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Adventure in Carpentry part 3.14159265...

This is a bit complicated.

You can watch the "short" version below, for the "long" version... just keep reading.

Somebody could be shocked or surprised, but I've always been interested in music, not just in listening to it, but also making it.

My skills in music-making are pretty much non-existant, so I've decided long time ago that it wasn't going to be a "profession", the lack of time and opportunities didn't helped also.

This has remained always something more of an hobby or a pastime, of cours, that didn't stopped me to dump a gigantic amount of time and money into it.

Anyhow, loooooong time ago, I was having a lot of fun with various keyboards, I've never take any "serious" lesson or training, if we ignore that pathetic excuse of "lessons" that were mandatory in school and were more "history" than else. Then I stopped, mostly because I was too busy to press keys on other type of 'keyboards'. But the hitch remained.

So, some times ago I started again to play around with keyboards (of the musical kind), synths and other stuff.

What bugged me the most however, was the lack of a decent "stand" for them. I've always found the available stands either too tall (more designed to play by standing up) or too low (I bang my knees into it). The ones that are supposed to be "adjustable", are so between 2-3 positions that are always either "too much" on one side or the other for my taste.

Ok, fine, if "they" don't do it, I'll do it myself.

Since the weather these days isn't too terrible, not that cold and sunny enough, I decided to grab the bull by the horn and build my own stand.

First I started to tackle the issue of electricity supply. That has also been a source of grief. Between keyboards, controllers, synths, amplifiers, mixers and the like, there are a number of adapters and plugs that need to be plugged in, and however design those things seems to think that you have just one single adapter in the entire house, so if you try to plug more than one in a "normal" extension box, the type you can buy in any store, the adapter ends up blocking 3 sockets at once.

What I need is the Mother of all Extension Boxes.

I then went to the local DIY store and bought a dozen wall sockets (normal built-in sockets) and a switch to pilot them. After measuring the required space, I reused some of the wood that was left over from my kitchen remodeling of 2 years ago and built a box to accomodate all of them. This time I toke the time to even paint it and give it a bit of a "pro" look. Once connected everything with thick cables and performed a "smoke" test, I went on with the rest of the project.

From Ikea I got the legs of the structure, with the possibility to raise or lower the surface to my desire, this was the most expensive part of the project, and also the heaviest.

For the table, or better tables (plural) I recycled a couple of wodden panels I had already, one of the two turned out a bit curved.

Assembly was done with screws and nuts/bolts, since I want to be able to dismount and replace all parts eventually.

My "super-extension-box" was attached below with a "basket" (also from Ikea) to collect and organize all the cables.

And then it was the matter of routing all the cables and connect everything in a way that looked as tidy as possible.

The result is what you see.

MusicDesk

Yes, there are a few things that I'll probably change (the headphone stand for example) and maybe I should give a bit of varnish to the wood, but that will came later. Probably.

 

Davide Bianchi
22/03/2025 07:23

Comments are added when and more important if I have the time to review them and after removing Spam, Crap, Phishing and the like. So don't hold your breath. And if your comment doesn't appear, is probably becuase it wasn't worth it.

12 messages post new

La smentita

By La smentita posted 22/03/2025 15:40 - reply

Ciao, bel lavoro. Ma vivi ancora in Olanda? Chiedo perché ho notato che il ventilatore sembra avere una classica presa L italiana.

In una situazione simile, io ho alimentato tutto in continua bypassando gli adattatori, tanto quelli recenti sono sempre multistandard o anche USB-C. Perfettamente d'accordo sui progettisti, secondo me spesso lo fanno per adattarsi alle prese inglesi che sono uno spreco di spazio.

-- La smentita

massimo m.

By massimo m. posted 22/03/2025 18:01 - reply

davvero un bel risultato!

Mi sembra una postazione di livello già semiprofessionale.

e invece le tue produzioni video? hai deciso di smettere con youtube?

 

-- massimo m.

Anonymous coward

By Anonymous coward posted 23/03/2025 09:15 - reply

Che versione di Ableton usi? Sembra la 9.7.5, la stessa che ho io.

