While most of the time, I do not need a mixer with my setup. However, on that rare occasion when I do, there was never a neat, accessible place to set it up. I had a few hours off last week and put this together. Thought I would share it with the good folks on the forum.



The rack is constructed from a piece of 1/8-inch thick aluminum plate that was purchased from a local welding shop. The shop also bent a 1-inch lip at the bottom and a 30-degree bend was made 10-1/2 inches above the lip. I then cut a 3/4-inch wide slot in the upper end of the plate that was an 1/8-inch longer than the rubber keyboard pads. This alows the keyboard to continue to rest on the rubber pads with the platform in place. On the bottom of the platform is a 1-inch strip of 1/8-inch aluminum that slips beneath the keyboard stand's support arm to provent the mixer platform from moving. The place is covered with a thin layer of black rubber to prevent abrasion to the keyboard stand. The end result is a solid platform that's easily accessible, yet out of the audience's sight.

I also made another laptop platform for the the 2-tier X-stand as well. It contains a surge protected power strip, the power supply for the keyboard and laptop, and there is a 20-inch strip light on the front side that illuminated the keyboard with a soft lite that's real handy when performing in subdued light situations. There is an on/off switch in the ligt's power cord so it can be turned off when it's not needed. All of the cables are either cut to length, or coiled in such a manner that they're inside the three-sided laptop box.



Just another fun day in Paradise,

Gary

Nice job Gary! It looks great. I like your placement. It's within good reach of the player to make on the fly adjustments.

Squeak

You are one clever devil, Gary. What kind of mixer is that? By the way I got my brand new 3K last night. One word - Awesome. Catch ya later, I got a 212 page manual to read !

TJ

Good job Gary when do you go into full production. This could be very useful for everyone who needs a mixer.

Hank

Very slick setup, Gary. Everything is within easy reach, the way it should be (but often isn't). Thanks for sharing.

Glenn

Tom, the mixer is an Alesis Multi-Mix 6-FX.It has lots of great features, it's compact, and only cost $100.

Hank, I'm gettin' too old to do production work. I'm gonna' leave that to the younger guys on the forum.

Thanks guys,

Gary

Gary . Isn't that where you had the mouse pad tray? ....

That's a nice mixer ... At Gary's recommendation I recently purchased one from the local Guitar Center, and have been using it primarily for recording kb and vocals to the PC ... GC has a NICE 30 day return policy, but this baby's NOT going back ...
t.

Gary, impressive mixer setup. I do have a question about your laptop height-position though. I'd recommend situating the laptop much lower, and to the right or left of center to reduce 'line of sight' audience obstruction of both you to them and them to you. I situate my MusicPad Pro+ unit in landscape mode (longer length horizontal) & place position it much closer to the keyboard, giving it's appearance & touch screen accessibility, the impression that it's merely a slightly larger adjunct screen to the right of the Tyros' LCD screen, providing a integrated with the keyboard appearance. Now that I have most all my essential song request material loaded on the MusicPad Pro+:
http://www.freehandsystems.com/products.html


I can more confidently satisfy a lot MORE audience requests (with a quick tap of my finger first on the MusicFinder, and then the MusicPad Pro+) if necessary. I've finally found an idea music chart viewer partner for my Tyros. No more extra fakebooks or binders to drag around, or insecurities about attempting to satsify song requests of those half baked or rusty tunes. Perhaps the MusicPad Pro may not be for everyone here, but I myself have found the MusicPad Pro 'well worth' the money. On top of that, the folks at Freehand Systems (manufacterer) not only listen to customer feedback, but actually work to implement customer requested feature to futher improve their product as well. I can honestly say that the Freehand technical support team is among the best I've EVER experienced. AS Freehand Systems is located close to me (Los Altos, CA), I actually had the opportunity to meet with the head of the company (for 1-1/2 hours) to go over my feature requests & suggestions of which were met with enthusiam and a promise of implentation in a soon to be released OS update as well. The Freehand exec returned the favor by comping me their deluxe version MusicPad Pro+ carrying case, and providing a substantial discount on their custom MusicPad Pro stand as well. Time well spent. I wish them much success with the MusicPad and urge others here to checkout this device as well.

Scott

Hi Gar:
What a co-winkie-dink, I spent 30 minutes this am going thru all the junk in my shop looking for material to build one of these, I couldn't find anything except wood and a piece of alum that was to small, was going to use the wood, then thought no I'll wait until I take a run to the city, then get a piece of 1/8" alu-minnieium as the brits say.
Good looking job,you did and overall excellent for a yam 3000 salesman.

Scott is right about the audience being able to see you, Instead of your trying to hide behind the laptop maybe you could get a blonde wig like scott's sister wears, to spruce up your appearence. Did you see the picture of scott and his sister doing a duo?
LOL.....Pose

Scott: looks like you really like that Free hands system. Not everyone here can afford one, how about taking numerous pics of it with each and every song that you have on it,and print on a standard sheet of typing paper and mailing them to us and we could stand them up on our music racks, and pretend we're rich.....(and my daddy said I was'nt too sharp?)...

Cheers....Pose

Tony,

With the mixer platform, it can be placed on either side of the keyboard--left or right. The same holds true with the mouse platform, but because I'm right-handed, my mouse activities are limited to my right side only. As initially posted, I rarely use the mixer, but when I do, I just use the touch pad on the laptop and leave the wireless mouse in its case.

Scott, keep in mind that when I'm performing I use a high, QuikLok stool with a backrest. I'm well above the laptop, which you can see in some of the photos posted on my website. In the two top photos I'm sitting down. The stool is quite comfortable and gives the illusion that you are standing, thereby maintaining good eye contact with your audience.

When you have the opportunity, shoot some digital photos of your rig and post them. I'm really interested in how you've set it up.

Cheers,

Gary