Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “The MKBHD Setup Tour 2020!”.
Hey, what’s up guys, i’m kbhd here, okay, quick before i start this tour, i just want to give a quick shout out to an instagrammer named jvnb who actually made this quick video and i’ve reshared it of over 700 rubik’s cubes and then organize them all to Make the text mkbhd and my face it’s kind of amazing i’ll leave a link to it below it’s really cool and i’ve also never actually solved a rubik’s cube in my entire life, like from start to finish so that made that much more impressive for me anyway. Let’S get into the tour hey, what’s up guys mkbhd here and welcome to the desktor setup for early 2020.. This is probably the last tour that there’s going to be in this space as we’re going to be moving to a new space in a couple of weeks. Like i’ve mentioned, so that’s really exciting, but i figured i’d, give you an updated setup tour and it’s of the stuff that i use to work and get work done now. I already know a lot of the comments on these are already about this costs.
So much money – this is super expensive, but just know that this is not my personal setup at home. This is my work setup, and this is also the culmination of many years more than 10 years now of building a setup like this for work specifically to edit videos that you see here. So that’s the point of it. So maybe me sharing it, you can enjoy it or get ideas for your own setups and things like that either way. I think it’s a lot of fun, so, let’s just get started so the best place to start is always the physical desk itself.
I’Ve talked about this a lot. I’Ve had this since college. This is a custom sized eight foot by.
I think three foot next desk air pro it’s an incredible piece of thin metal, it’s a motorized desk, so it goes up and down and uh, it happens to be uh one of the oldest pieces of the setup, and it also has some battle scars from me. Maybe putting things down too hard on it, but that’s part of the setup is you get some stuff that gets worn in and it gets used a lot, speaking of which that’s also the chair that i’ve used? This is the herman miller embody if you’re going to sit in a chair for many hours at a time which people who edit videos typically do might as well save your back, spend a little extra get a share. That’S really comfortable and supports your spine, which these chairs do so. These two things have been with me for probably the longest of anything else here. So i’ll start all the way on the left side of the desk, with again one of the oldest pieces, which is the studio, monitors the speakers. These are yamaha hs8s, so it’s an eight inch woofer and a one-inch tweeter, and these things are sitting on top of these oralx acoustic foam pieces.
If this was just sitting on the desk by itself, it would rattle the desk a lot and that’s not great for audio at all so they’re sitting on these pads, which they have been for a while, and these are incredible. These are internally amplified perfectly balanced studio. Monitors i have had opportunities to switch to others, but these also are really clean. Looking really good sounding never had any problems with them again. I’Ve had these for like six or seven years, at least too so i love the yamaha hs8s, there’s also smaller hs5s and hs7s. Then next to that behind this monitor here is what’s called the promis pegasus.
I’Ve also had this for a while. If you’ve seen the older setup tour videos, you’ll notice a bit of a theme. A lot of this stuff has been here for a bit, but that’s an 80 terabyte raid array and that’s where i’ve backed up all of my videos since like 2013. and then another thing that’s special about this desk.
Is it’s got a built-in power supply right underneath which is like literally bolted to it? So i have 12 power outlets there. So that’s good for cable management, and that also lets me have this wireless charger here on my desk and uh, i just plugged in a oneplus power cable. So if i have a wireless charging phone or a wired phone, they can both plug in here, while i’m at work, and then i have these black air pods pro from colorware. I’Ve showed these before in a separate video.
If i’m on a video call or an interview or a skype, or something like that, those are the headphones of choice and then, of course, is the biggest addition to actually what’s on the desk itself, which is apple’s pro display xdr. This is the matte nano texture version. It works great in here because there’s lots of lights all over the place. There’S natural lighting coming in here.
So no glare, no regrets, and these are off both on the pro stand and they’re both sitting next to each other. In glorious 6k low key one of the most underrated things about these, this is going to sound like such a complaint. But it’s true: is it’s really hard to find high-res 6k hdr wallpapers for dual screens, so you need like a 12k setup happening, so i’ve just reversed a wallpaper and put it on both monitors just to make it look kind of nice. But that’s something i’ve found is tough, but that’s what’s going on here. On top of the desk, my dual monitor, editing, setup, my dual monitor productivity setup, everything about it, i’m so glad to have dual monitors. Again.
It’S been a long time since i’ve had that imac pro for a couple years, but i love having two screens now, no matter what you think about the pro stands or whatever you think about the monitors. They are actually pretty useful, they’re plugged into the mac pro which i’ll get to in a second, but they also have a couple usb type-c ports on the back, and since these don’t have a webcam built in, i have a little magnetic connecting logitech 4k webcam. On top, but also since the computer is not on the desk anymore, like it was with the imac pro there’s a couple, other things plugged into the monitor that aren’t plugged into the mac pro directly, and that is this mini mag reader, which it’s not as fast. When it’s going through through the monitor, but it works and there’s also the dongle to connect to this mouse, which i’ve had problems with it being underneath the desk.
So when i plugged the dongle in from logitech’s mx master 3 into the mac pro directly, it would have to go through the desk and this mouse would stutter like crazy. So i found that putting a dongle behind the monitor and then connecting it to the mouse worked way better. So if that’s something you’re dealing with, hopefully that helps also pro tip. If you ever need help plugging in something behind the monitor something, i’ve done for a little while is just pop up the selfie camera and go ahead and stick it behind the monitor. And then you can see the ports. And this is how i’ve known how exactly to plug in stuff or how many ports i have left so fun fact there.
