While waiting for some critical parts to arrive there was still one thing I could do. Assemble the D-Size panels, since most of the parts for those did arrive. Since this is going to be a design studio desk, I wanted to make sure I got all the details right. So I bought pre-drilled D-Size panels and Neutrik black connectors. I decided to mount all of them behind the panel, since that looks just a little more neat and you can remove a connector without having to remove the cable from it. And of course you mount them with black bolts… right?

Earlier I wrote about my first impressions of Mixed In Key 5 and the plan for doing a comparison between Mixed In Key 4, Mixed In Key 5 and Rapid Evolution 3 Beta 58. I’ve found a number of reviews on Mixed In Key by people, but they just blindly seem to be trusting the software without further verification.
The only blog that ever did a fair test was DJ Techtools back in 2009. The only remark for their test was that they did use a lot of pop music and as a reference used the information from Music Notes.
Although I like the key analysis software, I have the feeling they miss out a lot and should not be blindly trusted. So let’s put it to the test!

A few weeks ago I got an e-mail that Mixed In Key 5 has been released and that I could upgrade. I have been using Mixed In Key 4 actively in the past but wasn’t happy with the results. So I switched to Rapid Evolution 3 (Beta) a while ago which gave me little bit better results and is even free.
Since the upgrade to Mixed In Key 5 was only half the new price and my curiosity was peaking again I decided yesterday to upgrade.

I must say that after this much painting even I start to dislike it. But the good news is, we’re there! I’ve finished everything with a high glossy hard white paint. To make it as glossy as possible it was recommended to me to use a pencil instead of the roller I normally use for painting large surfaces. Obviously that takes much more time but it is also far harder to get smooth results. Even though I have done already a fair amount of painting in my life, I failed to get the perfect result I was aiming for. It’s not a complete failure, but there are noticeable imperfections. Probably not visible on the pictures, but when you take a good look in real life you can find them. I’m not disappointed, just a learn moment for next time. Anyway, here are the pictures of the high glossy studio desk:

Last week I had to decide on the final rack lay-out because I wanted to order the remaining 19 inch parts, which all together was still a lot. So I decided to (ab)use Visio for a quick 19 inch drawing. The application contains a drawing type that is actually for drawing 19 inch server racks. But with a little bit of creativity you can use it also for audio hardware. In the end it is only the units that count.

Already at Part 10, but my studio desk is getting more and more to the final result. So let’s see what has been done this week. First of all I got some new hardware for the racks, my second power switch panel arrived as well as a try out for the 19 inch rack lighting. Pictures of that will follow when I’m mounting everything together. I also had a quick drop by Ikea for some great looking mini table legs.

Here is already part 9 of the DIY studio console. I’m starting to wonder how many parts it will take before it is finished. Though it might never be finished in my opinion. I think I’ve fixed the issue with the CCFL lights that came off last time. I glued them again to the bottom of the racks, but this time with a little more glue on both surfaces and gave it 10 minutes for initial drying before forcing them together. In other words, I did read the manual this time. And I’ve finished all the wood work, I think…

Finally I’ve been able to spend some time again on my studio console. It has been on hold for a few weeks due to other priorities. Well not entirely on hold, I got the wood for the top and also the rack profiles for the rack on top. I have the rough design in my head on how to take it from here.

For over 2 decades, software has manifested itself more and more in all kinds of hardware. Were once was a mechanical clock in your washing machine, there now is a whole firmware running the washing program and taken care of your laundry. Even your electrical toothbrush or hair trimmer is powered by some kind of software. While one would think that a simple battery and engine would do the job.

Yesterday I went to TeachMusic in Rotterdam. They host from time to time a Producers Cafe session. Leon Hoeks from Native Instruments did an introduction to the two new entry controllers: The Traktor Kontrol S2 and Maschine Mikro. Looks like Native Instruments is on a downsize tour. For easy comparison was also the bigger version of both controllers present. But I didn’t drive all the way to Rotterdam for just that…