I'm about to build a desk!! All ideas welcome

I ended up building a custom wood desk for my console... no real plans just a lot of Guinness.

 

My bro and I built a desk for my console with a welded steel base, black formica top, and flamed maple edging all the way around. Looks great.

We welded a steel base so that we could canteliever it, and not have the usual obstructions on the front corners, and I can roll my chair freely without bumping my knees against a leg.

I have no idea how to upload a picture, however. The finished look is 100% professional.

 

hey thanks that is a Speckmix Mk II, was originally built for Alan Sylvestri to do soundtrack mixing. I picked it up and spent a lot of time cleaning & replacing parts, and building a new power supply. It's pretty fun, has a passive 8-bus and 16 good sounding pres.

Ask away but post questions here on the forum cause I only know enough to be dangerous. Tons of experienced people here that can help.

 

IMO as far as what's better? Experimentation and finding what you think sounds best is the only real answer. Some guys do killer stuff all inside the DAW, others swear by analog signal path and only use the DAW as a glorified tape machine.

I bought my board originally to mix outside the computer, essentially sending 16ch out of my computer though D/A converters into the console. This is only because I'm an older guy who prefers twiddling real knobs & faders to moving the mouse, plus I can use outboard gear in the mix.

So the first issue I had to deal with was signal flow. In my case this older board's inputs are unbalanced and -10dBV for the most part, while all my other gear is +4dBu. So that required building a lot of cables (lol) and dealing with the ground wire situation. I ended up using some Ebtech gear to keep things right on both ends.

Then I had to put together a new power supply since the old one was scary and had lots of fluctuations & weird **** in the audio. The board uses an open frame bipolar psu with tweaked voltage, so I bought a new one and built a fused switchable box for it.

Good converters are pretty important, and that's where a lot of the money goes (well and cables ha!). I use an Apogee Rosetta 800 and a little Swissonic DA24 Mk2 for 8 additional d/a channels.

As far as operation:

These days I have four channels of really good outboard pres (Chandler, Phoenix) but when I do drums I use the pres on the Speck to handle 4-8 additional channels. The nice thing there is I can subgroup and route stuff creatively. From there it all goes into the a/d converters and into the DAW.

For mix, I send 16ch out of the DAW into the Speck, use the outboard comps, f/x, etc.. and then hit the 2track.

And, in the rare case I need to record something with LOTS of mics, it's nice having all the pres and channels.

 

First off, RAMSA was always pretty darn nice stuff, it was (maybe still is) the pro audio line for Panasonic, just as Tascam is the pro audio line for TEAC.

>>Am I better off mixing with my console and then tracking to the computer? Or tracking to the computer using the console as a preamp and then doing all the mixing/editing on the computer (most likely using Cubase for right now)<<

I use my analog board! I have 12 of the 16 buss outputs normalled to inputs on my MOTU 1296 interface. I don't bypass my console to track or to mix. I like the way it sounds, and it gives me a great deal of flexibility, such as being able to use my board's EQ or outboard gear if I choose to, creating different headphone mixes, all with no latency while monitoring. And the results sound very good - my work is broadcast on TV and radio, and CDs I produce have been nominated for regional awards.

>>The go between of the computer and the console will obviously need some good conversion, and I don't know if the MOTU will be good for that or not<<

It will be fine. The 2408 is a nice sounding box. No, it isn't the latest-greatest, but its converters sound pretty darn good.

I like mixing on an analog console for a lot of reasons. First, I can mix a lot of sources, including MIDI gear; I can choose to use the board's analog EQ or use software; I like the summing amplifiers on an analog board better than summing in the software; I like the monitor switching, talkback facility, ability to easily use outboard gear without latency, etc., etc. I also very much like the sound of my board. I like what it adds to the overall mix.

I also like the ability to use my board with analog tape, or a synced blend of analog and digital if I want to.

A good analog board will never be obsolete, because it doesn't need to worry about conversion. It's always got better resolution.

It is true that you wind up with an extra preamp mixing on a console. So what if it sounds good?

 

I bought a sturdy wooden kitchen table with a 1.5" top. Then built a shelf along the back for near field monitors. Piece o' cake, works great.