and even some classical music. There are some band that I like a lot besides instrumental music. Examples are: Eurythmics, Depeche Mode, Level 42, U2 and even Madonna. There is also some Guitar stuff there like Patrick Rondat (who played with Jarre) and Gary Moore, Jan Akkerman etc.

Here is a close-up from my Jarre and Vangelis collection. I think I have most albums by the both of them. While I was putting them in the cabinet I thought it would be nice to rip them to MP3 and put them all on my Ipod as well in 192 Khz quality. So that is what I also did last week. On our next holiday (whenever that may be) I will be able to listen to all those albums again :) The last years I'm actually buying only synthesizer music. I'm still discovering lots of new but also old stuff that I apparently missed back then. There are some colleagues on the Groove Unlimited label that I start to appreciate a lot like: Ron Boots, Gert Emmens, Frank van Boogaert and Nattefrost. If you don't know them yet I can recommend you to check them out.

If you thought that is all I did and why that took me so long. Well there is more :) These ones I also build to hold our DVD collection. My wife and I love to watch movies. All these cabinets are in the hall now between the studio and the cinema and in this way that hall has a nice new function as well. If you look close you can see that on the right are also some concert DVD's and even some VHS tapes. I just love those Jarre concert DVD's. The audio on there is in surround and so very good. My favorite though is the Oxygene 'Live in your living room' DVD. I only don't like the 3D thing they did since I get an instant head ache watching that. But luckily there is a 2D version as well. It is great to see those vintage synthesizers being used in such a nice way. If you don't know this DVD I can recommend it. There is also a Kraftwerk concert DVD in my collection and of course some movies with soundtracks from Vangelis like Blade Runner, 1492 Conquest of Paradise and Alexander. I still need to find some others that also have scores by him.

Apollo Studio Furniture (Part 11)

I talked a couple of times before about the smaller desk that Gerrit was building for my studio. Well last week he finished the installation of this desk. You can see it in the picture on the left. This will be my new electronics DIY corner. As you can see in the middle there is space for all my measuring equipment. On the left there is a TFT screen on a flexible arm mount. I can pull it towards me or completely turn it away. It is good to have a PC on there since usually I need to look at schematics etc and usually I have them stored somewhere digitally. Also all the Yusynth documentation is online so I just look on the website to see where everything needs to go. On top there is room for the modular synthesizer I'm currently building. There is lots of room for modules as you can see.

In the picture on the right on top you can see how the modules will be mounted. I haven't got any modules completely finished yet, but what you see here are the front panels that I already constructed. Next to the desk I put another flexible 19 inch rack that now holds my Cwejman S1 MKII and the Anywhere Instruments Semtex XL. I put them there because they are both 5 HE and that didn't fit in the upper cabinets. And of course I want to be able to easily reach them to turn the knobs. So I decided not to put them into the lower cabinets. On the desk you also see three new Mooger Froogers that I recently acquired. They are the Murf, 12 stage phaser and the analog delay units. I'm sure they will be helpful there in building some nice sounds.

Here is another close-up of the middle part. On the left is my oscilloscope, then right to that on top a lab multi meter that has RS-232 and can store data on the PC, below that a frequency counter and then two lab power supplies. Below the right power supply is my soldering iron. This is the equipment I use to build, test and calibrate the modular synthesizer. This will not me an overnight project by the way. It will probably takes some years before it is completely like I have it in my mind. But it is nice to have this equipment right in front of me now and also have a decent workspace to work on my DIY projects. Before I did this sitting on the floor by the way ;)

On top of the whole thing is the ASM-2 cabinet that Gerrit also build for me from the same wood as the desks. It looks very nice, but the whole thing has become a bit higher than I anticipated :) So I'm not sure they if it will stay on top. But I'll see about that later. I have more work to be done now first. In this new desk all the power is already connected as well, but I'm not done fitting equipment in the lower cabinets. In the first picture you can see by the way that in the left lower cabinet I mouted three 19 inch drawers that are very convinient. I can store tools and part in there. I'll probably do the same on the right side. In this way I won't have any loose stuff laying on my workspace. All in all I'm very happy with this new desk and place to work and it combines great with the main desk. Unfortunately it is impossible to get them both in one picture, but I'm sure you can imagine that yourself :)

Apollo Studio Furniture (Part 10)

I already wrote that my furniture builder Gerrit mounted a drawer under my main desk. Well here it is :) Very nice to have a keyboard available right in front of me when I'm working in Sonar. I never had that before actually. The only problem was that the desk with the drawer under it is quite low. I already bumped my knees into it several times now. Gerrit is coming over again next Thursday and we will place it further backwards so when I pull it out I can use it but it goes way under the desk when I don't need it and have the extra space for my legs. In that way I have the best of both things I guess. Gerrit already told me it was possible so no worries there.

