Over the last few weeks I've been intermittently working
on a new editing desk set up here at the studio,
and today I'm finally going to show it to you.
Let's get undone.
[offbeat music]
♪ Gerald Undone ♪
♪ He's crazy ♪
What's happening everybody, I'm Gerald Undone,
and that's how the cookie crumbles.
So this video doesn't have a clear disclosure.
Some of the components were supplied by the brands
that I'll be discussing and others I bought,
but I'll be giving you my honest opinions of each piece
either way. This video does have a sponsor though,
and that's Gear Focus.
More about them later on in the video.
[upbeat music]
♪
Alright, so this is the new setup, so I'm just going
to give some mini reviews of everything I'm using here
that becomes the entire editing desk if you will, and to start off
I'll start with the desk and the chair,
both of which are from Autonomous.
Now, I've already had this desk for a little while.
In fact in my-- I made a previous video about
an editing setup and this desk was included.
It's a sit/stand desk, so it goes up.
Like that, and it works well. You know it's well built.
I like it. I like the colour of it-- everything. I'm not big
into cable management, meaning that I don't think--
I think it's overrated. I think people try too hard.
You know, nobody looks at your desk other than you
and then you share the photos. So what do you care?
Make it functional. Function over form.
Because this is a sit/stand desk
there is a function aspect to cable management
because you have to make sure your cables
don't get torn out when the desk goes up and down.
So I did make sort of a cable harness here
that works well at both heights.
But on the desktop I only did medium cable management.
And typically I'm all about cords for things like
I like a corded keyboard, a corded mouse.
So I've got those to contend with. The monitor speakers
here have cables, but I kind of hid them into
the ports in the desk, which is nice
that the desk comes with that. Monitor has cords.
My interface has cords, but yeah, I did my best
to make it look good, but we'll get more in
to all those parts in a second.
Next up, Autonomous also sent over this chair.
This is their ErgoChair Pro. It feels pretty good.
I have some things I really like about it
and some things that I'm sort of so-so on.
Build quality compared to the desk.
It feels-- Okay, so it's all plastic,
but if you can imagine something that's a plastic build
that feels solid going together, that's what this was like.
It wasn't as metal as some of the you know,
gamer chairs that I had before, but it's much more comfortable
than the gamer chairs that I had before, so I like it.
But there are some things that I don't like, for example,
these arms here. They're adjustable, which is nice.
You can slide them forward back, they go,
they twist a little bit and I think they even go in
and out like that, but it's not with any kind of lock,
so sometimes, you know, you'll be doing something,
maybe you lean too hard and then the thing slides back on it.
So you kinda gotta get used to that.
You can also go up and down with them
so I like all the adjustability,
it's just at times it feels a little
bit rickety 'cause it's all plastic.
The elbow pads are pretty comfortable
and the seat is great and there's a lot of adjustment
like I said, oh including-- there's a headrest which I like.
With gamer chairs, they come with that weird little neck pad.
Where do you put that? That never does anything.
So on this side there's a lever. It lets you,
you know, basically it unlocks the back
and then there's a crank over here,
I think, that lets you adjust the tension
for that so you can set it to the level that you like,
but you can definitely sort of ease back with it.
And when you release this one and then the other one
at the same time, you can slide your butt forward or backwards.
You can get like quite the... so if you do that and... this,
then you can. You can almost like lay down
in the chair. And then also on this side.
You have your typical raise
and lower the chair and I'm happy with the heights
and it hasn't really sunk down on me or anything weird.
I think for the price it feels
just maybe just slightly overpriced.
$100, $150 less, I would say best chair in its price point.
At its current price point
it just feels like a, like a decent option.
I've had better posture and stuff using it, so if
you're coming from a gaming chair which you can actually get
some gaming chairs at the same price,
I would definitely get this instead,
feel like it's better for your posture
and overall pretty good chair.
OK, moving on, computer.
I built a whole new machine for this setup,
but I'm not going-- This is going to be separate.
I'm going to take it out of here and we'll talk about
the computer separately, but one thing you will notice
is you can't really see inside it.
There is no RGB in this machine
and I'm kind of proud about that even though I have my own
lights going on here, but I wanted to build a computer,
especially if you remember my last.
