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Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 189
Apprentice
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Apprentice
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 189 |
Any ideas about what to use as a worktable or desk on small solo gigs? I'm a guitarist so no keyboard. All I need is a place to put a laptop and a small (DFX-6) Mackie mixer. I sit and currently use a wooden TV-tray for the laptop and put the mixer on the floor under the tray. Works, but not great. The TV tray is not quite big enough for the laptop, HD and room to mouse. And it's of course flimsy and only marginally stable.
I see an RTA mix-station in the latest Musician's Friend catalog that looks close, but not quite what I (think I) need. Anybody found a good solution for this?
Thanks
John
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Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 8,333
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 8,333 |
I get a keyboard stand and cut a piece of wood to suit. I have several of these pieces of wood cut in different ways, and it works great. One has a keyboard drawer. If you can find someone to do it, you can slope the thing by putting a 2x3 or some such piece of wood near the back and a lip in the front to ensure the laptop won't fall off... I have 3 'covers', ie the piece of wood is a 1 X 6 or 8 and around the edge is velcro and I have a blue cover, a tartan cover, and a cover with a big shriner's logo in the middle. If the wife and i are going a celtic gig, I hide my legs and cables with this. She's still got the legs so she has a stool beside me so no one looks at me. The neat thing is if you do it right, you fold up your cloth, the keyboard stand folds, bungee the board and the keyboard stand together and you are good to go.
I even have one with the little mixer on a 45 degree angle, resting on the front lip of the board, and a piece of wood to hold it up so I can see it better. Add a little light like the xtra flex led music light and you can see in the dark!
John Conley
Musica est vita
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Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 897
Expert
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Expert
Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 897 |
I've always been a sucker for Rolling Road Racks...I've got a model 701 (FlintStones Era), that holds a beatiful Peavey Rack Mixer, my Crown Amp, my Roland GM-70 Midi Converter, two Roland M-3R synth modules and some other crap. However, here's something I just ran across on the internet for around 300 bucks...go do the trick in a small Bistro setting: "Peavey Electronics - 00573540 - Messenger Portable Sound System" Price:$292.95 Description Includes two speakers, 100 watt, 5 channel mixer/amplifier, PV i 100 microphone, XLR microphone cable, & two 15? speaker wires; 5-band EQ w/ FLS ; Split Track MIX? w/ independent & master volume controls & 3-band EQ; Storage space for mic & cables; Lid lifts up to be used as a lectern." Of course, mix well and beef up from the original "mix"! That's what G-Daddy would do!! "That was then...This is now. Mostly I play jazz accompanyment guitar to my "Torme" singing...I've a huge "book" of showtunes, etc., for requests. I'm currently experimenting with a 16 Gig Apple Nano, about three fingers long and two fingerwide, and a "reafer" thick!! It just hides there, dangling from my zippered "fly". Who Knew???? This tiny NANO gremlin is holding the vast array of backup Real Musicians from PG, AND, ADDITIONALLY, miraculously, almost all of Blake's Jzzz Real Book MP3-converted, original recordings from the jazz master musicians and singers that had the original hits!! You dig???? Illegal MP3's being reborn through my NANO, at simply unbelievable sound quality levels.....recordings by Shearing, Prez, Sonny, Horrace, Brubeck (you get the idea, Mr. ASCAP??) Love to segue into forbidden territory with my illegal all-stars, wow....do we improvise, or what?? Hell, I start off every gig with Maynard Fergusons Big Band rendition of Star Spangled Banner, followed by Theolonius Monk and I gigging to Poor Butterfly. Can't beat that with an egg-beater!! But where the hell are those "recordings" coming from fellas...the sound spilling forth from the Nano, either Real Band backup cats, or Joe Williams and Basie, doing a tune with me, are no where it site???? WTF??? No kidding, ASCAP, these sounds are like coming from the original sessions!! You go figure!! I'm prepared to meet the ASCAP agent with a very dry double Smirnoff on the Rocks!! http://www.thegigbaby.com Now with the SUPERFANTASTIC Blues and Rock Music Video Page. Gotta check it out!!     
Yamaha...Motif ES-8, Motif Rack, CS6X
Korg...Karma,Triton Classic, PA-80, M-1+
AkaiSampler-S5000, Roland.. X5080 Rack/G-1000 Arranger
Various Guitars/Basses Amps Pedals Rec.Equip.
Plus, BIAB 2015 and Sonar Platinum 2015 Upgrade from Cakewalk's Sonar X-3
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Joined: May 2000
Posts: 38,502
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 38,502 |
When i do guitar and vocal only gigs with BB, (rare, but I do them sometimes) I use a heavy steel black music stand for the laptop.
Now listen up.
To keep the music stand solid and steady, I first removed the rack from the pole and the three-footed base and dropped a free weight over the pole. About 20lbs IIRC. This puts a low CG on the stand and turns the whole thing into a "dweeble toy" should it get bumped. It would take a very hard bump to knock it all the way over.
Then I put the rack back on the Music Stand, and open the laptop up FLAT.
I use two small black bungee cords to hold the laptop to the rack of the stand like that. Both wrap completely around laptop and stand rack and are right in the middle of the laptop where the hinge is opened flat. They don't get in the way at all, being two of those thin bungees, not the big thick motorcycle type. i use two for the sake of redundancy. Should one come loose... (Although that's never happened to date and this rig is going on six years old.)
The keyboard and touchpad are easily accessible "in the vertical" like that for selecting BB songs, running the Conductor, etc. (I also use a two button USB programmable footswitch with this rig, set to do two critical BB commands. Play is one of 'em. The other is usually set to Repeat Choruses using the Conductor.)
For those gigs, I don't take the big mixer as I don't need all of that. I use a teeny tiny Behringer UB802 (now discontinued but they have one this size in the new series) to connect up to two mics and three line inputs. Typically I use only one Line Input, from the earphone jack of the laptop, but occasionall I don't want to lug a guitar amp and use another line input for a hardware guitar amp sim like the Digidesign pedalboard or the old and might Johnson J-Station.
The top of the laptop screen sticks up above the top edge of the stand somewhat, but not a kill with the right height stool.
Most people think its just a Music Stand, as it turns out, they are very surprised when they find out that there's a laptop on the other side of it.
Cost. Effective.
And it works.
--Mac
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Joined: May 2005
Posts: 2,610
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Joined: May 2005
Posts: 2,610 |
You can get inexpensive folding metal tables of different sizes at Target or Walmart. I use one for my laptop and it's very stable. Later, Ray
Asus Q500A i7 Win 10 64 bit 8GB ram 750 HD 15.5" touch screen, BIAB 2017, Casio PX 5s, Xw P1, Center Point Stereo SS V3 and EWI 4000s.
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Band-in-a-Box 2026 for Mac Videos
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