In the mean time Gerrit also send me the first picture of the other desk he is building. The lower part will basically be the same as the middle part of the main desk with a lower cabinet on the left and the right and also angles 19 inch profile on top on the left and the right. In the center there will be place for my electronics equipment like my oscilloscope, frequency counter and lab power supply. Those tools I use for constructing the big modular synthesizer I'm building. And guess where that is going? Right! On top of this desk in the part you see in the picture. I can mount three rows of modules in there. Isn't that cool? :) I'm sure this will look awesome when it is finished and it will be very convenient to have work bench to work on my electronics projects as well.

Another piece of furniture we got at the local tool store. A very convenient rack that we put into the server room. In the back you can see my electronics equipment in storage now waiting to be put into the new desk and you can see also some of the modules I'm building for the modular synthesizer on top of that. This rack will eventually be used for PC spare parts and stuff I regularly need in the studio and stuff for my electronics projects. It is nice that this way I can also use the server room to keep the mess out of my studio and not only the noise.

The last picture I wanted to share with you today is a view of another synth stand I put in the studio. It holds two of my newest synthesizers that I also want to have available to play on. In this way I created a nice little corner again where I can play on several keyboards on the same time just like I had in my old studio. And there is room enough for this. On the other side I will do that same thing and this way I will be completely surrounded by synthesizers. I love that :) This stand used to be 3 stories high by the way but I decided to remove one for now to make it less massive. Maybe I'll change it back later. I first have to wait and see where all the stuff goes when I install the 4 remaining wall synth mounts. OK enough for today. I think that was quite a lot already for one day. I'm going back to the studio to do some more cabling now.

Apollo Studio Furniture (Part 9)

Yesterday my furniture builder Gerrit worked in my studio all day. He replaced all the aluminum 19 inch profiles for steel ones. After that We put all the equipment back in. And now everything fitted like a charm :) So that problem is solved. We also shortened the center profiles from 4 units to 3 units. We did this because then there is more room under the equipment there to shove something under there like the mixing console I tried out before. We also installed a drawer you can see under the main desk. I put my master midi keyboard on there. Very convinient. I can put it away when I don't need it and pull it out when I want to play some lines during working on a track. In the past I always had to leave my working spot for that.

Here you see a closer view of the 19 inch profile. I'm happy with the fact that this new profile is black as well by the way. I think it looks much nicer now. You can also see Gerrit sawing in the main desk. Some of the holes were to small to fit equipment in. It is nice that the equipment is mounted in an angle in the upper cabinets, but this makes it point downwards on the back of course and you need to make room for that. In the end you won't see anything from this because it is behind the equipment. We also set some poles under the upper cabinet. We found that all the weight made it tilt a bit, and just to be sure we put some extra support under that. I would be a disaster if everything came down on there. Also these poles are invisible from the front. So no problem at all. Better safe than sorry.

In the mean time I did some work myself as well. I mounted power outlets in the lower cabinets. I found some nice ones that fit perfectly. Just four screws in the wood and it sits rock solid. All power outlets will be connected to a central place where I can switch them on and off induvidually. That is something I really missed in my previous studio. I think it will be very convinient. So in total I have 12 outlets per cabinet that should be more than sufficient I guess.

Now that Gerrit is finished on the main desk he is working again on the smaller desk. I hope this will arrive next Thursday. I'm very curious how that will fit. In the mean time I'm going to focus now on cabling everything.

Apollo Studio Furniture (Part 8)

Today my furniture builder Gerrit will come here to change the aluminum 19" profile in my studio desk for the steel version. As I explained in a previous post, most equipment didn't fit in. So yesterday I started the very frustrating job of removing all the equipment and cabling I already put in. Hopefully by the end of today the new profile will be fitted again and I can start putting the stuff back in and then start cabling stuff permanently. You can clearly see the aluminum profiles in the picture on the left by the way. As you can see it is not straight, but under an angle in some points so it is a lot of work to saw this straight. I feel really sorry for Gerrit who has to do this all over again as well.

