My Hunt For The Perfect Studio Desk
Introduction and Backstory:
Hey! My name is Austin Hull and I’m a professional music producer, engineer, and songwriter based out of Orlando, Florida. I have been producing music for 7 years, and I’ve been able to make a full time living from music for the past 4 years. I have learned a lot about music production throughout my journey, but I have always had one major downfall, finding the right studio desk. Finding a desk that fit my needs, my workflow, my aesthetic, my floor space, and my budget has always been a seemingly impossible challenge. I have looked at desks from any major studio furniture company you can imagine. I have tried the Ikea builds and hacks. I have looked into getting a local craftsman to build me a desk from scratch. I have literally searched everywhere, and until now I haven’t had any luck. Luckily, I recently found a company called AZ Studio Workstations. They’re a family run business based out of the United States that has a passion and a skill for creating amazing studio furniture. They make desks and sidecar units that are superbly built, look amazing, fairly priced, and the best part, they offer customized designs and modifications on all of their desks. They also offer completely custom desks if that’s more your speed! Needless to say, I finally found a company that could deliver a desk that fit my needs, and was worthy of being the centerpiece of my studio. Full disclosure, AZ Studio Workstations did send me this desk in exchange for a review, however the review is completely at my discretion and I can be as honest as I need to be. Make Pop Music will never work with a company that doesn’t let us tell our audience our honest thoughts, and thankfully, I am so excited we got the opportunity to work with AZ Studio Workstations because they are an amazing company who makes amazing products. Finding a company that is run by solid people who make solid products that fit all of my, and many other producers’, needs was an absolute dream.
How I Found AZ Studio Workstations:
As I said earlier, I have been on the hunt for the perfect desk for a couple years now and one day I came across AZ Studio Workstations website and saw multiple desks I immediately loved. I reached out to them, let them know who I was, let them know what Make Pop Music is, and asked if there was any way we could possibly work together, or if there was any way I could get some more information about the desk. I let them know that I get questions almost everyday of people looking for the right studio desk for their space, and since I loved so many of their designs, I would love to see if we could partner with them to bring some awareness to all of you guys! Within a couple hours of sending the email, the owner, Art, responded and said he loved our content and would be more than happy to work with us. Art asked me what desks I had my eye on, and I told him a few of the ones I loved, and said exactly why I was having difficulty picking. I let him know that I loved the Artista because the design and footprint looked perfect, but I really liked that the rack units on the Elite and the Stallion were straight up and down, instead of tilted. I let him know of all my needs (which will be laid out below), and that’s when he hit me with the haymaker. Art let me know that EVERY AZ Studio Workstations desk is built to order, and can be customized and modified based on the buyer’s needs. He was able to take my preferences and my needs and come up with something that was truly perfect just for me. After hearing that, I knew AZ Studio Workstations wasn’t only the perfect company to fit my needs, but they were the perfect company to fit our entire audience’s needs. Needless to say I was excited to work with them on this collaboration. Now that we have talked about how I find AZ Studio Workstations, and why I reached out to collaborate with them, let’s chat about what I needed in my workstation so you can see exactly why finding a perfect desk was a nightmare for me before I found AZ Studio Workstations.
My Needs:
Every producer, writer, engineer, and artist has their own workflow. Some people work completely out of the box with vintage analog gear, others need a simple laptop and set of headphones. I’m somewhere in the middle of those two extremes. I work primarily in the box, but I have a couple toys I like to have within arms reach. Finding a desk that fit all of my needs was no small feat considering how particular I am with my setup, workflow, and aesthetic. Let’s look at some of the needs I, and possibly many other producers, needed to check off with a desk.
1: Good Footprint: I work out of a home studio, currently in a room that is about 15D x 14W. My room isn’t small, but it definitely isn’t huge. Finding a desk that could hold all of my gear without taking up an insane amount of square footage has always proved difficult for me. I needed a desk that could sustain my immediate gear without being a mammoth hunk of wood in the middle of my medium sized room.
2: Keyboard Tray: This was by far the hardest thing I came across while looking for a desk. I wanted a keyboard tray that could hold my Juno DS-88, an 88 key, weighted action keyboard. Unfortunately, the Juno is a thicc boi and everytime I would find a desk from another company, the dimensions of the keyboard tray weren’t right. Finding a desk that could fit my chunky keyboard comfortably, without eating into my leg room literally felt impossible. To my surprise, AZ Studio Workstations offers the option to put a pull out keyboard tray on most of their models. They have several adjustable heights so you can fit virtually any keyboard imaginable under your desk, and still have plenty of room around your legs.
3: Large Tabletop Workspace: In addition to having the 88 key, weighted action keyboard, I also love using a smaller 61 Key MIDI controller. I love having synth action keys and all of the faders and pan pots on my MIDI controller. I was always under the impression I was going to have to pick one to be in my immediate reach, and put the other keyboard off to the side, which is what I did before I had my new desk. However, the tabletop on my AZ Studio Workstations desk is big enough to hold my keyboard, my mouse, the 61 key MIDI controller, and has plenty of room off to the side! At the moment I also have a drink, a SM7B, a set of headphones, and my phone on my desk and still have room to spare. Having a large table top where I can have all of my items within an arm’s reach was absolutely essential for my workflow.
4: Raised Monitor Shelf: I previously used a massive kitchen table as my studio desk, and while I love how much tabletop space it offered, let me tell you, my neck was always throbbing. I had my computer screens at the same level as everything else so I was always craning my neck down and I was constantly having neck, shoulder, and back problems. I was extremely excited to see many of the desks that AZ Studio Workstations offer have a raised shelf for monitors. My current setup has 2 24 inch monitors on top with room to spare on each side.
5: Rack Units: As I said earlier, I primarily work in the box, but every producer will still have at least a couple rack mounted units. I wanted space to have some essential units on my desk so I could reach them without going over to my sidecar. My current desk has 6 rack units which is perfect for my setup, but AZ Studio Workstations offers desk options that can hold many more, depending on your needs.
6: Aesthetic: Nothing ruins the vibe faster than a fugly studio space. I have always taken pride in having my space look clean, tidy, well lit, neatly designed, all while remaining functional. I was really disappointed when I started my search for the perfect studio desk because I immediately noticed how uncomfortable, low quality, or just flat out ugly most of the desks I found were. For my desk, I went with a matte black finish on all the wood except for my table top and the top shelf, which are a medium dark Walnut. I loved having the option to have the wood accents because it fits my style better and it feels a bit more warm and welcoming than a flat black, white, or grey desk for my taste. I also love the leg options AZ Studio Workstations offers. I went with the more modern, slanted slit legs that are normally found on the Artista desk they offer.
