9 years in the past I made a decision to get back to making music after a really lengthy hiatus. At first, my setup was extraordinarily humble, that includes an growing old ThinkPad and an affordable MIDI controller. I didn’t even have an audio interface for correctly recording my guitar.
Since then, properly, issues have gotten a bit out of hand. My synth assortment grew from a pair toys (a Casio VL-1 and a Stylophone) to properly over a dozen devices. I’ve extra MIDI controllers than any human might ever want. I picked up first rate studio screens, an audio interface, and even some ADAT expansions so I might hold extra of my ever growing gear collection completely linked.
One factor that didn’t change, nonetheless, 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, however it didn’t give me a variety of flexibility for laying out my setup. Now that I’ve had a possibility 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. When you’re available in the market for an inexpensive studio desk on your music-making and try to resolve 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 must 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 identical.
{Photograph}: Terrence O’Brien
As exhausting as it’s to consider, one space the place Ikea does have a leg up on De-Fi is the standard of the directions. There’s a video walk-through of the assembly that’s OK, however it could possibly be extra detailed. The “print” model, properly, don’t trouble printing it. For no matter motive, 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 checklist 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 means of meeting, after my palms had been aching and I’d stripped just a few screws with the Allen wrench.
It’s additionally price mentioning a few small quality-control points I encountered throughout meeting. The shelf pin holes for the highest stage had been lacking on one facet, and I needed to drill them in myself. And a number of the edges weren’t notably neat. I even obtained a reasonably nasty splinter from the lip of the desktop.
Residing in Tight Areas
There was one fairly apparent con as soon as every thing was totally assembled: the dimensions of this desk. I dwell in NYC, so house is at a premium, and becoming the 60-inch-wide by 38-inch-deep desk was tough. People with a variety of house will not have the identical difficulty, however it’s price trying into the dimensions earlier than ordering. My house 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 gained’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 screens to be positioned).
One other instantly apparent con is that the Platform Desk has no drawers. Granted, studio desks typically don’t, however it did imply I needed to hold across the Alex drawer unit from my previous desk for typical desk-y storage. The entire ground house taken up by my revamped recording space had all of a sudden exploded.
