Moving house is a tiresome affair at the best of times, but takes a whole new level of energy when you are basically something of a geek. When you have a room converted into a studio and most rooms in your house or apartment contain at least some element of gadgetry spilling out with a mess of chargers, documentation, manuals or interfaces then you probably don’t want to move often. Or at all. Much like learning the tooth fairy is not real (sorry) or realising that Sony has nothing but contempt for its customers (blackhat) it is an inevitability. It will happen. When it does, consider some of these tips that I have found useful in my own recent moving.

1. Keeper of boxes

Keep boxes for your studio visual monitors - such as LCD screens - and your studio audio monitors - such as reference speakers. For sake of shipping for repairs or warranty claims, and given their delicacy, it pays to keep the boxes for your studio monitor speakers in any case. This stuff is the most difficult to do without should something happen to it, so more than most other items you should consider packing down and storing these boxes where possible.

2. Plastic storage treasure

Plastic storage containers are much better then cardboard boxes for cables and electronic gear that might be affected by moisture and dust, or require some greater protection from clumsy handling. With the clip-on lids it only takes a small band of packing tape over the handles to secure, and they can be stacked for storage afterward. If they are unpacked after the move, they fit neatly enough inside each other for storage, and are always useful for shepherding gear around where sherpas are rare.

3. Pull the power

If you are like me you will have packed the bedroom, bathrooms, kitchen and lounge room well before you will even have moved one item from the studio or studio space. There are always so many projects to work on, so many great sites to read, and so much internet to download. You are addicted to being awesome. Go cold turkey. Pull the power to your computers, unplug the studio monitors, turn the modem/router off and disengage. Commit to the move and the hunger to get precious interwebz and megahurtz again will motivate you to hurry up and finish the process!

My friend Francis Preve sends pictures and details of his new “convertible” studio. He claims this is shameless self-promotion, but I call it aesthetic envy — and for another reason to be envious, Gabriel & Dresden’s Tracking Treasure Down (for which he did a remix) just hit #1 on the Billboard Club Charts. Not too shabby, saying you have a #1 single. Maybe it’s the shoes. Maybe it’s this studio. I love the slim-line M-Audio keyboard in a drawer.

Fran sends the details, for your enjoyment:

Tokyo-based DJ Daito Manabe has devised a unique use for a turntable: he hooked it up to a multiple-PowerBook rig so you can scratch 34 tracks of sound or sit back in a vibrating chaise longue. I asked Daito how this works, and responded in an email that reads a bit like a poetic riddle:

Chair for the silence consists of two elements.
The first one is a chair that can provide 32 vibrations,
the second is music of 34 tracks for touch and hearing.
People can experience this by sitting in the chair and dropping the phonograph needle.

We can recognize pursuing sensual peculiarity, commonality and interaction
between sounds and vibration by this chaise longue.

The vibrations from vibrators are from 5hz to 120hz,
and sounds from headphone are from 5hz to 80hz.

34 tracks (2ch * 14) sound files are controlled by a signal from Ms.Pinky.
It means people can scratch 34 tracks by one record.

More specs and images after the jump, if that still doesn’t make sense . . .

Designer Reynold Rodriguez writes CDM with details of his 00, a luxury turntable stand that’s “really about people who dig vinyl, own hundred of records and have their turntables setup on top of cinder blocks.” More after the jump.

You know the problem: computer furniture seems to be built for imaginary people with undersized tower computers who never actually do anything. Want to integrate a music keyboard, computer, monitors, and a rack of gear in a small space? Good luck! But James (of reflexaudio and the fabulous new blog Retro thing) sends along a great solution:

Australian manufacturer M Rack makes fantastically designed studio furniture that’d be great for apartment studios. They racks are expensive (the setup in the attached pic runs about $2200), but they’re beautifully made. As a vital bonus, everything’s within arm’s reach. The site pics are horrible, so I’ve attached a snapshot of Terry Williams’ rig.

Lots of different options, so there may be something on their site that works for you. Thanks, James!

