The Tools That Help Me Create

This is my current development setup which includes all the hard- and software I need for my daily work as a web developer and content creator.

Are you looking for something specific? Jump to one of the main topics:

• General
• Coding
• Recording & Streaming

General

Laptop

• MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2021)
• Apple M1 Max
• 32 GB

Mouse / Keyboard

• Keychron K3
• Apple Magic Mouse 2

Laptop Stand

• Griffin Elevator

Display

• Apple Studio Display
• It's the best display I ever had
• It gets powered through the USB-C connection
• I was looking for a cheaper option, but none of them had a beautiful clean design
• I didn't regret it

Desk Frame

• Fully Jarvis Frame Only
• DIY adjustable height
• Save different height settings

Since I spent hours sitting in front of a computer every day, a standing desk was on my list for a long time. Since I moved last year, I finally had the chance and place to get one. I did a lot of research, and I'm super happy with my choice. For me, it was important that I only get the frame so that I can use a custom top.

Desk Top

• Custom Top

I needed a custom top for my desk to fit a niche in my office room. I didn't find one to buy, so I decided to give it a try myself. I had no experience with woodworking so far, so I watched a lot of youtube videos and talked to Jason McCreary, who is more experienced with that kind of work. In this post, I share some images of the process building the desk top.

Chair

• Secretlab OMEGA
• Charcoal Blue SoftWeave® Fabric

During the cyber week in December 2019, there was a good deal for this chair. I wasn't sure if I should try a gaming chair, but I'm pretty satisfied. Especially the pillows for your head and back are comfortable and support your body.

Operating System

• MacOS latest version

Coding

IDE

• PhpStorm is the IDE of my choice
• I use a dark theme called RIOS which is part of my Mastering PhpStorm video course
• Over 50 of my favorite 🧪 PhpStorm Tips & Tricks can be found here

Terminal

• When I'm not inside PhpStorm, I use Hyper
• All my shell settings can be found inside my dotfiles repo

Local Development

• I use Laravel Herd (PRO) for local development

Email

• Apple Email (I switched back from Spark for simplicity

Productivity

• Raycast is my productivity tool of choice!
• It just covers it all!

Website Analytics

• Fathom - simple, fast and privacy-focused website analytics
• You will get a $10 discount when using the above link

Cloud Storage

• I'm using Dropbox to backup all my files
• Google Drive is where I store all my documents

Password Manager

• 1Password is my password manager of choice
• I'm using it for years now and couldn't live without it anymore

Lists / Todos

• I have a pinboard where I define tasks for today and this week
• Since 2022, I use Height as a todo app as well
• Apple Calendar & Reminders help me to not forget about important events

Mac Bar Menu Management

• With Bartender I customize the icons in the top menu

A lot of those icons you don't need regularly. So with Bartender, you can hide them and everything looks a little more cleaned up.

Recording & Streaming

Microphone

• Shure MV7 XLR Podcast Microphone
• I use the pop filter of the Shure SM7B which is better
• Mounted over a Rode Psa1 microphone boom

Camera

• Sony Alpha 6400
• Lens - Sigma 16mm 1.4
• Elgato Low Profile Arm
• The camera is used as a webcam through the Elgato Cam Link 4k
• In front of my cam sits the Elgato Prompter

Lights

• 1x Elgato Keylight
• 2x Elgato Keylight Air
• The Keylight is mounted to my desk
• One Keylight Air also points at met, mounted at the wall. The other one I use in my back.
• Philips Hue lights in the background

Streaming Software

• Ecamm Live
• In-stream-animations made with DaVinci Resolve Fusion

Before Ecamm Live, I was using StreamYard. I still recommend StreamYard to everyone who wants a quick start into the streaming world. It just works through your browser and is very simple to set up. I also wrote a blog post about my whole streaming setup and experience.

Editing Software

• Podcast - Screenflow
• Video Course - Screenflow
• Private video editing - DaVinci Resolve (free)

Everything covered?

That's my current setup. It has come a long way and is still changing every year. If you feel like I'm missing any important tools I didn't mention, please let me know.

Find some images of my older setups below or check my 2018's setup.