This is another build that I did
with GIGABYTE Aorus. For my previous one
I had all these RGB parts and I was getting
interference coming out my monitor speakers
and everything and the RGB turning on and off
or making sounds like through the speakers so...
And I also just don't, I don't personally love RGB that much.
I like good clean solid looking components
and so that's what this is filled with.
And I can't wait to show you the parts that are inside.
But RGB free PC and I'm using the Phanteks P600S
gray version of the case, so it kind of matches this overall,
you know, monochrome aesthetic kind of thing.
The carpet was originally here when I had this set up
for-- it was a couch and a TV, so it was like a nice little
rug to kind of walk on, but I thought I'd leave it here.
The chair actually, which isn't probably great
for the rug, but the chair moves nicer on the rug
than it does on my normal sort of slate floors.
That's one thing I would say about the Autonomous chair
is it moves nicely even on a short-haired rug.
In case you're wondering, 'cause I mentioned the rug
and the computer, there is a piece of black wood
that's hard to see, but it's a little bit bigger
than the computer and the computer is sitting on it,
not directly on the rug because I'm not a monster.
I'm not going to let rug fibers all up in my fans.
These are Yamaha HS5s for the studio monitors.
Like them, bought those myself
had these ones for a little while now.
A couple of years, and then I've got those
whatever they're called, IsoAcoustic
isolation pads, which I think are pretty good too.
And then over here, this one...
Which is what's connecting to the monitor speakers,
Audient sent this over recently. I haven't had a chance
to talk about it, so this would be opportunity here.
Thanks Audient. This is their iD4 MKII.
I've been using the iD4 for awhile and so I was
excited to try this one out but I wanted a reason
to do it so that's it here. It's basically the same.
Exact same design like from the look of it, but there
are a couple of things that have changed.
First off, this button here which is
illuminated now instead of pressing it
to mute your speakers.
It being on means your speakers are on.
If it turns off then your speakers are off.
Sometimes I put on headphones
and then I mute the speakers.
In this case you turn your speakers on,
so that's just one small change.
But the change that I really like is the back two ports,
the TRS ports that go to your monitor speakers
on the previous one
the left output was on the right and the right output
was on the left, and so your cables always crossed over.
I never understood that. Well now they flipped them.
The cable goes directly from the left side
of the interface to the left speaker and the right to--
It's a small thing, but it made a difference.
They said that it's supposed to sound better.
I gotta be honest with you, I didn't really notice,
but we're talking marginal differences,
but it still sounds great
and the knobs are a little bit more clicky
and it just feels like a bit more modern design.
And I like the new, you know,
darker grey aesthetic to it.
And software wise it now has the loop back function
that the EVOs had that the original iDs don't.
So now you can get loop back recording on that
if you want to as well. And USB-C
instead of the old USB-B, like, printer cable
that the old one used.
Now it's on USB-C, which is great.
So overall it's 2021 version of the iD4
and this will probably be my go to recommendation
for an audio interface at its price point. I love it.
Next up, let's talk about the monitor.
This is the BenQ SW271C.
I've already talked about and used the SW271,
which is why when I needed a new monitor for the setup.
I reached out to BenQ and was like,
"Hey, you got something like that one?"
'Cause I was a big fan of that one,
and they're like, "Well, we have the C on the end."
So basically it's kind of like a refresh.
It's really only minor improvements
and I would say that probably for some people
if you swap theirs out they might not be able to tell.
It has hardware calibration, which is great
with, I think, a 14... 14-bit, maybe.
Maybe 16-bit hardware LUT that you can install
for calibration, which worked excellently,
and having used sort of a not so colour accurate
ultrawide for the last little while,
and then switching back to this
and looking at my videos again on here
they just look great. So the skin tones look better.
It's like that's exactly how I wanted it to look,
so I love the image coming out of this thing.
There's a couple you know, pros and cons.
If I had to give a quick review on it. For the price
you're really paying for the look of the image in SDR.
The SDR image on this is fantastic.
if you want HDR...
Even though it says it has HDR certifications,
the peak brightness isn't bright enough
and it's not true 10-bit either.
It's 8-bit FRC, which is basically
a way to change colours really quickly,
so you can kind of create all the colours without actually
having the ability to output them all simultaneously.
Just change them so fast that you feel like
you have all 10-bit colours there.
So for the price...
