A good seat to park your ass on while you work is important. Like Uber important. It was #2 on this list.
The BEST or ULTIMATE studio chair is up for debate, there’s a lot of choices. IMO it should meet these criteria:
- Adjustable height to allow your arms to be at a comfortable position for typing and mousing.
- Wheels. If not then tank tracks or the ability to hover.
- Reclining (inclining?) for power naps
- Comfortable. Do I really need to explain this?
- Removable arm rests. It’s hard to sit and play guitar with the chair arms getting in the way.
Not every chair meets these requirements. A Lazy Boy is comfortable and reclining (a little too far) but no wheels, height adjustment and can’t play guitar in them. About 50% of office chairs will meet the requirements but perhaps not the removable arm rests.
Most studios have several generic leather full back chairs like the one below. They’re decent, but you have to sit on the edge to play guitar and can get sweaty before long. I prefer a mesh back chair personally.
A ton of studio guys swear by the Herman Miller Aeron. They’re definitely nice chairs, not sure if you can move the arms out of the way, and they’re pretty expensive. There are plenty of similar mesh back chairs, but none as durable and quality as the Aeron.
Imogen Heap prefers a Yoga ball.
Quoting Music Radar interview below.
Eschewing the plush swivel chair favoured by most producers, Imogen likes to position herself on an altogether more spherical studio seat: a furry fitness ball. “This is really fun and actually improves your posture if you’re like me and spend ages doing a lot of audio editing,” she says.
And now the chair that breaks all the rules but succeeds in being absolutely awesome. The Emperor 200. $40,000 worth of awesomeness. Needs tank treads though.
For the simple folk they’ve just announced The Emperor 1510 at a mere $5,000. They’ve obviously taken some features out but how cool would this look in YOUR home studio.
Your reward for making it to the bottom of this post is two funny chair prank videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb2tztSqCHY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5hfpKObcKs
What’s important to you in a chair?
Also Interesting:
For me comfort is tops. I was lucky and grabbed a Knoll Sapper Executive off of craigslist on the cheap. That thing is the single most comortable chair my ass has ever had the pleasure of sitting in.
Yeah, you can tilt the arms out of the Aeron chair. Not completely out of the way, but they will tilt. I saw them on sale for around $550 which is not bad considering it’s the best chair I’ve ever worked in (although I’m sure it’s the lowest optioned chair for that price).
HA! Thanks for the videos at the bottom! They were so rewarding.
An important “feature” for me is the arms fit just under the desk. other wise you cant get close enough and end up over reaching. You need to roll yourself right up close so you can keep your back straight and elbows close.
Im looking for a new chair for work, currently exploring the “ergonomic” chairs. Maybe something like this http://www.corrigochairs.com (note the short arms that let you get right up close.
I suppose in order of what I would deem important (taking price out of the picture)..
• Ergonomics (don’t want to cause any long term damage back there)
• Comfort
• Utility
I rate utility lower only because I would rather have an ergonomic, utilitarian chair that I could get used to rather than a comfortable, ergonomic chair which may be irritating to do anything on.
Great article and loved the video treat. I have the Corrigo V3 and I can say it’s perfect for this type of work. It’s arms adjust up, down, out and off too! It’s really helped my back problems. I think it cost around £500-£600 and worth every penny.
I’ve sat in the Aerons and they are terrible! I couldn’t believe it…after hearing all of the hype and then I sit in one and it just feels like ass…save your dough and buy some gear or something else. I’m about to try out the yoga ball thing. Seems like a great idea.