Cleaning your studio

Helpful? A waste? An exercise in futility? Good to a point??

Let's hear the opinions + horror stories/wakeup calls

Oh, I think it's very important.

I used to be very messy (and I guess I still am by nature) but Ive been working to be better. I just feel more relaxed, and can focus better in a tidy environment. I now (thoroughly) clean my studio once a week, maybe every other week, if I've really made an effort to keep it tidy during the week.

Cleaning my studio consists of running Crap Cleaner and then defragging my hardisk.

my studio is a fucking tip.

what really fucks my mind is the way you can thread all your cabling neatly, so it's not tangled, and you know where it all goes.

then leaveit, completely untouched for six months, and go to disconnect something.

ALL OF THE LEADS HAVE INTERTWINED IN AN ALMOST SEXUAL WAY.

making them impossible to untangle without spending about eight hours on the task.

why?.....WHY?

entropy

entropy requires no maintenance.

good son.

i am super-obsessive about this. i use a handheld swiffer duster and a few small brushes (like little ones that come in a shaving kit) to get dust out from around buttons, switches, etc. and i frequently rearrange how things are wired so that cables stay in order and i can try different combinations.

Yes, but not too often imho

i usually clean shit up when it becomes more difficult untangling cords and moving shit around than actually getting the song started/finished. or even if im just having trouble working on music i'll clean up a bit to get a better flow, more clear mind, whatever. my shit gets thrashed cuz im a rugged motherfucker and people come around sometimes, so i'll usually tidy the place up about once every 2 weeks or so. it's good.

Never clean because dead roaches in your equipment can lead to interesting "natural" circuit bending opportunities.

i have 9 bottles on my workdesk

a broken snowglobe

plates

sleep aid wrappers

crap all over the floor making it difficult to walk

everything is precisely where i need it to be

when i need something i think "where would've been the easiest, most thoughtless place to set that down..."

then i reach blindly and there it is.

i hardly ever clean my studio bedroom. Which is stupid tbh - means that i cant get to my drum machine because its got a c++ book on it atm. Bit of mess always helps though.

  panga said:

i hardly ever clean my studio bedroom. Which is stupid tbh - means that i cant get to my drum machine because its got a c++ book on it atm. Bit of mess always helps though.

Damn. I wish my drum machine would learn C++.

does it just smoke like siniclypse's instead

  Adjective said:

i have 9 bottles on my workdesk

a broken snowglobe

plates

sleep aid wrappers

crap all over the floor making it difficult to walk

 

everything is precisely where i need it to be

when i need something i think "where would've been the easiest, most thoughtless place to set that down..."

then i reach blindly and there it is.

see, i used that argument with my parents, and i still stand by it, actually. my personal shit - mess overflow, whatever, i care not. but when the music gets involved, i want to make sure it gets proper care and feeding.

i dunno. posted this because i'm on the fence, really. clean stuff helps workflow, cleaning disrupts. i suppose you balance!

from the first day i got my new mixer (yamm mg24/14fx) everything's changed. i've set up ALL the synths and rythm machines and effects and whatnot, all that i have. not only that, i've connected them all and even *marked* the channels on the mixer. cause now that i have enough channels, i can just leave them all connected. i also cleaned up the studio. okay it's still a mess but you can walk freely, not too many cables hanging thru air, virtually no shit on the floor...

and now i'm lost. WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO WITH ALL THAT STUFF NOW?

it's never advisable to clean electronic studio gear with hot soapy water.

I'll go on it about once every few months.

  acid1 said:

I'll go on it about once every few months.

Is your piss some kind of cleaning fluid?

I wish my music making stations were clean. But they always get dirty, and I am a slob. I need to marry a girly girl who knows how to work gear so whenever I make a mess she will clean it up.

I'm usually forced to clean when I either:

a. spill a week old coffee all over my desk.

b. drink a week old coffee because I don't know which cup is fresh.

my studio is messy as shit, fucking maze of cord,

ants,, fuck i got lots of ants!

im always sketched that their gonna chew up the wires, and their always crawling out of my keyboard.

lots of beer cans and empty 2L beer jugs that stink.

blankets on the walls for super hi-fi radness

old plates and alot of my brothers old crap

anytime i record shit on mics i got real bad accoustics in the room, no two recordings ever sound the same.

remind me not to patronize your ebay auctions sir davemike