Logic Pro Expert team member Eli Krantzberg has been thinking of changing his studio desk for years and along comes the plug-in company Output, disruptors that they are, with of all things, a studio desk! See what Eli thinks of it...

My old desk, although I had grown used to it, was not set up properly for the needs of a musician. My MIDI keyboard was off to the side, and way too high. The qwerty keyboard on a lower shelf, was way too low. I had attached cup hooks along the outer perimeter to hold the various mic and speaker cables in place going to and from my audio interface, compressor, control surface, monitors, etc. It all kinda' worked okay, but it was time for a step up to a proper studio desk.

Output Making Studio Furniture?

Along came the plug-in company Output, disruptors that they are, with of all things, a studio desk! And wouldn't you know it, it is designed exactly for the needs of us DAW users. I had looked at some other brands. They were all very nice, but expensive. I couldn't quite justify the outlay in cash. Platform, the new studio desk from Output, hit the sweet spot dead on in terms of features, aesthetics, and price. This was it, time to take the long delayed plunge!

I ordered the desk, with the optional pull-out keyboard tray. It was delivered from California to me in Montreal (Canada) in two big boxes, with absolutely no problems at customs - which can often be a big issue for Canadians ordering from the US.

Setup was fairly straight forward, except for the keyboard tray. The included pictogram was barely comprehensible. But a friend and I had it figured out without pulling out too much of our remaining hair. I am loving the desk, but truth be told, it has entailed somewhat of an adjustment. Check out the video below to get a sense of the steps my friend and I went through getting it set up:

New Layout

Getting used to the new layout and adjusting to the new heights took a week or so. That's to be expected. But I made one crucial mistake that I would strongly suggest anyone reading this and contemplating a new desk, try and avoid. I changed the placement of the desk in my studio at the same time as changing the desk itself. This doesn't necessarily have to be a problem. But in my case, it involved re-orienting not only my work space, but also the sound, and acoustics of my room. The new orientation has the monitors positioned differently in relation to the walls and door; which as we all now, influences the sound. So as I am getting used to the new surrounding of my physical space, I am also having to "re-learn" my room somewhat. If you're like me and try and avoid change until or unless really necessary, don't make both of these changes at the same time if you can avoid it!

Conclusion

All in all, I think this is a great studio desk, and a fantastic step up from what I had previously. It’s got more rack spaces than I need, so I opted to leave the included rack ears off in order to better utilize the available real estate. It’s rock solid, and I expect it will be the last studio desk I will ever need to buy. I can’t wait to see what Output comes up with next!