#studioet

Condensation is a very normal occurrence in highly insulated garden studios. The warm air in the studio hitting the double or triple glazed glass with the cold air from outside causes condensation build up on the inside on the windows.

The Karchaer Window Vac is a small wireless window vac that does away with the condensation, collecting it in a small container as you go, and leaves the windows smudge free and clear.

This video shows the vac in action.

And the result is clean, clear and dry windows.

Do me this is a must have product for garden studios that’s convenient and easy to use and very necessary, especially in the winter months.

When The Studio was built I went for an additional option of sound-proofing, which not only made sense from a privacy standpoint (because I am taking work calls on loudspeaker in the sapce) but also because I anticipated that I would pick up my guitar again after many years away from it and even start to record some music again.

My setup is pretty basic, but also therefore quite affordable, and is within the reach of most (albeit with some amendements to different models of certain equipment deending on how deep your budget is).

First up. The Mac Mini. In my case this is a second hand one that I sourced off ebay for about £250 and it does everything I need it to. Obviously had my budget been more significant I could have opted for a new model which would be future-proof for many years to come but I couldn't justify it at this point. The other great thing about the mac Mini is the small footprint. It sits very easy ion my desktop.

The Mac Mini was a good option in another regard for me as I didn't want another monitor, and instead it shares the monitor which I use for work. In this case the mac Mini is connected via HDMI to my 27" AOC monitor. My work Macbook air connects to the same monitor using the DP input and switching between work and msauic is a breeze.

For recording I use a Steinberg UR22 audio interface connected to the mac Mini. I used this originally because I used to use Steinberg Cubase to record, but I have now switched to Logic Pro but this audio interface works perfectly with it.

Mic recording is done thoguh either the Shure Prologue mic which has been supersceded by new generation mics, like the Shure 58 which provides a great deal of bang for your buck.

I also use a Behringer T-1 tube mic which requires a pre-amp. This mic has been supersceded by the Behringer TM1 and represents true professional quality microphone setup for a pretty reasonable price. This is a professional piece of kit whjich provides a very real and deep recording capability.

There are cheaper Behringer condensor mics on the market like the Behringer C-1 which is a self-powered condensor mic and the C-3 which can also be driven by a phantom power unit,

The 1 piece of kit I'm missing is some active studio monitors as my old ones broke due to being stored in the cold roof, so I need to fid a replacement set. In the meantime I am using an old pair of B&O wired headphones.

Guitar duties are taken up by my Martin electro-acoustic 000C-16RGTE, which whilst discontinued, new equivalents sell for over £2000 now. However, a more budget appreciative model is the LX1RE which gets very solid reviews for a fraction of the price.

I also play around on my Mexican Fender Stratocaster. Again, these come at a price, but the Squier Stratocaster range are a great budget alternative.

So that's it. Her'es a couple of shots of my setup.

The studio is connected to the house with a 75mm armoured cable leading to the consumer unit in The Studio which holds the various fuses for the different circuits (plugs, internal lights, external lights, radiator etc.)

I also had 2 ethernet cables laid at the same time which runs from the router in the house through to The Studio providing a fixed line cable solution for the internet connectivity. One 1 cable is connected. The second cable is there as a backup in case the first cable fails for some reason.

Providing fixed line internet through a direct cable was definitely the most fail-safe way of providing internet access ot the studio and it works a treat. However, I have a large number of devices in the Studio that rely on wireless connectivity (like all my smart spotlights) so I had to provide a solution for that also.

This choice was pretty simply. I run Eero (from Amazon) in the house and connecting an additional Eero wireless router in The Studio was the most logical and cost efficient way to get great wifi coverage and internet performance in the space.

The Eero is a small white box which can sit in your home (or be wall mounted) very subtley, with just a small white indicator light on the top. It's sylish and unobtrusive.

Eero works by in essence replacing the wifi capabilities of the router that is provided by your ISP. You plug one Eero unit into the router, disable the routers wifi and then setup Eero to provide the wifi. You can place additional Eero units around the house to extend the reach of the wifi network (they need to be in reach of the main unit) and you can even piggy back Eero's via fixed ethernet if you need to. And all the routers are managed from the Eero app which is easy to use and manage the network at home.

Note : If you plug your remote Eero into the Master Eero by your swithc the connection shown in the app would be like the "Hallway" device in the image above. Because my Remote Eero "The Studio" is actually plugged into my router, which in turn is plugged into the Master Eero, the unit shows that it is connected via wifi. I think is is an anomolie because I am getting the same speeds from The Studio as I do from my Master Eero when I run a speed test so I am not concerned.

My setup on a 35mbps download link and 8mbps upload link, with the Eero 5 system, performs perfectly for work video calls, streaming Netflix, Amazon Prime, gaming on PlayStation and Xbox, listening to Spotify etc. all without buffering or noticable network issues.

There are now 5 versions of eero on the market and they can all co-exist happily, although I'd recommend sticking with the same units unless you have a few 5 units and want to upgrade parts of your setup with faster units.

There's the Eero Wi-Fi 5 router system which I run and is the oldest of the 5 systems.

Each unit covers up to 140 sq.m on wifi, runs wireless speeds from up to 550mbps (single unit system) to 350 mbps (multi-unit setup). I find it ample for all my office and leisure needs on my 35mbps download and 8mbps upload internet connection.

As I said, there are 5 flavours of Eero system in total, designed to suit every budget and need.

In fact it's really quite confusing so this table should help identify what system would be best for your needs.

As you'd expect and can see, the more capable / faster systems are more expensive, but still offer choice value for money. You can mix and match systems so if you've invested in an older generation setup, you don't need to replace all the units just because you want a faster unit in your garden studio.

Post Edit : Never one to leave something uncovered I decided after all to plug the Eero from The Studio into the matser Eero in the home and sure enough the connection went from wireless to line connected and the speed being offered through the connection is now 1gbps. Obviuously the majority of my traffic comes from the internet so is limited to my broadband connection but I've decided to keep it configured this way as a future-proof in case we ever get a significant upgrade to our internet connectivity in these parts.

Some new visitors to The Studio tonight. They were active around the space for quite some time tonight and had about 30 motion alerts from the Blink cameras.

Like many peope I use the studio to work in, and as a result I need a desk to put my computer and various other items on to work at.

Like many people I also cannot sit for too long as I find my limbs get stiff and worse, my back can start to suffer (although I do have a great new chair which has all but alleviated that issue).

I therefore opted for a standing desk, but wanted the ability to have it standing or sitting, or anywhere in between, for complete flexibility.

The desk I opted for I found on Amazon and is called the KAIMENG Height Adjustable Electric Standing Desk. It comes in different sizes to suit your needs, and I went for the 160 x 80 which is a great size for my ample "stuff", and with different worktops. This is the Maple one.

The desk has a top height of 116cm and a lowest hight of 72cm. This photo is taken at 116cm.

At this height I can store my chair under the desk which is really convenient.

I find the setting of 80cm perfect for sitting.

The desk height is controlled by the small electronic controller where you can change the height incrementally using the up / down buttons or move the desk to 1 of 4 programmable preset heights.

Re-programming a button is simply just a case of getting the desk to the height you want and then long pressing on the preset number you want to store it to.

The motorised mechanism that moves the desk to different heights is pretty quiet and efficient. I videod it for your refernece.

What was quite unexpected was the quality of the desk given it's price point. The usual price is £300 but it can be cheaper on Amazon through various promotional periods throughout the year.