[LAU] post your workspace

[frank pirrone]

Josh Lawrence wrote:
> hi list,
>
> I've been thinking about ergonomics a lot lately, and would like to
> see pics of your setup.
>
> my desk and chair are extremely uncomfortable - the desk is too high
> and the chair isn't soft.  to make matters worse, I can't get to my
> keyboard easily, which sits in a L-shape to the desk.  I keep thinking
> that a DIY solution with a laptop and a short stand might be more
> comfortable, and more productive.
>
> with that said, I'd like to see pics of your work area.  have you done
> anything interesting to make it more enjoyable to make music with?  if
> you use a MIDI controller of some sort, where do you put it?  what
> kind of chair do you have?
>
> thanks all,
>   
Josh,

Had a picture, can't find it, but it's so simple that it's not worth
taking another when a brief description will suffice:  I've got a low TV
table with casters that holds my laptop, external drive, mixer and tube
preamp/compressor on the top shelf, with my sub-woofer and satellite
speakers, effects processor and drum machine on the bottom shelf, and an
outlet strip screwed into the rear molding/frame of the top into which
everything is plugged and controllable with that single switch.  A
couple of mic stands with a SM58 along with large and small diaphragm
condenser mics are nearby.  Very nice, movable from room-to-room,
comfortable and convenient.

I have an old 44-key Casio CPS-101 MIDI keyboard in my study/computer
room which is also where my pedal board usually is found, and have a 88
weighted-keys Yamaha P-120 with sampled voices in an adjacent room where
a couple of guitar amps are located along with two 3-instrument flipper
stands holding my hollow electrics and flat-top acoustics, while
downstairs where two more amps are located in the living room I have one
more 3-instrument flipper stand holding my solid-body guitars.  A bass
guitar, some harmonicas, some recorders, and an African djembe hand-drum
round out the physical instruments at my disposal.

My current distro, dating back to early last Spring is ArtistX(.org)
which I support on the project's forum.  This is an incredible 9.8GB
multimedia authoring/editing distro with virtually every application,
codec, library, etc. for working in audio, video, and graphics, along
with all the expected productivity and technical applications.

Finally, I purchased an absolutely killer chair a year ago from a local
(and also on-line) office supply store - OfficeDepot - that has an
extremely robust frame with mesh webbing on the seat and back. 
Unbelievably comfortable...and I tried, and wore out, two padded chairs
prior to this.  The padding lost its loft, the arms lost their
alignment, arm padding broke down and in one case cracked.  I have yet
to see anywhere and for any price a padded chair that retains it's
"newness" under any kind of heavy use.  I'm sure they exist at some
price point and for some anatomies, but not in my experience. 

This chair, if it's relevant to you or anyone else reading this, is the
one sold under some OEM relationship directly by OfficeDepot, and is
made of recycled materials (origin and composition of which I probably
do not want to know!), and though I paid $299 (and worth every penny)
now sells for $249.  This class of chair is represented by a well-known
company and model - the Herman Miller Aeron Chair, but I believe that
sells for several times the cost of this one, and this very reasonably
priced chair couldn't be better made.

LOL...ran on a bit there...ultimately it would have been FAR more
efficient to have substituted a picture for the thousand words typed here...

Frank