about 4 years ago Syntax Podcast
Scott’s New Office × The Levelup Lodge
- 02:32 Scott describes his home office setup
- 04:07 Scott discusses lighting and camera setup
- 08:18 Scott and Wes talk about desk options
- 09:36 Discussion on mini split heat pumps
- 13:45 Banter about being bad at cornhole
- 19:38 Scott details his professional audio gear setup
- 25:47 Scott describes his monitor, docking station and other tech
- 32:34 Scott and Wes discuss importance of hardware for recording
- 33:12 Scott got a walking treadmill for his birthday
- 35:22 Discussion on benefits of standing mats
- 39:32 Scott and Wes love talking about office setups
Discussion on benefits of standing mats
Wes Bos
I bought a bunch of like framing oak
Scott Tolinski
But they're they're for my 4 films that I really love, Buddha's Palm, Human Lanterns, Man of Iron, and the Blood Brothers, And it was, like, the best thing ever, and it died on me. And I I couldn't figure it out. I'm I'm not Skilled enough to fix it. So, yeah, I had to toss it. They didn't they didn't make any more. And yeah. So I had to get this new one.
Wes Bos
broke a frame,
Wes Bos
Can we talk about how expensive frames are? Why are frames so expensive? You ever get something framed and it's like like walls with
Scott Tolinski
that they hung in I don't know where they hung it. Was it in Hong Kong or China? These are Hong Kong films.
Wes Bos
But then when you get the glass for that, you get glass cut. We, that's my little known thing is that go to a glass store. We a couple of days ago. No, a couple of months ago, Poppy
Scott Tolinski
Yeah. They're not the right size. Yeah. Who knows what? Yeah. These these are, like, These are, you know, from Hong Kong films that I don't know if they're a standard size or anything like that there yeah.
Wes Bos
It was, I don't know, $20 for,
Wes Bos
the other day. I was at like a like a restore with these like Habitat for Humanity restores, and they sell like building material.
Wes Bos
at our house and it just cracked the glass.
Wes Bos
And they had it ready and, like, I'm not lying. Within 20 minutes of her breaking it, it was fixed and back on the wall.
Wes Bos
Glass. We had a desk once for my wife made out of an old door,
Scott Tolinski
dog s h I t options of Yeah. In our previous house was a 100 year old house with, I think he was doing even, like, some sort of, These the the ears come you know, you can pull out each ear individually.
Scott Tolinski
frames.
Wes Bos
And there's a there's a glass place literally
Wes Bos
Yeah. You have to, like, Glacier or something. But, man, that's people always think, oh, the glass broke. That thing is garbage.
Wes Bos
a 1 street over. So I called them and said, hey, you cut me a glass. You just measure the inside size
Wes Bos
They had all this, like, like So I'm just thinking about, like, what do I want to run? And you had this great idea of running
Scott Tolinski
it's a big hobby of mine was watching these. I have, you know, seen over, like, 200 of these films. So I have these these 44 posters. I got them on eBay, And, some of them are pretty rare, and I'm pretty psyched about them. Although they're they're currently living these really janky frames from Target that I I gotta get some nice fancy frames that that match the 3 vertical I don't know what you call the vertical in like a studio racks in a rental.
Scott Tolinski
The Shaw Brothers films, like some big thick foam padding that I use to stretch. So I do like my, like, front splits or my lunges and stuff underneath my desk.
Scott Tolinski
Yeah. Yeah. It. They do mirrors too. Same stuff. Yeah. That's what I'm seeing. That's what I'm seeing there. Alright. Cool. Well, that's it. This is my desk. If you have any questions about it, I gotta take some fancy photos, compressors and all that stuff mounted to the underside of my desk. So I have a ton of stuff on this desk weighing it down.
Wes Bos
It is very affordable.
Wes Bos
and you say, give me in, like, 2, 3 millimeter, however big.
Scott details his professional audio gear setup
Scott Tolinski
Alright. Let's talk about some of my tech stuff. I'll tell you how my my speakers are set up. So I have this this number 1, with a bullet here is the Nero monitor controller so when I have my speakers here which are my studio monitors those are run into the Nero monitor controller Scott office, the, I don't even know what else I could come up with here, but it's we're gonna be talking about my office and the stuff I have in my office, the way it's set up, The way it's configured, why I made some of the choices I made, and just all about it because this thing kicks butt now, and it's getting better all the time. So my name is Scott Talisky. I'm a developer from love I'm a developer from Denver, Colorado. And with me, as always, is Wes Bos.
Wes Bos
you got to be thinking about different types of sound waves and decoupling
Scott Tolinski
And I was like I was like, oh, you're the the landlord's gonna kill you. He's like, I made it better. It's quiet now.
Wes Bos
And it's amazing event and a return beefy desk that doesn't wobble a single millimeter? your cal digit because they know they could Like they don't need an amp in between them? Okay. These are powered. So the these have the amp built into them. Yeah.
Wes Bos
But the couch is a big reverb suck too because it's just a lot of padding. So Yeah. Office is sounding good now. I think one thing we should know is that When I've been doing research on soundproofing, and there seems to be a lot of, like, misconception between those
Scott Tolinski
Right. Your your treatment? I I noticed it everywhere I go now.
