- GITS 2017 Music -
In this video,
I want to share with you how I set up my iPad Pro and Mac studio
to complete the variety of daily tasks that I have
as an independent artist, YouTuber, educator and Twitch Streamer.
To keep things brief, we'll focus mainly on my desks and what is on top of them.
And then later on, we'll take a look at the rest of my space in a later video.
By the way, make sure to check out my 2021 ultimate studio tour video.
As many of the things I have featured there, are still here today.
The overall setup is composed of two desks that are arranged in an L-shaped pattern
with a gap at the corner for my uninterruptible power supply or UPS
for short.
I wanted to have one main desk that is the most professional, aesthetic
and inviting space free of excess cables and wires and view anywhere
the other desk.
(dont look under the table)
However, on the left side of the room is where most of my production work happens.
But we'll talk about that later on.
My main desk is actually a kitchen table from Rove Concepts
(model no longer available :( .
I selected it not only for the beautiful laminate
white finish, but because of the extra six inches of depth
it has compared to most other office desks.
On top of it sits the centerpiece to perhaps
my entire studio set up now - the Hexcal Studio monitor stand.
This is a super powered super overkill monitor stand
that features a dimmable and a temperature adjustable led light strip, adjustable
stainless steel legs, a built in power strip, a Qi wireless charging surface,
external data ports, and an internal cable management space.
I would show you all that stuff, but I have it packed to the brim
and perfectly managed and don't ever plan to mess with it again
because it was a huge headache to put together.
Basically, you have to try fittings, replace things
multiple times to get it to be perfect, but it's worth it.
It's definitely not for everyone, though, especially
since it's still a startup company with this being their only product.
(not sponsored) But the second I saw it, I knew it was for me.
Sitting on top of the monitor stand, we finally arrive at my M1 Ultra Mac studio.
The number one reason I purchased it was because of the massive port
selection and the support of over four 4K displays, which I do actually use.
If you take a look at the back, you can see that I have every single port
filled up because I create so much content from this setup.
A device that can support so many high throughput devices
connected all at once is a godsend.
With the Mac studio, I can easily stream
to twitch and screen record at the same time.
This can be with two 4K camera feeds and Photoshop running as well.
It's also surprising.
Capable for streaming games without a hitch from my PlayStation
five using my Elgato HD60S+ on either side of my Mac.
There are 2, 32" 4K BenQ monitors
and although they are heavy and look comically large with my setup,
the large amount of screen space they have is super worth it for me.
So far.
On top of both monitors, I have the Ben Q ScreenBar Halo.
They sent me one for this video, but I liked it so much
that I purchased another on my own.
When I switched to a horizontal monitor setup.
It comes with a cool little wireless puck that lets you change the brightness
and color temperature without ever having to touch the physical light itself.
These things are really great to have when it gets dark at night
and you need to balance the lighting around you
with the lighting of the monitor to avoid having eyestrain.
Let's get back for a moment to the overall design strategy for this desk.
My goal this time was to have absolutely zero friction.
My workflow tends to be quite modular, so
I prefer having as much as I can within arm's reach.
So if I want to switch from drawing to video editing or writing emails,
I prefer to have plenty of space to move things
around, to convert my environment to best suit the task.
My felt desk mat from Grovemade allows me to have clear
visual markers to keep the strategy easy to implement.
So to my left, I keep whatever books I'm currently studying from at the moment.
Today it's Stonehouse's Anatomy by Superani and Color and Light by 3D total.
On the surface of the mat itself,
I have the full size Apple keyboard and the new Black Apple magic trackpad
sitting nicely in their respective grove made walnut frames.
This is also where I keep the Parkslope stand by Twelvesouth.
I've been using the first version for years,
so I was thrilled when they sent over the new design.
It's much lighter than the old one and works for multiple different devices.
It's still my preferred go to stand when I want to film on my iPad screen
for a YouTube video or just use it for productivity purposes.
I also tend to keep a regular graphics tablet on my desk to use
with video editing or just to navigate across my multiple screens.
One of the best things about the mat, however,
is that when I want to eat at my desk, I can simply wrap everything up,
put it aside, and have a large, easy to clean surface to place my food.
To the right of the desk mat.
I have an IMac stand from Twelvesouth
that I've repurposed into a beautiful hard drive storage cabinet.
The walnut and dark gray aluminum match my set up perfectly.
I can easily reach over and grab any cables and wires or drives
that I need to connect to my Mac studio for editing.
Behind that, I have a little pen holder from Grovemade
that again is made from a beautiful piece of walnut.
You can tell I love my nuts.
(funny joke) This is mirrored on the opposite end of the table
with the walnut headphone stand that they also make.
My golden walnut, MEEZY?
Mizzy? 99
headphones.
I don't know how you pronounce it
but they look absolutely perfect paired with it.
In the farthest back corners of my desk.
I also have my Kanto YU6* speaker set.
They are way too big for the setup, but I have nowhere else
to put them in my apartment.
But I do like to play loud music pretty regularly anyways, so it works out.