M Rack Studio Furniture [M Rack website with furniture details]

Play guess the gear! James just added the whole gear list from Terry in the comments, so before you peek, see if you can intuit what’s on there. (Especially challenging with the software — you’ll have to do a personality analysis or something.)

The turntable tables keep rolling in. Gizmodo has an entry from the Milan Furniture Fair which is beautifully crafted, though for some reason I imagine it surrounded by shag carpeting. Probably just me, but we’ll never know — no link to the designer.

Todd Campbell writes CDM with his own design, by far the coolest yet. Gorgeous wood, neo-future art deco styling (anyone remember Douglas Adams’ Starship Titanic?), and the translucent legs have pulsing disco lighting. (Scroll through the photos on Todd’s site, aptly named sick style. Thanks, Todd!)

For those of you keeping score, that’s Cool Turntable Tables = 4, Cool Computer Tables = 0. Whether you can afford these luxury items (I can’t!), designers’ interest in turntables clearly demonstrates a sense of what the object means for music. So why not computers, too? It’s long been my belief that musicianship and stage presence are about the human being, whether they’re using a record player (imagine trying to tell Edison about scratching!), concert grand piano, jaw harp, whatever — so where are the computers? Have you seen a designer who “gets” the computer as a creative object? Let us know.

Update: of course, turntable furniture might make you feel like a star, but not as much as a huge crowd of rock fans you can stick on your wall, as found by Tom at Music Thing.

As CDM continues its hunt for the ultimate studio furniture, here's my favorite reader tip yet:

DUAL Furniture
in San Francisco has gorgeous custom birchwood furniture designed to
your specs. There's the usual DJ furniture — record cabinets and the
like — but DUAL wins out for cool hunters with its floating coffins,
suspended elegantly from the ceiling by wire. Now if only someone could
design something this lovely for laptops and keyboards. (Oh, yes, that
and "if only money were no object." Sure, we're supposed to be poor as
musicians, but . . . look at the pretty furniture!)

Easily topping the cool factor of the floating DJ turntable is the alien spaceship cockpit of DJ furniture: the DJ Kreemy Table.
(Thanks to a reader for reminding of this!) Designed by Karim Rashid,
this all-fiberglass, dual-deck+mixer design with integrated power and
lighting will set you back (get ready for this) just under US$3000. So
you'll be nice and comfy spinning at home when you're not too busy
dealing crack to pay for it. Or you could wait for the Fab Five to
rescue you: the design was hip enough to be featured on an episode of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.

Fortunately, the folks at Plushpod do have plenty of other sci-fi furniture and accessories that won't require drug dealing to afford.

At home or on the gig, it's a problem: where do you put all
your toys? Most clubs, from avant-garde to hip, don't seem to know what
to do with performers who work with laptops and technology. And, then,
at home, if you've managed not to alienate your significant other yet,
he or she will probably be much happier if you don't have gear
sprawling all over the flat (not to mention, you'll actually be able to
work.)

CDM has an ongoing hunt for solutions. The latest find is the superb custom DJ furniture from Sefour.
There's permanent kit for vinyl and decks, plus folding stands that
clear out of the way. Victoria Willis from Allen & Heath tells me
they made use of the folding X25 DJ stand (outfitted with optional CD
bracket) for their Xone:3D laptop rig.

Looks fantastic, especially if you're mixing vinyl and laptop, but
still begs the question: why doesn't anyone make a rack with a keyboard
stand, optional music stand, and laptop attachment?

Creating the ultimate workspace for digital music creation
isn't easy. You need the right mood — available liquor cabinet and
copious candles lining the piano is always a good start. And you need a
great desk and office chair. Right now, I'm thinking about finding a
great new, ergonomic chair — see Joy of Tech's clever analysis of office chair options, and what I really want, of course, which is the Herman Miller Aeron.

CDM asks its readers: what's your workspace look like? What's your furniture of choice? And what workspace do you dream of?

Send us photos via email (see Contact Editor) link and links to
favorite furniture here in comments. I'll pick the best entries and
make you famous, so include links to your Website / online music
catalog / whatever you like.