DAW Mixing & Muse

Let’s face it, being a tweaker/studio rat is lots of fun, but not always conducive to a healthy lifestyle. I’m always looking for new ways to be more pro-active and “standing computing” has become my new mantra…

Few years back, I heard George Lucas say he liked to do Standing Computing. At first I thought it would be way too taxing to stand for hours at a time and maintain the focus I need for varies computing tasks. But I liked George’s logic. He said that it was about being more engaged and more active while computing/editing. I decided to give it a shot. Not having a standing workstation onsite, I thought I’d test the theory by propping up a workstation with various sized boxes.

First, I placed my keyboard at a height of “ergonomic keying position”- while standing. This was achieved by placing boxes on the top of my existing workstation surface, then a board on the boxes, then the keyboard.

Another box for my laptop (screen centered at eye level)

Another box for my second monitor (screen centered at eye level)

Now granted, I happen to have tons of different sized boxes lying around but obviously- any object could be used.

I’m telling you, this exercise ended up being like I had been reborn. Suddenly I wasn’t the pathetic computer geek with hemorrhoids; I was “super computer guy”. Able to leap tall pixels in a single bound! But really, I could never go back. In fact, when I’m in situation now where I can’t do standing computing I find that I burn our quicker because it feels confining. And standing computing, for me, is sooo much more- alive.

Thankfully, this has become a bit of a trend by now and there are some cool (but pretty expensive) adjustable workstations available. But how about for the home recording studio? Well, not so much- yet. But with a little creativity it can be done anywhere. My new goal is to come up with the ultimate sit/stand work desk for the home recording studio. It’s something I’m starting to talk about with studio furniture designers for my studio. In the mean time, guerrilla style is fine with me! Happy computing folks!