So, after publicly hating on my own output on here a while ago, a bunch of you were good enough to set me straight and help me towards a more productive and satisfying musical journey. The upshot of that is that I put myself out there and found another local mentalist who wants join up with me to inflict horrible noises on the people of Leicestershire.
For the first time, this has made me focus on making music according to meeting a relatively specific brief and I have refined my setup with productivity and self-discipline in mind.
Interestingly, I have ended up eschewing most of my Elektron gear (I’m still using the Heat) and have focused my setup on the Lyra 8 and DFAM. I say interesting because I love making noise on my Digitone but have ended up discounting it.
I then spent Friday evening on here arguing about song mode (I know, I’m such a hero) and it occured to me that I seem to be gravitating towards very “fixed” instruments. I use the term fixed to say that they are what they are. Both the Lyra and DFAM are very much finished instruments, no firmware updates, no new or hidden features to worry about, what you buy is what you have forever.
I then got to wondering about how much time I spend thinking about what I want my gear to be rather than just using it. How much is productivity affected by the cycle of updates, “workflow improvements” and technological development in general? A lot of us have come away from using computers because of option paralysis and such, but sometimes I wonder if gear is getting so capable and deep that the same issues are starting to come up in hardware. Don’t get me wrong, firmware updates are awesome and Elektron have an excellent track record with them but is all this development spoiling us? Are we artists or consumers? Can we be both? Should I just shut up and make some noise?
Leicestershire? Have you heard of Prolapse? They wanted to be the most depressing band around. Awsome stuff. I lived in Leicester for a bit, made some cracking tunes with an electric guitar, some pedals, tascam portastudio and a shit keyboard. Released it all on tape.
Any way. I totally dig what you are saying. I too have a dfam and a lyra. And love them. But I also have 2 elektrons. I love those too. I dont love updates. So I dont really care what updates happen in elektron land. My digitone will stay as it is when I bought it. I couldn’t give two shits if it doesnt have song mode.
Make noise my friend. Make lots of it.
Yeah, though I was living in Northamptonshire in the 90’s, but I’m think I remember seeing them some time in the late 90’s.
I would say that most of us are people having fun playing around with gear that are happy when we output some music while doing so, that we upload to a random platform and am happy when 50 people listen to it.
For me, I am not a musician in a way, that I earn my money with it, need to produce and have a working live set. I toy around having fun to Relaxe from the world outside (and from myself quite often). I moved to hardware because I earn my living in front of a computer and I like to stay away from it when doing music. I like to turn knobs and press buttons. But I also like gear that supports me doing what I do. As I am no professional and am not training every day, I am not a great performer. I need tools that help me in playing my synths (sequencers) and in organising what I did (arrangers) because I am neither enough skilled playing what I want nor performing good enough while recording to be happy with the result.
I am with you: buy stuff that helps you or find away to be productive with your stuff instead of thinking how it could be different. If you buy a car to sail over the ocean it’s not the manufacturers fault, that it doesn’t work.
You never hear a violinist complaining for a lack of strings.
If that would be the case, noone would have started to build 5-string violins 
well manufacturers encourage this now, too… ship it now, fix it in an update… so we have precedence because we’ve received feature updates down the road, now we cross our fingers and hope the updates we want will soon be ported in.
I’m of the “use the limitations” midset… for example I was really down on only 4 notes out midi on DT until I thought about it and said: how great are you with chord progressions anyway? Are you really in need of more than 4 notes at once for most of what you’re doing? and if so you have onboard sequencers, and more midi channels to add more notes… now I use this to my advantage: by bringing in a second midi channel to same polysynth I can unmute and add a second layer to my chord progressions…
at the end of the day what’s there is there. sure say “I wish this had this” on a forum, no harm in that, mfgs should hear from their customer base about ideas, but arguing about who is right, what something “should” have, if a company is purposely crippling boxes for profit, etc… none of that gives you the feature and you best look elsewhere for your solution.
Lol! I didn’t know there was a 5 stringer!
But that wasn’t my point, people should embrace the instrument’s limitations whatever they are. I’d like a few extra features for the M:S but I’m not putting it back in its box until they appear. I’m just going to enjoy it as it is. If you want limitations gone you have to go back to a computer screen.
I agree with you there. I myself would like to have a song mode on the DN/DT, because it would suite my way of working, but I bought them knowing it is not there. If it doesn’t fit my needs, there exactly one person to blame for it, and thats me, because I knew about.
YEAAAAAAAA
DOOO ITTTTT
IMHO the most “healthy” approach is to treat every instrument like that. It is what it is when you buy it. If a firmware update comes around - that’s nice, but don’t expect it and think twice when you will upgrade. Just rush to install the latest shiniest features (even if you don’t need them) isn’t always the best way for your mental peace …
That’s why I love older products like the Octatrack. Its feature set has settled over many years. Is it perfect? No, of course not. There are still bugs around, but these bugs are well-documented and you can inform yourself exactly what you get.
Update your DN pls lol 
you won’t regret it …
I did it.
(Please feel free to download the full .wav off SoundCloud, as the SoundCloud compression ruins it.)
Why? Its got portamento, ratio offsets. Does what I want it to do.
Tom would approve
Then it’s pretty updated I thought maybe you had it pre portamento firmware lol
That’s always kinda been my approach, it usually takes me months to get round to updating my digis when new firmware comes out.
@glooms, my Digitone is still pre-portamento firmware. I’m really lazy.
I tend to purchase digital gear long after initial release… due to reasons alluded to above.
So mine came with the updates other people were waiting for.
I could update my TR8-S apparently because there is an update for it. I havent done it. And probably wont. Its fine. Its a drum machine. It drums. My synths synth. Everything is good. Lyra noise is the best noise.
I use portamento in all my tracks ! Lol
Here’s an example 
I can relate and have been eyeballing the Lyra; like the Pulsar 23, the need for musicality and expression…like a musical instrument!
I mention that I produce mainly on the OT and some of my friends have gasped, because of it’s rumored “complexity”. And I get that, but those acquainted with it know you have to spend a bit of time programming to enjoy it’s benefits, it’s not a musical instrument in the traditional sense. It’s just as “logical” as it is “right brained”.
I started with HW from the beginning and never used a DAW, so every tool was a musical instrument…the most important thing is if you can express through it. Actually one of my favorite synths is the little Monotron. I think it is always productive to start from a minimalist mindset, keeping ideas focused, clear and direct.
So although I am definitely sticking with OT and my DN, I think I too am looking for expression over programming options. Good programming does not necessarily yield good tunes, but a good tune will usually spur on the required programming. And I think many of the most elite electronic musicians, they get that sweet spot, too. They learn just enough to create good art, they follow their ears, they aren’t obsessing over UIs or non-existant features.