Wes Bos
I'll talk about it. Essentially,
Scott Tolinski
It's funny. One of the schools we were were touring, we were touring our local schools. It. The kids' lunchroom was in, like, a basement, which was just like a concrete box in the basement, and to my CalDigit, which is the hub, which then goes to the Scarlett, which then goes to the Nero, which then goes to my speakers. It. Love it. Right? It's, the opposite way. I installed it upside down hanging underneath my desk it. So that it's it's kind of where my knees are, but to the side so that I can have all my my gadgets and stuff to the direct left of me and underneath my desk, get that, PrimeDesk real estate, it. After I get the cape I have, like, a little basket for hiding the cables, but, like, I gotta recable everything. What I gotta do is I gotta unplug everything and then spend An hour replugging it back in and zip tying it and putting cable ties on it. It looks like a freaking day. Yeah. Because it's it's It's ugly right now. It's functional, but ugly. So. Yeah. All right. Well, by the time this goes live, Scott will post a photo on Instagram. That's your desk photo. Yeah. Yeah.
Wes Bos
which is like, you name it. You can attend So it yeah. My office that the cottage is not soundproof either. And it but it's not an issue because you're not sharing Figuring out what desk legs to get and what kind of desk I want, and the I have to soundproof it so the the walls are open.
Wes Bos
Oh, man. But, yeah, I I am going to be soundproofing pretty pretty neat And the way a heat pump it go Shout out to Technology Connections YouTube channel! He's got, like, 3 or 4 videos on heat pumps, Nothing ever fits. I,
Scott Tolinski
This is gonna rip the door off the hinges.
Wes Bos
my office as well because and those sound waves bounce off and that causes Echo. Right?
Scott Tolinski
We ordered a couch in 8 months ago, and it finally showed up. So I got our old crappy IKEA couch. Let me tell you. The dogs love it. The dogs had no no place to be in here when I was in here with the the dogs, and now they've got they have a couch to lay on. So, the perfect place to see all of your errors and exceptions happening
Scott Tolinski
They're kind of dangerous because they're powered, so I don't want to get into and we just got a huge piece of glass cut for the top. We had it tempered, and it was like a $200 or something like that. Okay. The whole yeah. I found here the Glass Guru, which that actually sounds like a, a bong shop, but it's not. It is actually a Glass custom oh yeah, we can get some glass for our gym that's what we need. Oh like some mirrors or or my computer it. That, So what's up with my audio gear? I have the M Audio b x eights. They're my studio monitors. They're my speakers. I've had them forever. I used to have some Alesis ones that were really nice but then they just a capacitor blew in them and,
Scott Tolinski
in as opposed to like like foam squares or something like this. This is like legitimate, And it's good. It's a great monitor. Yeah. Yeah. It's 6 k.
Wes Bos
in there. And
Scott Tolinski
Eleven high density sound panels which,
Wes Bos
sound panels, it just, like, Yes, we're just it. Chit chatting here. 2 of our sponsors today are Sentry and Sanity. Let me tell you about Sanity. Scott can tell you about Sentry. CXinity is a structured content CMS. You know about that. But tomorrow, literally tomorrow and as well as, So check it out. Structured content dot live. Thank you, Sanity, for sponsoring. Sick. This episode is also sponsored by
Wes Bos
And you talk. There's just this, like, It's always like, I want to frame that. And it's like, okay, like, okay, we spent, like, $10 on this piece of art. Now, how much is it going to cost to buy a frame for it? Like, $600.
Wes Bos
is hard surfaces in your room a couple levels of IKEA and the most expensive IKEA one has Triangles on the bottom, and he explains how heat pumps work. And now it's got me thinking like, maybe
Wes Bos
the speaker. So I just tossed them at that point. Oh, yeah. And I had them for a decent amount of time. How do you plug those? I was looking at that because I was listening to some music without my headphones on the other day. And I was like, oh, it'd be nice to have like a set of it. Instead of just my laptop. Like, how do you plug those into your computer?
Scott Tolinski
air because
Scott Tolinski
and they just, like, Build that room with these sound panels because, otherwise, I'm sure that would be like a nightmare with all those kids screaming and the reverb and the reflections everywhere.
Scott Tolinski
it. Thick insulation rock wool stuff to prevent sound. I have a giant bass trap in front of me. I have 4 corner bass traps. I have a cloud ceiling so I have 2 of them on the ceiling and then I have 4 of them on, And, there's absolutely nothing I could have possibly done to make that room it. I have had my lights hit the ground a couple of times in this new office because they're big tall lights. They're in the middle of the floor, And they're all over the place so I bought some, monitor. My monitor is the fancy Apple monitor. What is this thing called? It's like the pro one headphones. They're open back, which I should have not gotten open back headphones because they bleed into the microphone, but It sounds good. What does open back mean? It means that there's there's closed back headphones and there's open back headphones.
