I’m going to do something different today.
Instead of a normal tutorial video,
I’m going to take you behind the scenes,
and show you the setup I use to edit my videos.
Hey guys, what’s up.
My name is Serge, and welcome back to my channel.
Let’s get this out of the way first.
This is not a typical desk setup video
where money is no object,
and you have all the latest and greatest of everything.
If that’s what you’re looking for, you might have to go elsewhere.
This is actually a fairly budget friendly setup
I’ve put together over the last few years,
that, at least for me, hits the sweet spot
between functionality and performance.
Some things I have are the latest and greatest,
and some are actually pretty old. Let’s take a look.
The whole setup is centred around the 2020 M1 Mac Mini.
This is an amazing little machine,
and honestly, at this price point, nothing even compares.
Up until I got this, I was using a 2019
16” MacBook Pro that cost just about three times as much,
and this Mac Mini performs just as good,
and in some cases, even better.
I did a few comparison videos between the two.
If you’re interested, I’ll link them in the video description below.
My only complaint about this Mac Mini, is the limited amount of ports.
This is easily solved with a USB C hub.
There’s a ton of different ones you can get on Amazon,
and the one I chose to go with
is the docking station designed specifically for the Mac Mini.
It’s the exact same shape and color,
and with the Mac Mini sitting on top of it,
looks like it’s part of the machine.
This docking station gives you three extra USB Type A ports,
one USB Type C port,
a headphone jack,
and an SD and a Micro SD card readers,
all conveniently located at the front.
You can also get these docking stations
with a built in enclosure for an SD drive,
but then you lose the USB C port at the front.
I mostly edit from a portable drive, so to me,
having this extra port at the front makes much more sense.
The display I use for my Mac Mini, is the BenQ PD 2700U.
This is a 27” 4K display,
designed specifically for photographers and videographers.
Right out of the box, it comes professionally color calibrated
to give you the most accurate colors possible
and is capable of displaying 10 bit color depth.
It also comes with HDR10 support,
with just over 400 nits of brightness
to give you the ability to preview your HDR content as you edit.
Sitting on top of my monitor is a screen bar lamp, also from BenQ.
This is awesome if you like working in a dark environment.
It completely eliminates the need for a desk lamp,
saving you space, and gives you a nice, glare free light for your desk.
You can manually adjust the brightness and color temperature,
or you can use the automatic button
to have the light perfectly adjust to your environment.
To control my Mac Mini,
I use a custom Final Cut Pro shortcut keyboard from Editor’s Keys.
The one I have is actually a genuine apple wireless keyboard with a number pad,
with shortcuts for Final Cut Pro printed right on the keys.
And here’s the coolest part.
The team over at Editors Keys custom made this one just for me,
with my picture and channel name printed right on it.
How cool is that.
But, even before this custom one,
I was already using one of their Final Cut Pro keyboards
for a few years, and loved it.
Can’t say enough good things about this brand.
On the right side of my keyboard,
I have a Logitech MX master 3 wireless mouse.
There’s a number of reasons I chose to go with this one.
It’s wireless, so it doesn’t take up any USB ports,
it has a bunch of extra buttons you can program to specific functions,
and my favourite feature is the horizontal scroll wheel.
Works awesome for scrolling through your timeline in Final Cut Pro.
To compliment my keyboard and mouse,
I’m also trying out the Tour Box Neo.
What this is, is a dedicated controller for video and photo editing apps,
like Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, Lightroom and more.
I haven’t had the chance to fully test it yet, but once I do,
I’ll make a dedicated video for it.
For audio, I’m using a set of Bose Companion 1 speakers
I got as a free bonus when I purchased my first ever iMac,
way back in 2007.
So I’ve been using them for almost 15 years,
and honestly, I haven’t felt the need to upgrade them.
If is ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
All this sits on top of a basic Ikea desk.
I got the largest size I could fit in my space to give me more space,
and keep things looking less cluttered.
Also, instead of using legs for my desk,
I went with drawers on both sides for storage.
My chair is also from Ikea,
and the main reason I got a white one,
is because it looks good,
and I tend to wear darker clothes when filming,
and it keeps me from blending into the chair.
But that’s more for my filming setup,
if you guys are interested, I can do a video on in the future.
Let me know in the comments below.
Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you back here next week.