Well at least I have some pictures now of the empty desk as well. I forgot to take them before since I started mounting equipment right away when the desk was placed. You can also see that I put power bars in the bottom cabinets here. Actually there are two in both. One below and one upstairs. Both have 6 power outlets so in total I have 12 power outlets per cabinet. That should be sufficient in most cases. You can also see in this picture some new speakers. I'm actually testing out some speakers now that I have on loan. I haven't decided yet which ones to buy, but I'm trying to listen to as many as possible at the moment and of course preferably in my own studio. I will post more about these test in another post later on. It is not really releated to the furniture anyway of course.

I didn't want to hold this view from you as well. It was quite difficult to find a space for all the stuff I took out of the desk. This isn't even all. I moved some stuff to the cinema and server room as well to make space for Gerrit to work today. But it is a big mess now I can tell you. I can't wait to put it all back later this evening. Well at least I know from the previous time now where to put everything back. I will do some minor changes even, since I found out it could be even a little bit more efficient. You will see pictures of that later on.

And here is the last view of the empty desk. You can see on the right here that I already mounted some synthesizers to the wall as well. I found a very nice system to mount my synthesizers that is very flexible and doesn't take up a lot of space. I will show pictures of that later on as well. Today were are first going to focus on getting the equipment back into the desk. Hopefully Gerrit will also take some stuff along with him for the smaller desk that will go on the other side of the room. As always I will keep you posted on the progress :)

Apollo Studio Furniture (Part 7)

Last week I moved a lot of equipment downstairs and put it in and on the new studio furniture to find the most ideal place for all of it. Some pieces only fit on a certain spot or don't fit where I hope it would, but that is no problem. The new main desk is so flexible that it is almost impossible for something to be out of reach. In this picture you see the left part where my analog corner will be again. In the third cabinet from the right I put the UPS for the studio, but when I switched it on I heard that it has fans and makes noise, so I will move it to the server room. Not all my analog synthesizers are going here by the way, because in the new setup I will also have a special place for all my modulars. They are going to be all together on the second desk that Gerrit is building at this moment.

Here is a picture of the right side of the desk. This will be the digital corner again just like in my old setup actually. Not much change here only all my synthesizer modules that were in the big rack behind me will be much closer now. In the right cabinet you see the Denon surround setup that I used in the living room. It was supposed to go into the cinema, but we bought a new receiver and bluray player for there, so I decided to use this set in my studio to just listen to music and watch a DVD. The receiver will be used primarily as a Dolby Digital decoder and will feed my active monitors in a surround setup later on.

This is the middle part and that is what changed the most. I have lots of equipment right in front of me and that is really great. On the top desk two new and bigger LCD screen will be put. I'm really looking forward to working on them. As you probably saw I put my old screens on the side. They will have another function soon on that I will explain later on. The only thing that is missing is a drawer that will be mounted in between the two center cabinets. It can put a master midi keyboard on there that I can use from my normal working position. It is nice to be able to play a tune without having to move from my spot. I'm still thinking about what keyboard to use there.

This picture shows a nice overview of the whole main desk. As you can see it is all very ergonomic. I can't wait to really start working here. The 19'' profiles are still not changed so I'm still waiting for that. It is kind off frustrating to know that I can remove everything again. I did hook up some stuff so that I can listen to music at least now while I'm working. I also temporary hooked up some stuff to the new studio PC to test and install drivers. So far everything works like a charm. Gerrit is now building a smaller desk for my modular setup. I hope that will arrive soon, because that will also function as a work bench. So far I'm doing a lot of stuff on the ground and that is not very comfortable of course. More info coming soon ;)

Apollo Studio Furniture (Part 6)

Last week the new studio furniture arrived. At least the main desk. Gerrit had to drive two times to transport it all. The colors of the wood look very nice I think with the carpet and the walls. This was the first time that I saw this actually. So far it was a bit of guessing how it would look. Also the black contrasts very nicely again with the carpet. Gerrit started assembling right away after everything was in the studio. I helped carrying the stuff down since it are quite large pieces. Also during construction I was there all the time and lended a helping hand here and there.

Assembling was mostly putting the modules back together, but of course everything has to fit very tightly so it was not an easy job at all. Luckily we had room enough to manouvre around with all the parts. I'm glad I didn't move that much stuff down yet. Otherwise I could have carried it all out again. We did the assembly of the furniture in two full days. Here and there some minor adjustments had to be made. Gerrit sawed some holes for equipment to go in and we found quickly that some were to small by trying to put some 19" equipment in there.

Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of the empty desk. I was so enthusiastic that I started moving equipment while Gerrit was laying the last hand on the furniture. Unfortunately we discovered something really nasty then. All measurements were based on a 2 millimeter thick steel 19'' profile, but Gerrit got 3 millimeter thick aluminum profiles from his supplier. The result being that not all the equipment fits. It is just 2 millimeters of difference, but it is enough to use up the margin you normally have. Gerrit phoned is supplier and we decided that all the profiles will have to be changed. Unfortunately this means that I can't put equipment definitely in place yet. I did start moving though and I started to figure out what has to go where.

I also bought a nice piece of furniture to hold my CD collection. If you think this looks familiar: Yes it is Ikea ;) So not custom build, but it is perfect for what I want. I found a nice spot in the hall between the Studio and the Cinema.

OK now I'm going to move some more stuff. It is quite some work and for every one or two pieces I can carry I have to climb 3 stairs. At this time I can feel every muscle in my body. I have about 50% of the equipment now downstairs. I'll update you soon with more pictures of the main desk with more equipment in it. I hope you enjoy the view as much as I do :)

Apollo Studio Furniture (Part 5)

Last week I got some new pictures again from my furniture builder Gerrit. Here you see a picture of the top part of the main desk. We had a lot of discussion about this part since there are a lot of angles and later on the 19" equipment has to fit in perfectly of course. Besides that in the middle a mixing control surface has to fit under it and I still haven't bought one, so I could not provide any measurements for that yet. We decided to leave that spot open for a while and finish that when it is clear what has to go there. He can do that later on when the stuff is in my studio.

In the picture on the right you see the finishing of the top of the main desk. The wood you see there is real mahony wood. It is still unlacked here. Several layers of lack go on top of this and that will make the color a bit darker and warmer. The black layer on top of the desk is actually very thick and hard. It is so strong that you can't scratch it easily. It is glued on top of the MDF wood that is under there. I think it looks great and I can imagine already how it will look on the red carpet in my studio with the black walls. I think it will look stunning.

Then later on in the week I received these pictures. Gerrit assembled the main desk in his workshop to see if everything fitted. I was instantly happy when I saw this picture. Doesn't it look great? He solved the angles of the top 19" cabinets perfectly in my opinion. The total width of the whole desk is 3 meters and 98 centimeters and my studio is about 4 meters. So this will fit in quite nice. Later on every inch of this desk will be filled probably. I'm already imagining what I'm going to put where. But I will have to try it out and shift stuff around a bit later on I guess.

Here is another one where you can see a better view of the bottom cabinets. There are four on each side so eight in total. Together with the top cabinets that gives me a lot of space to put 19" equipment in. Gerrit called me last week to make an appointment to bring the main desk over here. So I'm actually waiting now for the stuff to arrive. He will assemble it here on the spot in the studio and then make some adjustments if nessecary. I will make pictures of course and post them as soon as possible on here. I can't wait!

Apollo Studio Furniture (Part 4)

I received another update from my furniture builder Gerrit. Here you can see more 19" modules that are already finished. Currently he is applying multiple layers of lack on they and that has to dry, so that is a lengthy process. It will ensure though later that the furniture will be very rigid. I still like this combination of black and mahony a lot. I'm sure it will look great later on. I heard yesterday that he is planning to bring the first pieces between Christmas and New Year. I'm excited about that, because then I can finally see the stuff in place and I can finish the cabling job in the studio.

Here you can see two of the modules that will go on top of the desk. There will be six of those in total. Three on the left and three on the right. As you can see the equipment will hang placed in it in an angle that will make it easier to use in my opinion. It is all about ergonomics. But I'll have to see how it works later on in practice. But for sure it looks better than the 19" desk racks I have now. We still had some discussion yesterday about the exact placements of these units to make sure there will be as much room as possible. But the racks that will be on the far left and right sides will have to be sawed of because of the wall. So I will have to make sure I put equipment there that isn't too deep.