Wes Bos
and now developers reached out and they really helped me. Basically, it's like double drywall, the stuff called green glue
Wes Bos
That's the thing about sound is that it's a lot of it is vibration as well. So
Wes Bos
sucks all those up instead of having to bounce around.
Wes Bos
I'm going to be I bought a drywall lift the other day. I'm not going to be doing all the drywall at the house, but I'm going to be doing the soundproofing myself.
Scott Tolinski
My headphones run into the Nero monitor controller.
Scott Tolinski
It. If you're if you're looking at at, like, actually, So if your headphones have a hard shell back on them that means there's no audio getting out of the back of the headphones and it all Comes in to your ears. With these, it's you can't you maybe I don't know if you can see it. It's like a grading in audios. Literally, you could hear what I'm listening to outside of the headphones.
Wes Bos
how, like, my parents
Wes Bos
apparently, it would stop every couple of hours and
Scott Tolinski
I'm just like, oh my god there. That's so that's something you should be doing.
Wes Bos
it is in the basement.
Scott Tolinski
Sick. I'm so deep in it. I'm really excited to have a nice quiet space. Make sure one thing you think about when you're planning all of this too is, like, s which is the
Wes Bos
And so there's a difference between, like, What you've done is acoustical treatment,
Wes Bos
But that's, like, a downside as well. Right. Those are vectors for sound. Those are those are huge vectors for sound, so I'm not sure I have to get in the space yet, but I'm I'm pretty excited about doing that. Yeah, man. Sounds a whole thing.
Banter about being bad at cornhole
Scott Tolinski
but, yeah, I I have this desk. It is a giant Carl b countertop sitting on top of it. Fully Jarvis legs, which are the standing desk legs. They go down really low, get up really high, and they have one of those preprogrammed settings Where I can say 1, 2, 3, 4 on the settings. My one setting is for sitting. My 2 setting is for standing. My 3 setting is for it. Doing the front splits at my desk and the 4 is for my treadmill.
Wes Bos
3 u.
Wes Bos
and they were awful. And I think that they were put
Scott Tolinski
U. Yeah. U is how they Oh, it's actually Oh, it's a 4 u rack. I thought it was a 3 u. It's a 4 u rack that's meant it. To actually be installed on the wall, like, on the side sideways on a wall for, like
Wes Bos
sit stand desks that can support 600
Scott Tolinski
is it a a 3
Wes Bos
the motors,
Wes Bos
doing a a huge sit stand desk at my new office. Yeah. And you have to have, like, everything either attached to your desk or to the wall and that your your monitors can move.
Wes Bos
The one I'm looking at just has 4 posts instead of 2. I think that will help. But a lot of people also said once you put your gear on it, it becomes more sturdy because it's heavier. And I think that's probably plus, like, you get People like me walking around shaking everything in the department store. It doesn't help.
Scott Tolinski
and not have to have, like, a well, the cool thing is since this is a standing desk, it's always moving with my desk, which is the big challenge. You you wanna kinda strap as much stuff to your desk as possible with the standing desk especially if you're going up and down a lot because you don't want cables and whatever coming up and down so I really try to minimize the amount of cables coming up and down. That's what I'm going through right now, is that I'm thinking about
Wes Bos
oh. I have u.
Wes Bos
Yeah. And I was, like, asking on Twitter, like, what's the, like, most together poorly because, like, I was like, have a kitchen. And if you sit in 1 chair in the corner of the kitchen which is there Yeah. And by putting up these,
Scott Tolinski
I have a treadmill underneath my desk that we'll talk about a little bit too. I also have a a suffocates you. You gotta have some sort of, like, system for getting air in and out that is Also quiet. There is a,
Wes Bos
which makes sense.
Wes Bos
And someone somebody said this desk house Maggie wood to make frames for super cheap. And I was like, Oh, I got a miter saw. I'm going to learn how to make frames.
Wes Bos
pounds Most of them can support like
Wes Bos
A lot of people are like, I have the IKEA. There's So I actually went and found a photo of how you had that because I've been talking to the
Scott Tolinski
It looks like it's a solid piece of wood, but it's a veneered wood surface. So it's, you know, it's fine. Whatever.
Scott Tolinski
But it looks nice. That's all that matters for me.
Wes Bos
Yeah.
Scott Tolinski
And so pretty neat yeah So okay. Well, let's get into I have this broken up into different different topics. We can talk about lighting, the deck, sound, tech stuff, miscellaneous stuff. It. I have, lighting is pretty good in here. In fact, Wes, Yeah. I don't I don't know anything about heat pumps. I don't know. It's a thing. I know it's like a thing in electric cars, but that's all I know about. It's the opposite of a so Essentially what it does is the air conditioning dock.
Scott Tolinski
Alright. Let's talk about the desk. Desk. Tell me about your desk. What's up with this desk? So I've had this desk for a little bit, but it's got gotten supercharged at this house because I've I've really gotten the setup dialed in dialed in. So, basically, it's a giant IKEA countertop. It's 72 inches wide. It's a Kirlby, soundproofing things, you know, the my my buddy who's an audio engineer always talks about how, You know if air can get through there then sound can get through there so like yeah you kind of find the areas it. And then, like, a door sweep makes a big difference if you have a a door or a hollow door. I'll never forget that guy, was renting an apartment, And he wanted a studio. He drilled a hole in the door and filled it with sand like I gotta I gotta do so many other things in the house. I gotta, you know, spend all this time. In fact, it. This weekend, I finally got to do a lot of yard work time, which is something that I I've missed the past couple of weekends.
