Mic 1 has been relocated from the left side of the board to a center position behind the board.

Today, I spent time tweaking the “feng shui” of the Production Studio.

If you look at the picture of the Production Studio in my blog post on November 23rd, you’ll notice that the OC White mic arm is mounted to the left of the console and the mic hangs near the rear of the console. In use, this is as awkward as it looks – you have to lean over the console to speak into the mic. So I centered the mic arm behind the console and put it on a riser that I salvaged from the Practice Studio. For good measure, I greased all the joints to silence any squeaks and adjusted the tension on the arm so it no longer snaps back. Now the mic hangs directly in front of the console and can be easily swung away without making any noise.

As an added bonus, with the mic arm out of the way, I could move the equipment rack closer to the console.

I also replaced the 17″ CRT monitor with a 17″ LCD monitor, which allowed me to move the computer closer to the console as well. This puts everything within easy reach of the user.

Finally, I replaced the old chair with two newer chairs from Surplus (so they didn’t cost us anything). The old chair squeaked, was missing an armrest and had a rip in the seat. Even though the new chairs were from Surplus, they are in great shape although I had to repair a broken back adjustment lever on one of the chairs.

Old Production Studio chair with missing armrest and torn seat