New Studio set-up needed...ideas please...

Musician's Friend and Sweetwater sell studio furniture. 

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/studio-furniture

I know it's not entirely revolutionary but recently I put some shelves up behind my desk, with the lowest shelf about 4 inches higher than the desk. I put my screens (and some other stuff - interface, VRM box etc) on this shelf, which freed up a lot of space on the desk. I stash my MIDI keyboard underneath the shelf so it's out of the way when I'm not using it. Anytime I need it I just pull it toward me, and put my computer keyboard on the shelf between the monitors. Not exactly a pro studio setup but it worked wonders to tidy up and organize my music space, which was a cramped mess before. Of course you have to make sure you use something like toggle bolts for the shelves if you're putting heavy stuff on there. 

sharke : " Of course you have to make sure you use something like toggle bolts for the shelves if you're putting heavy stuff on there."

This is very important !

And if you use a magnet or stud finder, you can screw your shelf supports into solid wood which is very strong.

I have nightmares left over from hanging out in an acoustics forum and hearing the ways people hung their bass traps and diffusors over their heads
without regard to how well they were anchored. And some for customers.

Gypsum board is only two sheets of thin cardboard with chalk in between. Imagine if it gets damp...

Thanks Paul...I was looking at this one, which might help alleviate the issue of wide surfaces in front of the monitors...http://www.musiciansfrien...tier-metal-workstation

One thing though is the scroll ring on mine doesn't play nice with Sonar but I think that's because mine is old and starting to fail. I'm gonna have to buy a new one eventually.

I made my own        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyKlzTSmzQ0&feature=youtube_gdata   the front section can be removed and changed to match any new gear. I'm going to replace the mixer with a touch screen monitor. Make one if you can.

Another store worth mentioning for Studio Furniture:

http://www.samedaymusic.com/browse--Studio-Racks-and-Workstations--2799 

I've personally reached a stage where all of those really don't fit.

So I'm contemplating building my own...
In fact I have two 12sp rack cage rails coming in this week so
I can put them at the required depth of 30" for my UPS and C30.

MOTUs being only 7" deep are a hassle to work connections in the back of a 15/19 rack.
Radias being only 5" seems to be better suited to being angled down from above.
Desks in productions are usually too long and not deep enough.
And the desktop rack bridges never take into account that you lose the bottom 2/3 spaces
with whatever you put on the desk in front of it.

It would be really nice if these companies actually built them as they are used.

How good of a carpenter are you and are you allowed to attach stuff to your walls? I've built tons of desks mounted directly to the walls with angled supports (so there are no desk legs getting in the way) and then built platforms around that. Sometimes I'll hang shelves from chains attached to the ceiling and stuff too. 

All made out of sheets of laminate given to me or yanked out of the trash (think broken down Ikea stuff). Then I just buy some screws and 1x4's (for extra support and to give the screws something solid to bite into). I attach it all to the wall studs but if I can't for some reason (aluminum studs, drywall/plaster on concrete, etc...) I use evenly space plugs to attach the main mounting 2x4 (usually salvaged as well) then work around that.

I've made crazy set ups this way in some seemingly impossible spaces. Now however I can't really do that because my current space won't allow for it and I'm not quite as physically capable of that level of mayhem. The current set up is a couple old interior doors that I attached folding steel table legs to (with 1x4's for extra support and to give the screws something to bite into) and one folding desk with a resin top. The table legs were $20 a pair and the resin table was $40. I want to cover the door tables with sticky floor tiles so they are a cleanable high gloss surface (currently just enamel paint which isn't great but works). 

Essentially I have three huge surfaces. The resin top is where my DAW lives. One of the door tables is on the abutting wall creating an L shaped work surface with the resin desk and has my Line6 head on it and I use it to put my laptop there so I can read manuals, the forum, lyrics etc (I keep copies of all that stuff on the laptop so I can just have Sonar in view on the big rig at all times). Eventually my mixer and when I need it my big keyboard will live there too. The other door desk is on the other side of the room and is basically a work table where I can work on my guitars and stuff but I also have my old DAW sitting on it so I can eventually fire it back up to transfer all my old projects to the new system. It might end up being where the laptop will live eventually too if I decide to leave my big keyboard set up all the time.

Long winded post is long winded but I'm taking a break from cleaning and figured it might give you some ideas. Cheers, Frosty.

BTW:
I have the same problem with simple keyboard stands for decades.
Racks divide into what things must be horizontal (computers and back up power)
and those more acessable in front and back by angling them on a movable axis.
It's best if we remember that a percentage of our time dealing with
racks are in the back of it.

Everything could be better designed.

I have a highly modified Fender Squier with a wireless Logitech trackball mounted to the right of the bridge using double sticky pads. There's also a wired optical mouse on that same computer, the two get along fine and don't fight. Very handy while moving around playing guitar, easy to stop and start Sonar without my guitar banging into the desk. I wouldn't do that to a guitar with a nice finish but the Squier is plain black. I have to pull the adhesive pads to change trackball batteries once in a while, and the remaining adhesive rolls off the guitar finish with thumb pressure.
 
One thing to be aware of...this trackball is designed to operate in a horizontal position, with gravity holding the ball tight to both X-Y rollers to scroll smoothly in two dimensions. With the trackball mounted on the face of the guitar while standing, there's a bit of slop in precision trackballing, but my fingers learned to allow for it the first day.
 
 
 

Jay Tee 4303
One thing to be aware of...this trackball is designed to operate in a horizontal position, with gravity holding the ball tight to both X-Y rollers to scroll smoothly in two dimensions. With the trackball mounted on the face of the guitar while standing, there's a bit of slop in precision trackballing, but my fingers learned to allow for it the first day.
 
 
Maybe a Logitech Trackpad would be better?
  
http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Rechargeable-Touchpad-Multi-Touch-Navigation/dp/B0093H4WT6/ref=pd_bxgy_e_text_y