Wes Bos
Guys at this this company called Desk House.
Scott Tolinski
my my video my video camera is mounted to my desk. My microphone's mounted to my desk. My monitor my giant Apple monitor is mounted to my desk. I have both of my studio monitor speakers
Wes Bos
Oh, like h a u s. And they're from they're from Holland, Michigan.
Scott Tolinski
Looks nice, and I I treat it well. So, look at the Ceiling. You'll see these things. They're on the ceiling. They'll put them on the ceiling in these places because it reduces, like, the overall noise in a room because it's reducing all those reflections.
Scott Tolinski
And it's it's fine what it is. It's like a veneer.
Scott Tolinski
on top of my desk And then I have all of my audio gear, my, Jarvis.
Wes Bos
Like the motors have amperage cutoffs, which if they're pulling, the more the harder a motor has to work, the more amperage it pulls from, like the wall plug. Right.
Wes Bos
because I'm gonna get, like, a dining room table and put that on legs, I think. No. No. I was gonna say mine doesn't wobble at all, like 15,200.
Wes Bos
which is a department store and another one was at Mobileia,
Scott Tolinski
you would start install yourself side stuff Sideways. I don't know why you would do that, but I guess people put them in closets that way. So, I installed it It. I I used to have it set up the way you you were talking about them, but I'm always unplugging and plugging things in, and now I can just have it set up. I have a a cloud lifter For my microphone which is like a preamp that boosts my signal I have a d b 286, to to make my office sound nice, I have, But get this, if I pull out the cord from the left ear and put it into the right ear, the audio signal the headphones are smart enough to know that the left side is still the left side and the right side is still the right side. Wow. I don't know how they do that, but they do that.
Transcript
Scott Tolinski
big screw job. Yeah.
Scott Tolinski
So, You know, there's it's just like there's so many projects. And at the end of the day, my office always ends up getting the soundproof. In fact, over COVID, You know you even putting the kids in the basement while I record
Announcer
Monday. Monday. Monday.
Wes Bos
Should I run plugs in the ceiling so that I could run I could put, like, a softbox but hang it from the ceiling?
Scott Tolinski
the Syntex
Scott Tolinski
CSD.
Wes Bos
Hey. I'm excited to hear about your office. So you've been moved in for, what, like, 8 months now? Yeah. Just about. And, you know, it's funny because my office Yeah. Okay. Is that so that people And they make a they make a
Wes Bos
Yeah. I am. We just bought a house as well. We're not moved in yet, but I've been going down the rabbit hole of
Scott Tolinski
Kind of took the back seat for all of the house projects because it's just and it and maybe it's just how I have it set up. Mine's also a tank. So, like, when you say This is a really a good one. The fully what?
Announcer
Open wide dev fans, get ready to stuff your face with JavaScript, CSS, node modules, barbecue tips, get workflows, breakdancing, soft skill, web development, the hastiest,
Announcer
the tastiest web development treats coming again hot. Here is Wes Barracuda
Scott Tolinski
Welcome to Syntax.
Scott Tolinski
Monday a hasty treat. We are gonna be talking about the LevelUp Lodge, the, Quality of these cool posters, And I don't have any of them on right now, but I will when I'm doing recording just because I can tune it all quite a bit. The lighting does make a big difference, but, this camera is really super good in low light. It. Now one thing I did add to this lighting setup in this office that I did not have in my other one. In my other office, you really couldn't get into the office. It was a small little room, And you walked into the door, you could basically only walk behind my desk. So I didn't have to worry about kids
Wes Bos
X LR into the ceiling. And now I'm thinking, like, should I run Like you told me one time your friend says the only way you could soundproof your old office is if you built a room inside of your room, which is 100% decoupled it from because
Wes Bos
Boss and Scott
Announcer
the craziest,
Scott Tolinski
There's so many ideas running through my head. Yes. So many ideas. Yeah. Those are all great ideas too because I I actually wish that I mean, the this office for me is
Scott describes his monitor, docking station and other tech
Scott Tolinski
Yeah. That's a good question. That work? Who knows? But it sure does. I've never had any headphones that do that. Usually, it. If you goof up the the cable into which one or whatever, it it switches the the line, so that's nice. And then, last thing on my tech stuff, if I said, like, I had my cameras, the Sony a 7,
Scott Tolinski
Yeah. 16 by 9. Perfect. 16 by 9 aspect ratio, meaning that I don't have to I don't have to fiddle with the the when I'm doing screen recordings,
Scott Tolinski
And that these are great headphones. Don't get me wrong. The my favorite thing about them, Wes, is that they have a but you know what? Sentry gives me the confidence to be able to do stuff like that because I could check my Sentry and just leave it open all day and say, hey. If if something up with is up with one of these deploys,
Wes Bos
You're you're missing letters on everything you're saying. Dpx 286s.