I did that with the imac too, and then all the way over here on the right is the apollo twin mark ii, which is actually a little bit more powerful, a little more capable, although i really don’t use it for what it’s good for. It’S a space gray, basically glorified volume button, but also has a bunch of plugins and things if people work with audio but basically that’s connected to and powering the studio monitors and if i want to plug in headphones. That’S where i do that too.
So then, last but not least, is essentially the control setup, which is essentially the mouse, the magic trackpad and the keyboard. So the mouse, like i said, mx master iii. It’S got a little bit of a custom, laser etching on it, which is pretty sweet, and you had that pro tip of how to make sure it doesn’t stutter. It also connects by usb type c. It was in a dope tech episode and it’s sitting on a red, artisan mouse pad this mousepad.
I’Ve tried to buy again because you can see it’s like getting really worn out, but it’s i can’t find it for sale exactly this one anymore. So i feel like my next mousepad is going to be a slightly different red mousepad, but it is what it is. It hasn’t moved in a long time, so i like it and then over here magic trackpad 2.. I just use this literally to go back and forth between spaces.
I have dual monitors, but i also often have a lot of stuff going on with final cut pro and then back to the web browser and then my dual screen editing setup. So, that’s why i have the magic track pad and i’ve often used them both at once. That’S just sort of the way my setup’s been for a while, and the keyboard is one of my new favorite little pieces. This is the keytron keychron k2.
It’S rgb! It’S wireless, it doesn’t have the number pad and i don’t really miss it. I don’t use it that much, but i found that these brown switches have been my favorites, that i’ve tried in the mechanical keyboard so far and i have a couple custom keycaps, like the red ascend key up here and i don’t know just feels like at home. It’S a very unique looking piece: it’s not as low profile as the mac keyboard and it sounds really good, but yeah. That’S the keyboard that i’ve been using for a while. It gets really loud when i’m editing, but that’s my control setup. Oh, i almost forgot.
I’Ve. Typically had my smartphone or smartphones of choice daily carries whatever you want to call them just straight up on the desk. But if there’s like some debris or something and you put it face down, then it gets a little dicey. So i have uh the microfiber cloth that came with the pro display.
Xdr, just put it right in the middle of the desk phone goes face down on that when it’s not charging doesn’t distract me, i keep it face down, that’s about it for on the desk. So that of course brings us to what is underneath the desk, which is the new mac pro, so i’ve typically not had anything under my desk and i’m working on a full review of this machine. This is now the one that i’ve bought, not apple’s review unit. So it is a 28 core. I have right now 768 gigs of ram, which is insane vega, 2 vega, pro 2 duo. It’S been excellent so far, and i’m editing this video on that i dropped an 8k q.
A it’s been awesome, but now my biggest problem problem really is that cables have to get from the mac pro up to what’s on the desk again and it’s a motorized desk and it moves up and down. But while i’m standing now, you have two cables to both the monitors and a cable to the apollo twin mark ii and one up to the pegasus. So it’s a little bit messier looking. But i’m willing to work with that to have this machine here, but they actually make a version of this desk with a little holder for a cpu. I think i might end up trying to get one of those and attaching it or something like that, but the mac pro has been sitting under the desk. I’Ve had no airflow problems down here or anything. The air goes straight through from left to right. So when it’s rendering you can stick your hand on the back and feel the hot air, but you know no dust really down here or anything.
I haven’t kicked it. So it’s just been sort of comfortably sitting down there. So that’s the mac pro and how it’s contributed to this setup and that review is coming soon and then, if i go ahead and slide over here, this is how i bring it down to sitting position. So that’s pretty much it it’s pretty simple.
This is where i’ve been sitting when editing and making what you’ve seen for the better part of the last three years or so, and we’re really excited to be moving into our new space and using everything. We’Ve learned from the evolution of this for that. But even things like the the sound panels behind here on the wall which have helped with reverb, because these speakers are so massive there’s foam in the corners that are called base traps, there’s all sorts of things that we’ve removed that have been here before. But we’ve ended up with, i think, a pretty clean, simple functional setup.
I don’t know if i’d call it minimal, but it’s felt pretty clean the whole time so when my desk doesn’t have other stuff on it. This is what it looks like. Also one more thing. I forgot to mention the mac pro: doesn’t have an sd card reader built into it right, and i guess that makes sense pros.
Don’T necessarily need media card readers built in, but just for someone that has the mac pro underneath their desk. That means in order to read sd cards, they either have to plug it into the back of the pro display, xdr and then somehow plug it in there not ideal or get this thing, sticking out the top of the mac pro and then plug it in there. Also not ideal, so i have to get one that like sort of cables out onto the desk and looks a little uglier and it’s another cable. And then, when i lower the desk, it sort of gets extra slack.
It’S a whole weird thing, so i’ve just basically kept this on the desk and plugged it in when i needed it. Um minor detail anyway. That’S pretty much it for the setup tour 2020..
It feels like a short one, but i didn’t really talk about. Like other stuff on, if you want uh, what’s on my smartphone video or what’s on my daily tech, video, i’ve also considered an everyday carry video like a backpack video. But if you have a suggestion, please leave it in the comment section below because that’s where we get our best ideas so anyway, that’s been it thanks for watching catch, you guys later peace, .