De-Fi Platform Studio Review: A Good Compact Recording Desk Leave a comment

9 years in the past I made a decision to get again to creating music after a really lengthy hiatus. At first, my setup was extraordinarily humble, that includes an ageing ThinkPad and an inexpensive 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 displays, an audio interface, and even some ADAT expansions so I might hold extra of my ever rising gear assortment completely related.

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, but it surely didn’t give me a number 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, area for audio system, and a pull-out keyboard tray, I don’t know that I can ever return. For those who’re out there for an inexpensive studio desk in 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 it’s essential to 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 a substitute of particle board), however the primary idea is identical.

As laborious as it’s to imagine, 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, but it surely may very well be extra detailed. The “print” model, properly, don’t hassle printing it. For no matter cause, 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 slim, illegible strip down the center of a single piece of paper.

The elements 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 meeting, after my palms had been aching and I’d stripped a couple of 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 degree had been lacking on one facet, and I needed to drill them in myself. And a number of the edges weren’t significantly neat. I even obtained a fairly nasty splinter from the lip of the desktop.

Dwelling in Tight Areas

There was one fairly apparent con as soon as the whole lot was absolutely assembled: the scale of this desk. I stay in NYC, so area is at a premium, and becoming the 60-inch-wide by 38-inch-deep desk was tough. Of us with a number of area will not have the identical concern, but it surely’s price trying into the scale earlier than ordering. My house studio can also 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 displays to be positioned).

One other instantly apparent con is that the Platform Desk has no drawers. Granted, studio desks usually don’t, but it surely did imply I needed to hold across the Alex drawer unit from my previous desk for typical desk-y storage. The overall ground area taken up by my revamped recording space had out of the blue exploded.