Wes Bos
And every time I see somebody with one of those ultra wides, I'm like, If I could just get a high DPI ultrawide that was, like,
Scott Tolinski
38 inches monitor just came flying out. Oh. He crashed into the ground. I was just like, like, the lacrosse balls across the house. Those things are, like, £5. Oh, they weigh so much. My kids love throwing them. In in Brooklyn, I don't know where she learned how to throw, but that little 3 year old, she can throw a ball like nothing. She's Got an arm on her? She's got an arm on her. I don't know where she got that. Not for me. Last thing I'll talk about is I have 4 rare Shaw Brothers Kung Fu movie posters in my office that are like my pride and joys here, But they're the the wavy kind of ancient windows that just let in any sort of sound. The doors were all ancient,
Scott Tolinski
tune my headphones and the speakers separately,
Scott Tolinski
basically anytime the audio is coming in or out of my computer
Scott Tolinski
That right there is is is maybe not worth the price of admission, but it is, like, one of those things that, like, greatly improves my recording time every single day. It. Takes 1 more thing that I could possibly mess up at the beginning of my recording out of it because there's nothing worse than finishing a recording and then finding out your Your aspect ratio was off or you recorded something weird. Honestly, there's those things may seem silly. And people ask us this all the time, like, why are you buying all this Hardware equipment when you could be doing it all like virtually and digitally.
Scott Tolinski
Compressor, gate, all that stuff for my audio which makes it sound good and and pulls out all the I don't even have my it. Lights on. I don't even have the cans on in my my office. I have 1 somewhat decent sized window. It's not a massive window, and then I have a door with a window on Right in front of me.
Scott Tolinski
My audio from my computer run into the Nero. And so this Nero is Basically, like a control surface you'd find them in a in recording studios. And I have a big knob that turns my main speakers So okay. It's actually kind of an interesting setup. So, maybe I'll Get into that after I talk about the sound panels, but it is an interesting setup. So I have,
Scott Tolinski
we just moved everything so successfully, and then I destroyed my monitor and the last load of stuff coming into the house. I couldn't believe it. So do you miss having a wide monitor? Because I'm sitting here with my 34 or 32 inches 34 or whatever.
Scott Tolinski
headphone amp that was, like, $49.
Scott Tolinski
turns on the the the main big speakers, and then I have a smaller one for my headphones, and then I have a subwoofer in here as well That I can all toggle and tune separately.
Scott Tolinski
3. It's incredible. It's the best camera ever,
Wes Bos
Okay the it's in the show notes. It's in the show notes. It.
Scott Tolinski
So, a restaurant, So she she's she's we're both, like, very competitive people. She's, like, very ultra competitive. I'm ultra competitive. So, like, Losing all the time is not great for us. We we would probably really relish in being able to destroy some people in court hall. Oh, man. Awesome.
Wes Bos
not a cost of a Honda Civic.
Scott Tolinski
that goes into my computer so
Wes Bos
The speakers can't just go directly into the headphone port on your laptop or
Scott Tolinski
it goes into my Scarlett first which is the digital to analog converter analog to digital converter It's no good. So this definitely makes it, you fatigue way less. I've been looking at those and the ones that have, like,
Scott Tolinski
Let me tell you why I don't miss it, because I really loved the ultra wide. I loved the ultra wide. But let me tell you why I don't I don't miss it. This Apple monitor, Wes, does audio recording for a living at $6,000. That's like the whole thing. It's like, I don't wanna pay to get these So okay. Let's get into my audio stuff because, you know, obviously, I sound good. My audio is good.
Scott Tolinski
I'm currently wearing these TS3 plus
Scott Tolinski
and I love it very much.
Scott Tolinski
For those of you who don't know, 16 by 9 is, like, the standard aspect ratio for 4 k.
Scott Tolinski
Display Max Ultra thing. I don't even know what this thing is. It's
Scott Tolinski
But at the end of the day, we got write offs and stuff we gotta we gotta have. Gotta write it off. Yeah. Gotta write it off. I needed I need some, expenses, It's funny because my buddy was like, by the way, just don't walk on it without shoes or socks. You'll you'll regret it. And then I was like, I'm currently regretting that I just did that. It. But either way, I can get, like, 300 calories burned just walking on this thing while answering emails. And you would think that it would be a big bother, but it's really not a bother at all. I I find myself being able to walk on it for a long periods of times without even noticing that I'm walking on it.
Scott Tolinski
6 k. It couldn't be any better. It couldn't look any nicer. Is it worth the money? Probably not.