The Kanto Sub8 subwoofer I recently purchased helps instantly set the mood
with any of the ambient soundtracks that I like to leave on during the day.
This, however, leads me to my favorite new additions to the space.
The ebony Felt Right acoustic panels on the back wall.
I plan to save this later
for my fourth studio tour, but I really wanted to show them off here.
They make for a perfect way to customize the room without damaging the walls
or get into the much bigger hassle of painting them black.
Now let's finally get into the second desk here.
This is the same Flexisport Kanna Pro standing desk that I had from last
year's video.
I use the largest felt desk mat that Grovemade makes.
It covers most of the space and actually acts as another helpful
guide to arranging things on the surface of the desk.
For example, the exposed bamboo on the right side
houses my windows PC, yet my side windows.
I still keep my PC
hooked up to my Cintiq pro 32 inch display tablet in the center of the desk.
I keep it around mainly because of the powerful NVIDIA 2080Ti GPU inside.
Hopefully when I finally finish paying for my Mac studio,
I can afford to update my PC.
In the meantime.
I have at least upgraded the main storage to the super fast Samsung 980 pro 2
terabyte SSD to make learning Unreal engine 5 go a little bit more smoothly.
The projects in there
take up a ton of space and I plan to get lots of new 3D assets.
I want to also get back into making architectural environments
and interiors like I did back in architecture school
and then use them in my illustrations moving forward
in order to
have the best lighting and options for top down filming.
I have everything mounted to an eight foot wide steel square tube.
The desk's main purpose is function.
Instead of being pretty,
it's highly efficient, adjustable and therefore comfortable.
This time, though, the tube is held up by too heavy duty, extra tall vivo
monitor arms that are secured by two manfrotto clamps on each side.
This allows me to mount my Sony A7S 3 Camera
one and Light led tube and one atomos ninja five recorder.
I can easily turn on and off each item along with previewing
and adjusting the shot just by looking up for my face cam.
I have my new Sony A74 mounted in the back left
corner with another Atomos recorder on top.
This gives me the perfect esthetic
for talking head videos, courses, tutorials and video calls.
My old A73 sits somewhere in between my tables.
Now, currently just waiting until I want to pick it up to use it on the go,
even though most of us aren't spending our entire lives in quarantine anymore.
This is always how I live my life, so I still regularly engage
in calls and conversations with other artists friends online.
It also helps to make a great
first impression for businesses and collaboration calls,
when I have my pretty desk set up in the background.
For my microphone, I have the Sennheiser MKH 416 now set on the Elgato low profile
microphone arm and it beautifully swivels between each desk whenever I need it.
On the main surface of the the Flexispot desk, I like to keep my iPad pro inside
of my Sketchboard pro for drawing, especially for long hours.
However, I also like to put my entire Sketchboard pro setup on top of another
stand for that perfect easel like drawing experience for the monitors.
I have my welcome 32 inches
Cintiq (discontinued) next to another welcome 16 inch cintiq.
Now, this definitely isn't the ideal combination of devices for this space,
but it works perfectly for me
since this is where I do most of my streaming on Twitch
and then the 16 inch is mounted vertically on another arm, which makes it super
easy to use for reading chat as I draw when I don't want to use my iPad.
I can simply set my Sketchboard pro down on the ground against the desk
and then I can set my iPad down on its grove made stand or put it back on my main
editing desk.
Then I can bring my 32 inch cintiq towards me and draw on it
while I can use the 16 inch one as a second monitor if necessary.
Both my Windows PC and Mac studio are connected to this monitor,
so I can also
leave it back in the upright position and then use my new favorite keyboard.
The new Logitech mx mechanical.
I really love the feel of the typing experience on the quiet-tactile variant
I have, and since it's
wireless, I can move it around freely and switch between my Mac Windows PC
and iPad Pro at the press of a button next to my keyboard or iPad.
I have half of the MoonLander keyboard now.
This is my preferred keyboard
macro device as it works with virtually anything you can plug it into.
This includes my iPad and even my Samsung tablets.
I hope you enjoyed watching my updated 2022 desktop.
I really wanted to go all out and make absolutely no compromises
were my cyberpunk futuristic design and aesthetic that I have.
I am super proud of how nice it is to work here day or night
and the super cozy vibe of being in a relatively small 10 by 11 foot room.
Check out the links below to purchase any of the products
I mentioned from Grovemade, Twelvesouth and BenQ.
There are also many little things that I did not mention
that will be linked to below,
but I'll be providing a small Excel sheet on my Gumroad page for free,
as well as many of the things that I can't remember to be included there.
(give me a week) I also start trying to keep a list of my updated items
on my website at ergojosh.com Feel free to leave any questions
you have about my setup in the comments and I will see you all in the next one.
Keep trying and stay positive piece.
BTW, I am slowly working on a procreate course that's going to teach you
how to do basically everything that I do in Procreate.
So look forward for that and that's basically what I'll be working on.
So you might not see any videos for a while, but
until then, know that something really cool is coming up.
All right.
Take care.