Post pics of your setup

[Charles Papert]

good eye, John!

I will admit a weakness for the Aston Martin DB5 (OK, pretty much any Aston Martin). Had a chance to inspect one of the actual cars used in "Goldfinger" a few years back, which was a religious experience. The model on top of the monitor was released by the Danbury Mint a few years back and is really exquisitely detailed (and yes, the ejector seat works!)

[John Locke]

Charles,

I have a friend here who knows some "high up" guy with Aston Martin here in Tokyo and he somehow managed for me to get permission for me to use a silver Vanquish V12 in my Lady X episode I shot last year. Everything was set to go, then the rains came. All other footage had been shot on sunny days, so as the deadline approached, I had to just drop that prospect. Dang! Opportunities missed.

Back on subject... I have a question for you, Charles. What exactly is the "mixing board looking thing" sitting right in front of your iPod?

[Charles Papert]

Ah. That is a Behringer Eurorack MX 602a. Cost a whopping $69 as I recall. I use it to adjust the speaker levels between the G4 output, the Powerbook output and the rack with the decks. Thus if I am listening to the DV deck (i.e. the firewire output of FCP, I can also dial in alert sounds from the computer at the level I choose. It also allows me to patch a mike into whichever deck I choose through its pre-amps.

I was quite pleased with this mixer when I first got it, although it has some crosstalk (levels panned all the way down can sometimes still be heard), but since I'm mostly using it for monitoring, it's not a problem. I posted a rave review on the board here at the time, and as you can read there Robert Knecht Schmidt thoughtfully posted some of the controversy surrounding the Behringer philosophy of shameless reverse engineering. Suffice to say when it was time to buy another mixer, I coughed up the extra cash and went with a Mackie out of principle.

[Charles Papert]

Extra credit for anyone who identifies the scene that is depicted on the monitors...hints: not the cat on the desktop to left; my man Angus is famous in certain circles but not to the world at large. The FCP windows give a couple views. This was from a TV series.

[Rob Lohman]

I'm probably way off base here, but it almost looks like a scene
from Star Trek: Voyager with the Doctor and Tuvok in there.
I can't place the "woman" though.

Nice setup though. Very clean and lots of room. I'm hoping to
get a dedicated room for it somewhere this year myself as well.

[Charles Papert]

OK Rob, that'll do it! It is indeed "Voyager", episode titled "Blood Fever". And the "woman" is actually my girlfriend, who guest starred in that episode as T'Pera, Tuvok's Vulcan hologram mate. I was trimming her reel when I took the pix.

On most shows, a small appearance like that would be under radar, but I have learned not to underestimate the attention to detail of Star Trek fans!

[John Locke]

Charles,

I just noticed...what in the heck kind of chair is that? I can't imagine how your knees/legs/back feel after hours of cutting.

[Charles Papert]

I've had that thing for so many years. It's called a "Backsaver" chair, and while a lot of people find it odd, I think it's really comfortable and makes sense. It splits your weight between the bum and the legs, and due to the angle it keeps you sitting upright without the need for back support. One of these days I'll get a good deal on an Aeron chair from a prop department or something, but in the meantime I'm happy enough!

[Robert Knecht Schmidt]

I've got one of those chairs, but it sits in the corner as I prefer a barely padded wooden folding chair dating from, well, judging from the patent numbers on the bottom, 1934 or thereabouts. Wide enough a throne to sit lotus, but thin enough to wrap your legs around backwards and sit hunched over while tackling a stressful task!

It's the furniture I find most striking in your shots, Chas. There's nothing like a good desk, and the VCR rack is handome too. Is that standard IKEA stock, or something more special?

[Dylan Couper]

I'm on the track as Robert about the desk. I was going to ask about it earlier. Nice!

[Charles Papert]

Both items are indeed Ikea. I looked for a long time for a modular desk system that wasn't going to break the bank, and found that Ikea offered the most flexibility and quality for the price. Sadly this particular line has been discontinued for a more lightweight version. It took weeks of playing around with cutouts on graph paper to figure out which pieces would work, and I ended up having to cut down two of the sections and substitute hardware, but it got there in the end. There are cable trays running all along the far side keeping things organized. I should have taken a picture further back showing the entire desk, it continues in both directions quite a bit from what is pictured, creating a massive workspace.

The rack is an off-the-shelf TV stand; I ommitted the back panel to allow for the cabling and thus it is a little wobbly, but I mounted 6 castors so it can easily be pulled out to access the back panel as needed. The great thing with that setup is that the JVC selector acts like a limited matrix switcher, so I can make any of the components a source and record to the others (i.e., I can play a VHS tape into the DV deck for digitizing into the system, or instantly reverse it to record a VHS dub out from the computer, etc). No re-cabling needed.

The backside of all this is an intense amount of cable, but I have Firewire and USB ports available up top for adding temporary components so I don't have to go down there too often.

The crowning blow will be to have the Powerbook nestle under the desk using a keyboard slide-out tray, and an unseen KVM switch allow me to instantly kick the keyboard, mouse and smaller monitor over to that computer so I can noodle around while FCP is rendering etc. I've run into a snag with my Belkin KVM device where it won't work properly with the Powerbook, but Belkin has assured me that a fix is on the way.

[Chris Hill]

How much would you pay for a desk? (List your price range)

[Charles Papert]

Why,are you looking to sell??!

Mine was about $1000 I think--but it is pretty huge.

[Chris Hill]

$799.99!!! I'll upload pics later.

[Robert Knecht Schmidt]

I think I've mentioned before my 80" wide, 36" deep, 1 3/4" thick solid oak desk. A lot of sturdy surface space for only $50*--it's an undrilled door from Home Depot!

*Cost doesn't include the pair of shorts I ruined staining it.