This last picture show some of Gerrit's workshop. He told me yesterday that the black finish layet is glued onto the wood with a glue that smelled quite bad. He got some kind of gas mask to make sure he didn't inhale all that bad fumes. He also didn't dare to light up his oil heater because he thought these fumes would be flamable. It is nice to hear that he is as enthousiastic about this project as I am. And I'm getting more and more impatient to see the final result :) The last weeks I only got these pictures and that is always a bit different than the real stuff. But in a few weeks hopefully I can show you some pictures coming from the studio itself :)

Apollo Studio Furniture (Part 3)

While we are very busy working in the studio my furniture builder is also very busy on his side. We have regular contact over the project and he E-mails me some pictures once in a while. It is nice to see the progress in this way. In the picture on the left you see some of the wood that is roughly sawed to the right size. All the material arrived in his workshop by now. In this workshop some modules will be build together that will be transported to my studio and there the whole thing will be assembled on the spot eventually. Hopefully just before the end of the year.

A lot of the work on the furniture is done by hand and it is a very precise job I can tell you. What I loved right away from the first time we talked is the passion that Gerrit (my furniture builder) has for his work. He already had in his head as well how it should look eventually, but for me that is still hard to imagine. We did the 3D drawings of course, but that still is not very touchable. I can't wait until I can see the final result. But I trust it will be great. I will try to update more often with pictures on this blog, but the problem is that last week we were so busy that I didn't really have time to write on here.

This picture I just saw when I opened my mail and that motivated my to write on here since it gives a nice picture of how it will eventually look. As you can see the sides are nicely done with real mahony wood. I think it looks just great :) It will be a bit darker eventually I understood because it will be lacked a couple of times like the ASM-2 cabinet he build for me. But now I'm starting to get a feel how it will look in the studio later on. What you see here by the way is one of the 19" modules that will be under my desk. In total 10 of these modules will be build. OK more later :)

Apollo Studio Furniture (Part 2)

I'm currently very busy with the guy that is building my studio furniture to work on the final design. We are constantly exchanging Google Sketchup drawings like the one you see on the left. It is a great tool for this purpose. In the mean time we are much further by the way but I intentionally wanted to show you how it was in the beginning of this process. We are trying to fit in as much as 19" equipment as possible but still keep the desk space as big as possible.

At this moment he is building real scale models of the different parts of the furniture. These models are not made of the final material yet that will be used in the end, but it is just to see if the measurements are correct. From this model the final version will be build.

In total 10 of these cabinets will be build. 8 for the big studio desk and 2 for the modular desk that will be on the other side of my studio. As you can see the cabinet is tilted a bit backwards. This way it will be easier to see on the displays of the equipment that will be on there later. I heard by the way that the final 2 studio desks will be constructed out of 256 parts in total! Most of it these parts will be put together on the spot in the studio.

In the picture on the left you see some of the mahony wood that will be used for the finishing of the studio furniture. The big parts will be made of MDF that will be lacked in a black finish. This mahony wood will be lacked in a bit darker brown/reddish color. I think it will look just great in the end :) I can't wait until it will be installed in the studio. The furniture builder promised me to take pictures of the construction process. When this picture was taken the wood was just lying there to dry. I'll update you soon when there are new pictures.

Apollo Studio Furniture (Part 1)

In an earlier post about my studio construction I talked about studio furniture. I looked at several options ranging from standard furniture to custom build. I decided to go for the last option since I could not find exactly what I was looking for. After that I talked to several furniture builders and finally found one that really understood my idea's. Actually he is a musician too, so he knew what I was talking about when I mentioned 19" equipment in our first meeting. In the second meeting he already brought a scale model of his first ideas to make the conversation easier. This was one of the things I liked about him. He put in a lot of effort before he even got the assignment.

After looking at all the offers I decided to go for this guy. He had the best idea and besides that he has a passion for wood and was really enthusiastic about this job. We are now in sort of a brain storming session exchanging ideas about the practical use for me and the looks. We were actually using cardboard during this session to take the ideas further. As you can see the desk will get an 'U' shape just like I have in my current studio. I'm actually quite happy with that. This desk will hold much more 19" equipment though. As well on top as below the work surface as you can see in the pictures.

This model is still very rough and needs much more work. In the end we agreed that he is actually going to build two desks for me. On the other side of the room only the middle part will be copied and on top of that my modular setup will be integrated in the desk. That will be very cool :) We also talked about material and it looks like he going to use some MDF but also some real Mahony wood :) I'm starting to get very excited about this. He already started to order the material. I'll ask him to make pictures regulary so I can put them on here.