In this article I want to outline several ways in which, with a little thought, we can make our studios work for us rather than against us.
I'm sure that I'm not the only person who has the spark of an idea that I want to get down, but it isn't long before the stuff that is meant to empower the creative process has slowed me down, if not completely derailed me. I wrote at length some time ago in my article 'Has The Home Studio Dream Become A Nightmare?' about this.
However, I can't blame all of my distractions and roadblocks on technology, some are down to me not working smarter.
“Some of us seem to want to make our studios into museums not hit factories. They might make cool social posts but often don't help our productivity."
I recently moved my home studio around, which meant taking it all apart and putting it back together again.
What become apparent as I undertook this exercise as how many ways I was wasting time because of poorly designed parts of my studio workflow and not working as smart as I could. Here are several ways I want to suggest a rethinking and re-ordering of our studio work space to avoid the trip hazards on the path to creativity.
Pull Stuff Out You Don't Use
I posted an image to my studio makeover on Facebook and one of my friends jokingly asked 'How many extra cables did you end up with after you put all the same stuff back together?' I replied with the picture shown below.
That image was only the start becuase once I had got the studio back up and running I decided to go through the back of my racks and found endless cables and other paraphernalia that was redundant. It collects dust, is hidden from me when I'm looking for it and so I end up buying it again. Furthermore, all those cables were a rat's nest and one pull of a cable was likely to pull several cables with it. So my first piece of advice is pull out all cables, hubs and even studio gear you are not using. If you haven't used it in a year then take it out and store it. Only have the stuff you use on a regular basis in your studio, some of us seem to want to make our studios into museums not hit factories. They might make cool social posts but often don't help our productivity.
Label Everything
While ripping out the rat's nest of cables the amount of wall-wart PSUs I found was insane. Even more insane was not knowing which unit they were for, this led me to waste a lot of time figuring out the voltage and current to determine which product they were likely to power.
I had the same issue with cabling. So my second piece of advice is label everything, especially power-related items. You don't want to pull the wrong power cable out in the middle of a data back-up and you don't want to fry a piece of hardware by using the wrong power supply.
Position Matters
I have one of those studio desks that includes some rack space under the monitor shelf as well as rack space below. As I was setting up a guitar patch the other day I realised that having my Eleven Rack across the desk was a bad idea. It meant reaching over the counter top which at best is awkward and at worst mean pranging my guitar in the process, so I moved it bottom right. Now it makes far more sense to reach down to make changes to a guitar sound. I also moved my SSL Alpha Channel for the same reason. It's now right next to where I have a vocal mic set-up, rather than half way across the other side of the room. So it's worth considering how you work to set up the studio equivalent of the Kitchen Triangle.
With the Kitchen Triangle thinking in mind I also got rid of the rug my office chair sits. When I roll around between my desk and keyboard it would inevitably get caught coming on and off the rug - it was a nice aesthetic but a bad functional choice.
“All of the things I've highlighted above seem small, if not trivial, but combined they all help to remove distractions, if not headaches that slow down the creative process"
Make Space
Before I moved my studio around I had made a fatal flaw in the set up of the desk, I was positioned too close to the wall which meant when I needed to go behind to change things around or check a cable I couldn't fit without some serious gymnastics. It also meant less space for air to move and for cables to be kept tidy.
If you can try to create ample space behind your working position.
Front Or Back?
Finally, I also realised that some gear needs to be at the front with easy access and other stuff at the back if I don't need regular access. One such item was my USB hubs. I've spent some time trying to find a good quality rack-mount 19" USB hub. Contributor James Richmond told me about a cool USB hub from a brand called Sensa. Now I have a hub behind my racks and one at the front which means I can plug in USB3 hardware in an instant without having cables running across my studio desk and around the back.
Little Things… Big Differences
All of the things I've highlighted above seem small, if not trivial, but combined they all help to remove distractions, if not headaches that slow down the creative process. They can be applied to both home and commercial studios and will help you work smarter rather than harder.
If you have any smart studio workflow tips then please share them in the comments.