Wes Bos
You can't just plug the
Scott Tolinski
Okay. Then you don't get that separate control. Like what's really nice, Wes, is that I can, some, hardware expenses. So and, also, I I broke my old monitor. You know, I'm, like, so careful with all my tech stuff, and we we had just finished moving into this house. It. It was seriously the last load of stuff moving into this house, and I popped my wife's trunk open. And then my my fancy ultra wide,
Scott Tolinski
And so I can I can have inputs coming in from various places whether it's a turntable And so I can just record my entire screen without having to worry about it. And, honestly,
Scott Tolinski
my audio is always run through that So it goes Thunderbolt
Scott Tolinski
it's I used to have this, West, you you you would like this. I had, like this Nero is stupid expensive for what it does too, and I hate it. I hate the how much it cost, but I used to have this Samson,
Scott Tolinski
can talk to you while you have them on? No. It's so it it it has to it, like, tunes the sound. It makes it feel a little bit more open and more natural, it. But Okay. There's some, like, trade offs there.
Scott Tolinski
to based on where where I want everything and and then Turn the sub on or off or any of that sort of stuff. So it gives me more control over how I have it all set up. It's not necessary, but it it gives you more control.
Scott Tolinski
too expensive as is what it is.
Scott discusses lighting and camera setup
Scott Tolinski
[email protected], it Creates a reflection. Like, right now, even the computer screen is a reflection on my glasses. So in my old office, I had these 2 great windows for natural light, but they just happen to be Just that if I had either of them open while I was doing my audio recordings or my video recordings, you wouldn't be able to see my eyes. I'd look like, Gendo Ikari or something. I have these, like, shiny glasses eyes. And so because of that, I never got to use all that wonderful natural light, And I I certainly couldn't do it without my glasses. I need these glasses.
Wes Bos
from Vercel,
Wes Bos
Huge list of good speakers.
Wes Bos
70% off syntax, capital letters.
Wes Bos
conference. They've got all kinds of amazing So maybe that's a big component of it. I was talking to the guys from Desk House and they say like, very weird vibration that happens as you're talking. And it just is so off putting. Like, you can't I can't even sit there and eat dinner. And it's it's amazing. Once you go into a room that is well padded and you're talking like, oh, that's it. Something about this room feels nice and that's what that is. Yeah. And next time you're in a,
Wes Bos
On the 25th and 26th, there is a conference the outdoors and pumps that hot air into your in between the drywall,
Wes Bos
foundations for building a content system, real life applications for structure Content from brands like Spotify, AT and T, Shopify, New York Times,
Scott Tolinski
It is just a little little building here but it has modern windows, modern door and it's all sealed. It. So, therefore, it does in fact feel
Wes Bos
Go get your coat right now. Hop on a plane because you got the coupon code Syntax for 70% You didn't tell us about your
Wes Bos
for absolutely free or
Scott Tolinski
quite a bit quieter.
Wes Bos
it. I know it's tomorrow, but hop on a plane.
Scott Tolinski
It. It's not soundproof, Wes. In case you're wondering it is not soundproofed.
Scott Tolinski
like it's or drop a review if you like this show.
Wes Bos
off.
Scott Tolinski
just in case something went down. It wasn't at 4 o'clock on a Friday. So, And then I have the Audis LCD Part of the garage. So to give you an idea about, like, how our house is set up, we have a house in Denver. It's very common to have a detached garage in an alleyway. It. So we have a detached garage in the alleyway.
Wes Bos
going on called structured content 2022,
Wes Bos
online
Wes Bos
And or if you're local,
Wes Bos
It's in it's in San Francisco. So if you're on the way to the airport right now, make sure you get a plane for San Francisco.
Scott Tolinski
that's attached releases, users, browsers, all those types of things that allows you to solve your issues. In fact, me, personally, guess what I did, Wes. Guess what I did on Friday.
Scott Tolinski
I deployed
Wes Bos
where they're going to be talking all about,
Scott Tolinski
I'm gonna find out. I'm gonna find out early and often, and I'm going to see it in my Sentry dashboard. And I'm gonna be able to take care of it before the weekend hits, and then I am unable us. To, do so without kids yelling in my ear about it. So 3 t for my framed with a capital you know, take them in to get them framed. But then again, like, if you go to the store to buy a frame, you're just like, Here's a bunch of, My office is that my camera is really stinking good in low light. I have a Sony a 73. It's a mirrorless camera. It's amazing in low light.
Wes Bos
Yeah, right? I share a wall with the garage. So only if somebody's coming or going do I get like a garage door and that's it. Yeah. The only thing for me at the cottage is that sometimes the kids are playing side like a swing set. And it's it's not the end of the world. The the if my, like, recording were to overlap, that is not the end of the world. But. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Keep it down. But let's talk about our sponsors before we get too further in.
Scott Tolinski
browsers, all that and more, head on over to century. Io. Use the coupon code tasty treat, all one word, all lowercase, and you'll get it. 14 days, and you'll get Peace.
Scott Tolinski
2 months for free, not 14 days. So thank you so much for Century for sponsoring. Alright. Let's get into it. Tell me about your your full what do you call it? LevelUp Lodge. Tell me about it. Yeah. LevelUp Lodge. You know, it I don't have an official sign yet, so I gotta get that. And and one thing I didn't mention off the jump is that I got a mini split back here. You can kinda see it in some of my videos directly above my head. So,
Wes Bos
Speakers, Guillermo, I've talked to a couple a couple of people who are like previous engineers, Pretty cool. San Francisco
Scott Tolinski
yeah. So Sentry, gives me that confidence To track all of my errors and exceptions that tie them to releases, users, On this
Scott Tolinski
in a giant table, bumping off the lights or anything like that. But,
Wes Bos
anyone.
