The ONLY Studio Desk You’ll EVER NEED (is the one you DIY)

in this video i'm going to show you how to go from this to this but before we can enjoy the end result we have to complete the journey by the way if you're new to this channel or just need some context go ahead and check out this video that will set the stage for the series then come right back one quick note while i didn't document the build with video i'm going to explain my design process that went behind it so it can provide some valuable and economical solutions for your home studio if you have a home studio chances are your desk is the focal point of the space it definitely is for me everything i create in the studio comes through this desk at some point or another it defines our workflow in the creative process professional studio desks get very expensive upwards of hundreds even thousands of dollars and if you want to customize the features prices grow extremely quickly and when you do find an inexpensive desk it just lacks features this desk all said and done cost me about 150 dollars including the wood the rack rails trim and finish the led lights were a recent upgrade that i just made for about fifty dollars so the desk as you see it right now cost about 200. i'll link everything down in the description below desks don't have to be complicated actually i used to work on an old dining room table that i got for free and it served me well for a long time before i built this if you have some basic tools and an adequate knowledge of woodworking then you can build a customized and professional level desk for your studio that will optimize both your space and your workflow i was able to build this desk in just about a weekend with a handheld circular saw a handsaw and a screw gun and some screws i did add some detail in the trim using a nail gun and i ended up staining it which i think added a nice touch but you don't have to do that and you can still get great results with the simplest of tools and design i just want to clarify that this video is not a tutorial rather it's intended to simply stimulate ideas for your own home studio i want this to be a conversation about what features and ideas you guys have about maximizing your creativity in your space depending on your space and your equipment you can fully customize your desk to fit your needs since this is the focal point of my space i needed this desk to be multi-purpose because i do a lot of different tasks in the studio the smaller your space becomes i believe the more important it is that your desks serve a variety of functions this desk needs to support my creative process and not take away from it so i need everything to just flow space is my biggest design constraint and it probably is for most of you as well i built this desk for a room that was about 12 feet by 13 feet and the proportions felt right my current room is about 10 and a half feet square obviously not an ideal size for the best acoustics now that my space is a little bit tighter i may need to make some modifications which will be easy to do based on how i designed it i designed this in two different sections the end sections which are both identical but mirrored and the middle section which can be easily changed out for a different size or shape after a lot of trial and error during the design process i came to the overall dimensions of 66 inches long 40 inches deep 30 inches tall at the front and 36 inches tall at the back these are the final profile dimensions that i ended up with and i'm still very happy with the results this allows plenty of horizontal space to write use my laptop work on instruments and amps actually i did my very first radio to amp conversion on this desk and it worked extremely well [Music] the way i constructed these end sections was cutting the profile out of three quarter inch plywood there are a total of four two per end section and i secured them together with structural members that set the correct width for 19 inch wrap gear if you do it this way make sure your inner width is a little wider than 19 inches i made this about 19 and an eighth and it fits perfectly rat gear is exactly 19 inches wide so you want them to fit in the rack with just a little room on either side also most rat gear has elongated mounting holes so while you do need some degree of craftsmanship you don't need to be a rocket scientist i want to dive a little bit deeper on how i ended up with the different heights of the surfaces this front surface sits right at 30 inches tall which is a standard counter height comfortable on either a chair or even a stool like this which is what i choose to sit on most of the time looking to get a more comfortable office chair in the future however this allows me to play guitar really comfortably while in the listening position which i think is a huge benefit to this space so i started with this 30 inch desk height and basically built everything up from that if you notice the speaker level the critical dimension you want to measure is that the tweeter this section of the speaker right here sits level with your ear when you're in the listening position while i had originally planned for these speakers to sit on speaker stands with a wide range of adjustments just in case i needed to put these speakers on the desk which you see i have done here i wanted to make sure that they are at an appropriate height so after taking measurements i discovered that the right height for this back section was 36 inches and that allows the speaker to sit at the right height from there i worked with different widths to ensure that i could fit an 8u space in this section if you want to save even more space in your studio i would recommend manipulating this rack section to sit more vertically so that your outboard gear sits horizontally in the rack the two end sections can fit standard 19-inch rack gear in either the top or the front base now i'm not a big outboard gear guy this studio space is mostly used to write songs and to record pretty rough demos so everything i do can be done most efficiently in the box as they say so right now i keep my rat gear in this top left bay and use the front bays as extra storage space with these plastic drawer units in the future as i expand the capabilities and gear used in my studio i can easily add more rack mounts to these front sections that can easily be accessible during a session my original plan was to make the center section trapezoidal that way the two ends would focus more towards the seat position and make the outward sections of the rack space more accessible unfortunately i just didn't have that space to make that happen and in this room that's just going to be worse but fortunately i built this with the possibility of easily upgrading the centerpiece in the future so for now it's just a simple two by four foot section that i can place in the middle although i'm extremely happy with this desk setup i do have some future upgrades and changes planned number one i want to add some more permanent drawer solutions in the front sections i first thought about using those rack mounted drawers but they're just really expensive for now i've kept these cheap plastic drawer units and they've worked well but i think i'm ready for an upgrade if you have any good ideas on what to use let me know down in the comments below second thing would be speaker mounts this top shelf isn't very deep i think i did this because i just used the scrap plywood left over from a full sheet and i didn't have to buy another but if i had to design these again i would make them a little deeper to fit the entire speaker's footprint on the shelf i did have the speakers on speaker mounts behind the desk however that pushed the desk further away from the wall and put my listening position in an undesirable location in the room one challenge with this design is i can't integrate a large keyboard or midi controller without placing it on top and taking up the whole space this isn't a huge problem for me as i usually have a full 88 key piano on a stand behind me but integrating it into the desk would be beneficial for small spaces such as this while i did stain this i decided not to seal it which was a mistake and a lazy shortcut you can see the places where i placed my hot coffee mug or glass of ice water and it just left these circles of shame i think i decided not to seal it in order for it to be dry by the end of the weekend but if you plan on doing a build like this i definitely recommend doing it right the first time this actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise because it led me to making these cool slate coasters it took me a few tries to get them right but once i figured it out they came out pretty good lastly i have an exciting upgrade plan for this top right rack bay if you love playing tube amps or even build them yourself then you should definitely subscribe to see what's coming i haven't seen this done anywhere else and i'm super excited to share it with you guys if you made it this far in the video thank you so much for watching in the next few videos i'll be continuing to set up my studio in this new space so stay tuned thanks for watching [Music] you

Channel: Grace Note Recordings

Views: 17,502

Keywords: how to build, studio desk, for music production, studio table, home recording studio desk, studio desk setup, youtube studio in your home, studio in your room, quality diy home studio setup, cheap studio desk, recording, youtube, production, music, how to create a home studio, producer, multiple monitors, best desk for, music studio, music production, desk setup, rack, mount, space, best studio desk, under 200, under 300, under 500, under 1000, 2021, guitar, Studio tour

Id: lQf_QGabpTY

Length: 9min 51sec (591 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 16 2021