Music/computer desk advice - buy or build?

elsmandino

I am trying to tidy up my office a bit and would be grateful for some advice on buying a new desk.

I am into home recording so ideally I need additional shelves for speakers etc. as well as using it as a regular workstation (at the moment, I have everything on top/lying on the floor under a cheap regular table I bought from IKEA years ago).

The office is rather pokey so anything that saves space is going to be a bonus - the room isn't particularly big in terms of area but the ceiling is pretty high.

I currently have a 61-key midi keyboard that I put on my current desk but then have to store vertically in another room when not in use.  Ideally I would like any new desk to have a tray for this - I hope to upgrade this keyboard to an 88-key version so the tray would need to be big enough for a full size keyboard.

What do you think I should do?

I am not too bad at DIY so I could build something bespoke, unless there are reasonably priced fully-functional products that would work just as well?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Khazul

I just use 3 regular ikea desk tables that I bought many years ago. One is 1600x800, the other two are 1200x600 and they are arranged to give me a kind of wrap around desk.

I have my monitors on the desk on acoustic foam (along with a huge matching sub under the desk), I used to have 19" desk rack on the side desks along with an mac laptop on a arm stand (in addition to the PC worksation). I too have my keyboard (Virus TI 61 key) on the desk and went through a variety of self build arrangements including a large bridge over the keyboard for screen and other bits. I could accommodate an 88key on the desk, but as most of what I do is electronic, then I use the synth keyboard much more and TBH I kind of prefer to be a bit more sit-down when playing piano parts on an 88key.

What I bought recently that has made a huge difference is an amazon basics monitor arm. The end result is I have completely recovered all the desk space that the monitor takes, so having keyboard permanently on the desk is no bother any more.

I do still have another keyboard stand on one side of me (which is where my 88key lives) and a pair of 21U racks on the other side (I had a lot of outboard gear) on top of which are my decks (2 turntables and 2 CDJs) and DJ mixer also on a DIY made console.

The whole lot fits into about a 2800mm x 2400mm space in a much larger room with the desks occupying the long dimension. The desk now have ikea kallax units on them as Ive since moved all the rack gear into pair of big racks and actually selling off most of the hardware.

RBZ5416

The perfect desk for music producers.  I found it!

technoman28

Note the last post on the thread Croc linked to, £20 from Ebay so keep your eyes open. Looking at completed listings on there, they seem to go for between £40-80ish, and definitely worth it, not sure if an 88 key would fit though, (76 key D70 does).

Khazul

You need about 130-140cm for an 88key depending on presence of pitch/mod controls next to low C.

technoman28

Fredde is 132cm wide, front edge extends about 23cm from the metal frame.