I feel like you should be getting a proper
10-bit HDR panel, but you're not.
but at the same time you are getting
a really, really, really nice--
It just has a character to it that I really like
for your SDR content, and so since I still edit
and do all my YouTube videos in SDR doesn't really bother me.
My YouTube videos look fantastic
on the screen, just feeling for the price
maybe it's a bit too expensive for that.
It also comes with those panels that you can have
coming out here if you have, if you have light that you need
to control from spill and ac-- getting on your screen,
two on the side and one on the top.
I don't have them on because I don't really need them
'cause I can control the light in here.
It's a great monitor, I just feel like maybe it's not
that great for the price
with just the small changes
that came with the refresh. This is a new product for me.
This is the HyperX Alloy Origins.
Now, I'm not one that really goes in for gamer keyboards.
I typically just prefer a standard layout
and I like a little bit of a backlight,
but I don't like crazy RGB on the keyboard either.
You'll notice I did the keyboard and mouse in the purple colour.
I've noticed that a lot of the keyboards
that are designed, like Ducky's and stuff like that,
that are designed for keeping that simple look
have really gone with the shorter design like a 60%
or maybe a couple of macros, but they don't have a tenkey.
But if you want an actual full size tenkey keyboard
it's a little bit tricky to get a standard layout with just
simple USB-C and not a lot of extra features.
So for the price this HyperX Alloy Origins
does pretty much that. You don't need any fancy software
to really get it up and running, you can just plug it in.
It's USB-C and it's detachable
right from the keyboard and it's just a simple standard--
standard keyboard as far as-- there might be a couple options.
This one uses their switches that they call...
You can see here, the Hyper Aqua Tactile,
It's their own switches.
But I would say comparably
to me they're kind of like MX Browns.
[clacking]
I would say they fall somewhere between
Cherry MX Browns with like a little bit leaning
towards the MX Reds, so they're not quite as...
But definitely tactile, they don't--
They're not quite as clicky. Not that the Browns
are very clicky, but the Browns have a little bit more.
I find like a little bit more ping to them.
These ones are a little bit more...
A little bit softer, but I quite like them.
So, Aqua switches but HyperX Alloy Origins
is a pretty decent little keyboard.
As far as the mouse, there's nothing new over here.
This is still a Logitech G502.
I have like three of these things and every one of
my computers runs them.
I've always been a fan of this. I don't know why I just,
I think it feels great. I like the weight of it
and even though I never use any of the extra buttons,
this one's got kind of gamery buttons.
I really only need like a three-button mouse
but I just really like the way the 502 feels.
And this is the, I think, the Proteus Spectrum or whatever
so you can make the little G purple if you want.
I put a little sound treatment stuff up.
These are those janky panels I made myself
a couple years ago, and then some foam.
Foam is mostly decorative there,
so let's take the computer and I'll throw it over on the desk
and I'll tell you about the parts that are in there,
unless this video has run too long at this point,
then I might just go over there and end it
and make a separate video about the computer.
We'll find out in a couple of seconds
Now, while editor Gerald reviews that last scene
to decide where to end this video,
Let me tell you about today's sponsor Gear Focus.
Something you might not know about Gear Focus
is that they aren't just for cameras and lenses.
I've actually had great success selling computer components
and other editing gear there as well.
So if you're updating your own editing station,
consider selling your old stuff on Gear Focus,
which in turn will help fortify the used market on there
for other shoppers looking to build an editing setup
with quality preowned gear. The interface is simple
and intuitive and they're constantly adding
new functionality to help you buy or sell
your gear more efficiently. And best of all,
they offer the lowest fees in the game.
Well, if you're like me, the best aspect
is that you avoid all those annoying questions
and lowball offers you get from conventional marketplaces.
Basically, in my opinion, Gear Focus
is the best platform to sell your gear currently,
and they're only getting better.
So thanks again for sponsoring this video.
And make sure you check them out using the link
in the description below.
Alright, so based on the current length of this video,
I think it would be better if I turn this PC build
into a separate episode so that I don't feel rushed.
So you can expect that in a couple of days. See you then.
But that's going to be for me. I hope you found
this video entertaining or at least helpful,
and if you did, make sure to leave the old thumbs up
and consider subscribing if you haven't already,
but if you did not find this video helpful or entertaining,
try setting the playback speed to 75%.
Alright... I'm done.