that monitor and mouse look

[solarbird]

Fourteen hours in the studio yesterday. A bunch more the day before. I’m swamped, but it’s kind of awesome. I was up later than intended last night because I found this thing I can’t talk about in a mix for someone else’s song and it’s pretty awesome but I can’t talk about it.

hmph.

So instead, let’s see that dual-monitor setup! A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about how old 4:3 monitors are basically free right now, and about what you need to set everything up. A couple of weeks in, I can report it works great, my workflow is tremendously improved, and I freed up SO much important desk space.

Enjoy some configuration photos:

Single-screen Windows, inside setup

For some reason, Windows XP only wants to use one of these cards at a time. If I boot up on the motherboard Intel video, it can see the Rage PCI card, but says it’s broken and can’t be used. If I boot up on the Rage PCI, it can’t see the motherboard card at all. I have no idea why, but since I don’t use XP for much, I don’t care enough to pursue it.

Single-screen Windows, inside setup

I’ll probably never use this configuration, but you never know.

Real work 1: inside setup, Ubuntu+Ardour

SO much real estate. I love it. I’ve played with it some more since I took this photo and for Ardour I’m actually separating the monitors a bit, and have editor view in one and mixer view in the other. This gets left monitor back to pretty much directly in front, which makes this a good editing arrangement.

Real work 2, outside setup, Ubuntu+Ardour

Good for recording other people. This is where I’ve been the last two days, pretty much nonstop. Again, pulling the monitors more apart a bit gives you better angles, and I’ve found myself doing that.

Here, I can look at performers and levels at the same time, and have full access to the control board. I angle the keyboard so it’s kind of between the two monitors, it’s awesome. I’ve found that I slide the audio interface forward for better access to the hardware controls, and that’s actually easier too because nothing’s in the way anymore.

Real work 3: self-recording

The instant I set this up, I reflexively tried using the screens as touchscreens, and was disappointed on some level when it didn’t work. If you have the dosh, do this with touchscreens – if they treat fingers as mice that’s good enough. I want this. I want it good.

The closest I’ve found to a downside is that this monitor stand holds altitude through friction and when you rotate the screen arms on the central post, it tends to sink a little. It doesn’t do this while stable, so once you set it, it’s good.

Anyway, no rest for the wicked. Ja ne!

Mirrored from Crime and the Blog of Evil. Come listen to our music!

Comments

[mdlbear]

You might want to try rotating one or both monitors 90 degrees, to give yourself more height for multi- tracking. I was using one vertical and one horizontal for a while; a lot of programs are laid out horizontally, but code and DAWs simply cry out for vertical pixels.

[solarbird]

Can you do that in xinema mode under X? I mean, it's an interesting idea, and the arms let you rotate the screens, so it's doable, I think.

[mdlbear]

I'm pretty sure you can -- the code's there underneath, anyway.

[solarbird]

It works! Holy crow! Wow, there's a lot more vertical workspace than I anticipated! And some things are really strange but not in functionality-impairing ways.

Unfortunately, I can't make Ardour narrow enough to fit on this narrow screen without making the typeface too small. Dammit!

Still, it's cool, and easy enough to switch back (one line in xorg.conf) so if I ever really, really need it for something, I can. Thanks!

[angelwolfgeek]

Off the top of my head Windows XP and older apparently don't like you having video cards that use different drivers. Dissimilar video cards apparently work in newer versions - which is pretty nice.

If it had been a newer video card (and core 2 eraish motherboard), we could blame onboard video and PCIe sharing the same bus instead. What flavour of Rage? I had a rage 128 lying around here somewhere

Is that one of those old microsoft ergonomic keyboards?

[solarbird]

Ooooh okay the drivers thing makes sense to me, like it's ringing distantly familiar bells. Okay.

The card is a RAGE ATI XL with a massive, and I mean massive, eight megs of RAM. I think. XD

And finally, yes, that is indeed the old Microsoft ergo keyboard. I have a bunch of them because they're ergo and small. The later ergo keyboards were bigger and I have small hands.

[angelwolfgeek]

Its one of those things no one realises until they actually have trouble with it - I only know this off people asking on a website I frequent.

I used to have a rage 128 which had a whopping *twice* the memory, but got rid of it with my last AGP system. Those things were pretty nice if you just needed something that spit out pictures, I mean, they were passively cooled weren't they?

[solarbird]

Passive cooling was, in fact, a specific point for me. No fan means no extra noise worries, and that's the thing I worry about most. Being in the closet helps contain a lot of sound, but accordion doors won't stop everything.