Scott and Wes talk about desk options
Wes Bos
defrost itself because
Wes Bos
And that thing was had my office cooking in, like, I don't know, 10 minutes or so. Took a little longer for the chair and stuff to warm up, but, sound squares being soundproofing.
Wes Bos
It heats Yeah. Like I came in, flipped it on in, like, the minus 20 degrees Celsius, And the line in is is the best quality it can be, and there's no fussing with it after the fact. And, like, it just works. And, like, there's one more thing where you don't have to crop your screen or or set up your windows appropriately. It just goes. Right? And that that those things are huge for us. The less v s t's or it. Audio plugins or video plugins or anything you have to use, the better the end product's gonna be. You want clean signals. You want good video. You want good audio. You want all that stuff.
Wes Bos
unreal.
Wes Bos
Yeah. So these things are amazing.
Wes Bos
will, bumps and stuff on them so you can, like, it. Put your foot because, like, I I have a, Appleton.
Scott Tolinski
okay into your office
Scott Tolinski
interesting
Wes Bos
It heats as well. Your heats as well, right? Mhmm.
Wes Bos
I.
Wes Bos
and then when it gets cold it does the opposite it just essentially air conditions maybe I need a heat pump for a new house to set up a furnace, you know?
Wes Bos
run a compressor and put the hot air outside and the cold air inside,
Wes Bos
interesting
Scott and Wes discuss importance of hardware for recording
Scott Tolinski
treadmill underneath my desk, which I thought was going to be ridiculous.
Scott Tolinski
It. Alright. Last little bit. I have some miscellaneous stuff. I have a,
Wes Bos
And the answer to that is that we just want it to be set up
Scott describes his home office setup
Scott Tolinski
they built This addition onto the garage to be part of the garage as his,
Scott Tolinski
Record whenever I wanted to. So having this sort of little oasis for me to record in has just been a giant, giant productivity boost.
Scott Tolinski
The previous owners,
Scott Tolinski
it it was really a Standout feature for me especially as somebody who's, He turned it into a nice little office for an accountant or what would be me. So when we were looking at this house,
Scott Tolinski
pane glass windows. Or is it plate plate glass or pane glass? I never know what the It's a pane. I can tell you that. It. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Scott Tolinski
Now from what I understand,
Scott Tolinski
just that I could have my own oasis to be out in record and is the best.
Scott Tolinski
the not even the previous owners, but the previous previous owners I think it'd be cool to get in a mat. Like, I got lacrosse balls around the house, but not in here. It. My kids to huck Decided to take this and turn it into some sort of a workspace.
Scott Tolinski
you could still hear them. So for me it was just such a giant problem to be able to panels. So one of them is this nee er one. See a So it's getting a little bit of natural light in here. But for the most part, this room is pretty dark, and it looks pretty decent on on on video right now. So, it. Many of these lights I bought from my old office, which didn't like, it got good light, but the light was right in my glasses reflection side. So Those of you who do don't do a lot of video recording or those of you who don't have glasses, you might not realize that anytime light bounces off your glasses, And don't forget to subscribe in your podcast player
Scott got a walking treadmill for his birthday
Scott Tolinski
walking on this thing. But
Scott Tolinski
It. The only problem that I've had with it is the one time I didn't wear socks, and I, like, literally wore my feet raw
Wes Bos
lacrosse ball, and sometimes I put my foot on that. It feels so good.
Scott Tolinski
I got this for my birthday this year. This is my birthday present. It was a treadmill for under my desk. I gotta get some steps in. I just said, hey. You know, I'm not getting enough steps in. I I feel like I'm I'm missing some opportunities there, it. And I I've just been become more sedentary lately. So I, background noise which of of course there isn't in now because my room's tuned. I have the Scarlett 2i2 for the audio digital conversion I have the CalDigit Like, actual working. Like like like, actually non digital working. I don't know what he was doing in here, to be honest. But the previous owner it. Was like an accountant and and drywalled it and turned it all fancy and got some fancy plank flooring in here and stuff. So,
Scott Tolinski
And I I can pop up my desk and I can walk while working. And let me tell you, I thought this thing would be a nightmare to work with, but I find myself being able to work for 2 to 3 hours at a time. Maybe, like, maybe not 2 to 3. Maybe 1 to 2 hours while walking on the treadmill.
Scott Tolinski
And I have some hand stand blocks in here that'll pop up and do some handstands on when I'm bored,
Scott Tolinski
got this treadmill. It's, like, 299 Jarvis. That's what a lot of people are recommending. Yeah. Yeah. And, yeah, definitely don't get the IKEA ones because I saw you You posted about the IKEA ones or you were in IKEA looking. Those were in IKEA. One was at the bay, or Bluetooth or whatever and then they they all kind of end up is it ends up being like a mixer? Right? Like, it's almost like a headphone mixer is what you occasionally hear these things being called.
