Studio Desk Mod Project (pics & progress)

[alexdingley]

So, I've been trying to figure out how to approach this for a while — I was given, by a client, their lightly used Sterling Modular desk that they had made in 2013. It's great! But it's also a bit too big for my home studio space & a little overkill for my workflow. Instead of selling it off, I decided to re-work it into a DIY mixer-conversion system. They sell them configured kinda like I want it, but that's like a ~$5K desk... they'd even sell me "just the parts that I need" but that's over $3K in their fancy-cut & finished MDF. So yeah... the company makes great stuff, but it's definitely prohibitively expensive for someone who's not running a full-time commercial space.

Anyway — the desk was original spec'd for some gear + a pair of Mackie MCU controllers, shown below — I almost never really mixed on those, so I just finally re-homed them.


I would like to bring my Toft ATB-16 back into arms reach so that I can have it in the input-stage part of my workflow more conveniently (it's off to the side nearly all the time right now) so I'm planning on ditching the left rack-pod and bucketing the console in the desk. Just eyeballing it; I think the console is gonna fit nicely into there (it's wider than the Mackie MCU pairing, so I can't just plop it in between the rack-pods)... but I don't really need 24 RU of equipment in the desktop (each rack pod had 12 spaces facing up in those angled racks)


But as a parent of a ~2yr old, I know that I don't have a ton of time to do these DIY projects... so I didn't wanna disassemble & build what's needed before re-assembling. I decided to use a CAD app to plan out the cuts & parts... this way I can just take it apart NOW / re-assemble & keep working my normal way for a while, during the design/drawing/build processes. Challenge is, getting the desk "drawn". Sadly... the Sterling Module manual doesn't have super-specific dimensioned drawings in it... and the center bucket was custom made for this client, so I really needed to take it all apart to draw it out.


I spent an hour last night, measuring the components & virtually "building" them in SketchUp — which finally works well with Trackpads, BTW.



I certainly could, but don't want to hack apart the original parts — in case I ever move away from the Toft console / do something else... I wanna be able to unload the Sterling Modular desk "fully working / intact" but I think I can probably accomplish what I want while making only a few small / mostly non-structural modifications to the original parts. I think I'm gonna make a low internal shelf (for HDDs / computer / power strips / USB hubs) and then a "bucket" shelf for the console to sit in. I'm also gonna make a nice new front arm rest and match that wood to a new set of outside wood side panels (the ones shown are bamboo, and I wanna do something in a darker "maple" wood.

I'm gonna virtually build a semi-full replica of the rack pods, then I can figure out what new/modified parts I'll need to make / which parts can be plywood vs which need to be hardwood / then I can build it all & do a final disassemble/reassemble when I finally have the new parts made. (fingers-crossed that my measurements are accurate enough)

My previous studio desk (shown below) was entirely made from scratch / totally eye-ball construction / but worked well and now serves another Toft Owner. So I'm confident I can do this... I just wanna minimize my studio downtime:



Wish me luck!

[jimjazzdad]

Good luck! These are nice conundrums to have...
Don't forget to show us the finished modifications.

[alexdingley]

These are nice conundrums to have...

Agreed — My side work as an "audio consultant" (meaning, I'll do whatever you need, from helping you record / teaching you how to record yourself / fixing your wife's iPhone problems / helping re-wire your home network / calling Comcast to yell at them for you / flying to San Francisco to reset your wireless router) has been super interesting and tends to come with the perk of being the guy that the disused equipment goes to. Despite not having spent my life in a full-time studio engineering career, I feel pretty lucky that I get to do the interesting work I've done.

[Nick Sevilla]

That new workstation looks beautiful.

I must now look at changing mine... since I'll be installing an Atmos setup, and what I have now is not gonna cut it.

Cheers!

[vvv]

Somewhat OT but not totally because it's pictured, how you like yer Blackstar?

Also, cool mini-desk with NS-10s.

[alexdingley]

how you like yer Blackstar?

Honestly... I love it! I'm not a serious guitar player, so I just wanted something that could cover a decent little range of tones, and this thing does quite nicely for my needs.

[shedshrine]

Wow Alex, looks great. Will be cool to see it completed in the dark maple.

[alexdingley]

Thanks! And I suppose I should have specified more clearly… in case it’s confusing. That last photo above (with the console sunk into an unfinished oak-plywood desk) is the previous desk from a few years ago. It was totally eyeballed… but the guy who took it off my hands loves it

[shedshrine]

I admit I may have skim read some parts and spent more time on the pretty pictures.
But in my defense, jimjazzdad bought the last copy of CliffNotes for "DIngley's Desk Dilemma" before I got here.
(Although it's marketed as "Alex's Conundrum" in Canada.)
Spoiler alert: the desk comes out better than awesome

[vvv]

how you like yer Blackstar?

Honestly... I love it! I'm not a serious guitar player, so I just wanted something that could cover a decent little range of tones, and this thing does quite nicely for my needs.

FWIW, the first two songs here have all guitars thru my Blackstar Soloist (MIK Dean thinline, some tracks with pedals, some not):
https://vlayman.bandcamp.com/album/a-holeinmyhead-a-3-p

I put this amp next to my Silver Jubilee, VT60, and .50 Caliber, above my HRDlx, etc., all of which I also love.

[alexdingley]

FWIW, the first two songs here have all guitars thru my Blackstar Soloist (MIK Dean thinline, some tracks with pedals, some not):

Nice! VVV; Cool tracks; I dig the guitar sounds!!

As for this evening's progress —


I got the desk pretty much drawn / then pretty much modified all in sketch up. This link is a quick video of desk rotating & zooming in sketchUp

[vvv]

Fancy!

[alexdingley]

Seems like this is coming together really easily — I haven't used Sketchup in like 5-6yrs... but it came back to me quickly.

My goal of "not fucking up" the original panels seems to be really attainable, based on what I'm figuring out. I'll need to make some small angular-cut panels to mimic the original panels, but it doesn't seem like it's gonna be rocket-surgery to get it right.



And I found a sketchUp element that's a 32-channel Toft ATB console, so I cut down that model and measured it to make sure the virtual one specs out as my real one does, and this model is accurate within an 1/8", so I'm good.