Workspace & studio

Some might think that workspace and tools are irrelevant to the output. Some might even think that such a section of the page should be called "The Cribs" or "Hey, look! I got stuff". After all, if you are "good," you do stuff, and you do not need to buy stuff. Kind of right, but… no. Today's world, especially this digital one, became much more demanding. Due to technological progress and the wide availability of high-speed internet, people carry powerful computers in their pockets, connected continuously to a world-wide network with countless knowledge and media resources. The world became more demanding, so the people did. For instance, to "do stuff" now, you need to deal with high-quality material that eats up resources.

On the other hand, if you are a full-stack developer and use multiple IDEs for different languages simultaneously, with some docker containers running on the machine – this could eat some CPU, RAM, and (when building) disk space. The right hardware can save you a lot of time and frustration. Not only should the developer be agile.

Not less important is the software, as mostly there, the magic happens. Proper tools can seriously boost productivity. The workspace itself is crucial for me, as this is where I focus, spend a crazy amount of time, and seek inspiration. I want it to be as convenient as it gets, so things get moved around quite often, as there is always something to improve. If you would like to see my actual workspace from a more technical perspective, be sure to check The Cave.

As you already know my perspective on hardware and software needs and the convenience aspect of my workspace, I further share a strongly subjective list of hardware and software I use in my work. I can only assure you that none of the below is anyhow sponsored or given. It is the stuff that I am happy to pay for, as it allows me to focus on what is important to me in my creative process without spending too much attention on tasks irrelevant to the progress. My ideal tools should be seamless. Not all professional tools can be made that simple, but my setup (for me) gets as close as it gets.

Hardware

Regarding desktop computers, I use two workstations. I most commonly use one of them for coding and video processing for my projects. It has a 12-core AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1920X running @ 3.9 GHz (above that value, the system occasionally freezes), 2 x 16 GB of 3200 MHz DDR4 RAM (actually running at 3066 MHz, as I had no luck pushing the Predators higher with my X399 Designare Ex Mobo). For storage on this machine, I use 2 x 1TB Samsung 970 Evo NVMe drives + 2 x 4 TB HDDs. The graphic card is Geforce 1050 Ti 3GB. I usually have three 32" WQHD monitors connected to it. I have a 4K monitor, but I find WQHD resolution more convenient for my eyes during coding. It is an excellent setup for processing, but for video editing until Adobe Premiere Pro 10.5 update, fixing issues on Threadripper was almost impossible to work with.

The second workstation I use more for music production. It has an 8-core AMD Ryzen 7 2700X running @ 4.0 GHz (B450 chipset based motherboard), only 16 GB of DDR4 RAM (not sure about the clock, but nothing fancy, I presume). 2 x 500 GB SSD + 2 x 2 TB HDD in RAID0. The graphic card is Geforce GTX 1060 6GB. Here I have the 4K 32" screen connected with two 27" FullHD side monitors. This is the actual setup in The Cave. I run Cubase on it mostly.

On both desktops, I have two systems installed on separate drives with dual boot: Linux + Windows. I occasionally change Linux distros, but I mostly use Ubuntu.

I also use MacBook Pro 2019 16" with an 8-core i9 processor @ 2,3 GHz, 32 GB of RAM, and AMD Radeon Pro 8GB. It comes in handy on all kinds of travels where I have the drone, as I can quickly review or edit footage in the convenience guaranteed by the resources.

Audio setup

For my main studio workstation, I use the Presonus Studio 192 audio interface. Very reasonable price for the USB 3.0. Additionally, I have Steinberg UR22 mkII as a mobile interface (for Mac or another workstation if I need one). I use 2 x Yamaha HS8, 2 x Yamaha HS7 and Yamaha HS8 S subwoofer for monitoring. I connect them to Mackie Big Knob Studio+. However, I had some bad luck with Big Knob as I have it for a year, and already the DSP went dead twice. I hope the new unit will be more persistent. Recently, I also benefit from Austrian Audio Hi-X 55 reference headphones. For keys and pads, I use Alesis VI61. I also have a 14-year-old CME UF7 I got from my dad in high school, and as I love it, it became terribly loud. I still miss my piano, though.

Software

For development, I use mostly JetBrains' products - WebStrom for JS, PyCharm for Python, PHPStorm for PHP, IntelliJ IDEA for Java, and so on. When programming, I sometimes use Arduino IDE as it works well with ESP32. For project management, I have my Jira subscription. I also use Microsoft solutions for business (Teams, Office applications). I use Edraw Max, LucidChart, or a piece of paper for designing architecture, but I sometimes end up doing certain graphics in Photoshop. And here we come to the multimedia. I use Adobe Creative Suite for most media editing - Photoshop for images, Premiere Pro for video content, After Effects when I need some animation for the Premiere project, Illustrator for vectors. The sweet thing about Adobe CS is that it comes with Adobe Fonts, so the fonts on ToLIO are served by Adobe. For audio, I use Audition, where for music production, I got with Cubase Pro 10.5.

Photo & video

I capture my aerials with DJI Mavic Air, and I love this drone. Probably, I will soon upgrade to the Mavic Air 2. I also use GoPro 9, but mostly for its wide-view around my limited interiors so far. I am not sure if this is what you would expect from an action camera.