Scott Tolinski
I also have some big old hunkin' knee pads,
Discussion on mini split heat pumps
Scott Tolinski
cooler or no warmer temperature. And then I have 1 light that I've almost now just used as a backlight to go against my backdrop and then I have one that I'll point at the ceiling to sort of fill the room with more light with really intense light And at a certain point, it says this is too much, and it will stop, which is good. Otherwise, you fry your motor. Right? Yeah. I think that too. I'm also sure I'm sure it's like a safety thing too because if it's going if the there's There's somebody underneath the desk, and it's going down and it hits resistance. Yeah. Right? It has to be able to stop.
Scott Tolinski
Watch as I
Wes Bos
near. Neewer. Neewer. Neewer.
Scott Tolinski
Both, like, warm tones and cool tones in it, and you can control them separately. So I'll typically use that one to bounce off my face it. To give my my skin a little bit,
Wes Bos
That that
Scott Tolinski
Ne or 2 of them on either side of me and they're all installed on the walls. See it. They look like these giant black, cloth pictures essentially but they're thick. They're about, half a foot or maybe even a little bit more than that thick and it's just straight up pull on insulation. And I kid you not. Like, the moment I put them into this room, it went from being an echo fest to being, like, just You could, you know, hear a pin drop in here. It's so quiet when you walk into this this room now. And, Wes, I got my My latest sound addition here for the Reaver is I got a couch.
Scott Tolinski
just get destroyed in utter humiliation. I'm I'm for some reason, I'm really bad at it. I don't know why. I'm I'm I'm I would have go as far to say I'm very good it at it or at least think I'm very good at it. We've we've got a set at our cottage, and I I love playing with our kids. Love it too. Yeah. Courtney and I are both not good at it. Although, she might she might say that she's better. I don't think she is.
Scott Tolinski
nylon bags that you fill with sand Then you put over the stands, and now my stands don't fall over anymore. Thank goodness. That's You're not playing cornhole with those, are you? It. Not playing cornhole with them.
Scott Tolinski
They they are massive, so they would, they would be very difficult. I'm also terrible at cornhole. So, Yeah. It's probably loose and then a little bit, It's it's been it's been shook. You know, it's funny because you you said that, you know, that you're the one that you're looking at holds a ton, and mine is probably just at the limit. Because, Honestly, if I put my finger on the top of the desk and I push down with 1 finger, I can get it to be like, nope. I'm not going up. Oh, really? I I I, Yeah. I don't know if it's like I think there is some sort of resistance mechanism in these where, like, if there if it meets a certain amount of resistance, it will, a I don't know if they could buy 3 glass doors near me. Oh, for sure. Every everywhere has a glass door. Like, what happens if your window breaks? If you Google Denver Glass stores, you're going to get something different. You're going to get, like, bongs and stuff.
Scott Tolinski
studio sandbags for these things. So there's these big yellow,
Scott Tolinski
I don't really like contacts. So, either way, I bought a whole bunch of lights, And I don't actually end up using them that much though. The light I end up using in here the most, and I do end up tuning it a little bit. I I point 1 light at the ceiling to get that sweet White reflection bouncing. Just fill the light off. I have 3 LED,
Scott Tolinski
is is looking at me right now on camera. And it it is one aspect
Scott Tolinski
this one's nice because it has it.
Scott Tolinski
But we were we were gonna get some boards, and And I kid you not. We are gonna get some boards at the house just so we could both practice. So that way, next time we played with some people that we wouldn't get destroyed like we always do.
Scott and Wes love talking about office setups
Scott Tolinski
for a full archive of all of our shows,
Scott Tolinski
Head on over to syntax.fm anybody, if you ever get into an environment where I'm there and a court whole bull board is there and you wanna challenge me, please do so and Quit. It will will not try to do it. But, I mean, I have a ton of stuff on this desk. I have in fact, I'll I'll Talk everything about I have everything mounted to my desk. I have a, because sometimes you you gotta get the blood moving a little bit. Do you do you Sorry. Let me cut you there. Do you have one of these standing mats that has, like, all the bumps and grips and balls on it? I do. What do you think of that? I'm so I'm I've for everyone listening, I've never oh, yeah. So it's just a nice big square. Yeah. I have one that you would like, In the Amazon I'll I'll link you to the one that I have, but the Amazon Okay. Thing that I have shows that being used in, like, a kitchen or anything like that. Yeah. Fatigue, man, helps. Yes. It definitely helps when you stand flat foot for a long time on a hard surface.
Scott Tolinski
Awesome. Well, I'm I'm really stoked to hear that you got that all set up. It's I just love talking about offices. We've done a couple of these episodes of 4. So it. Oh, yeah. And I'm a tweaker. I I too not like a not like a You are a twinkle. Yeah. User, but, like, a tweaker of my desk. I I tweak tweak my desk it stuff constantly, so I'm a big fan of this stuff too. I watch all their desk YouTube. So good. Alright. Thanks, everybody, for tuning in. We'll catch you on Wednesday. Peace.