Se vuoi unire le passioni di fare musica e programmazione, ho scritto un plugin VST programmabile e l'ho dato gratis. Cerca il plugin chiamato Crescendo su KVRAudio.

Ciao!

-- Anonymous coward

Davide Bianchi

@ Anonymous coward By Davide Bianchi posted 24/03/2025 06:56 - reply

Che versione di Ableton usi?

Credo la 10, ma non prendermi in parola...

 

-- Davide Bianchi

Diablitos

By Diablitos posted 23/03/2025 20:15 - reply

Un professionista a 360°... chapeau

-- Diablitos

Manuel

By Manuel posted 23/03/2025 20:43 - reply

Bellissimo! Complimenti davvero :\) 

-- ::: meksONE :::

Daniele Levi

By Daniele Levi posted 25/03/2025 13:30 - reply

Ma la "colonna sonora" del video è tua? :-\)

-- Daniele Levi

Davide Bianchi

@ Daniele Levi By Davide Bianchi posted 26/03/2025 09:53 - reply

Ma la "colonna sonora" del video è tua? :-\)

...magari... No, la canzone e' di un gruppo americano chiamato "Blonde Redhead", e' tratta da un album del 2000 intitolato "Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons", la canzone si intitola "For the Damaged" ed e' basata sull'opera "Notturna in F minore" (op.55 n1) di Chopin. Quella particolare versione e' rimaneggiata da qualcuno con l'orchestrazione. La canzone originale e' molto piu' corta e meno "epica".

 

-- Davide Bianchi

ggggiovane 2006

@ Davide Bianchi By ggggiovane 2006 posted 16/05/2025 14:05 - reply

 

Ma la "colonna sonora" del video è tua? :-\)

...magari... No, la canzone e' di un gruppo americano chiamato "Blonde Redhead", e' tratta da un album del 2000 intitolato "Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons", la canzone si intitola "For the Damaged" ed e' basata sull'opera "Notturna in F minore" (op.55 n1) di Chopin. Quella particolare versione e' rimaneggiata da qualcuno con l'orchestrazione. La canzone originale e' molto piu' corta e meno "epica".

L'ho riconosciuta praticamente subito, anche se con un altro nome:

("Evil Morty theme" perché la canzone originale è stata usata in Rick & Morty)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zh4gzV_x3UM

 

 

-- ggggiovane 2006

Daniele Levi

By Daniele Levi posted 26/03/2025 10:28 - reply

Grazie della dettagliata spiegazione: davvero molto interessnte, non conoscevo.

-- Daniele Levi

mima85

By mima85 posted 07/04/2025 07:57 - reply

Aaah, un altro informatico col pallino della musica vedo, anch'io sono rimasto folgorato dal mondo dei tasti bianchi e neri mezza vita fa. A quei tempi mi ero dilettato a sviluppare un piccolo programma che faceva da oscilloscopio e analizzatore di spettro perché trovavo affascinante non solo sentire la musica ma anche letteralmente vederla, e la cosa mi ha fatto appassionare alla sintesi del suono. Inoltre i miei gusti sono sempre stati rivolti verso musica che viene comunemente definita "vecchia", inclusa roba esotica come la chip/8-bit music che da buon nerd quale sono adoro con tutto me stesso. Risultato: ho la cantina popolata da synth anni '80, e l'esigenza di mantenermi quella collezione di dinosauri in condizioni funzionanti senza dover spendere capitali in tecnici mi ha spinto a imparare i rudimenti dell'elettronica (intendo, andando oltre il semplice "scheda rotta -> togli scheda -> metti scheda nuova" tipico dell'informatica). E di tanto in tanto mi tocca metter mano a saldatore e oscilloscopio.

-- mima85

Anonymous coward

By Anonymous coward posted 09/04/2025 14:32 - reply

Ciao Davide,

ti faccio i complimenti il risultato non solo è bellissimo, sembra proprio professionale.

 

Saluti,

Gaetano Sasso

-- Anonymous coward

12 messages post new

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