Totally feeling this. Lately all I want to do is make an entire album in just Audacity. You know, like that totally unsuccessful artist Burial.
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I did a little bit, but imo not enough to warrant the whole article. I got to the end without really knowing what the message was - it was a bit incoherent. The author is definitely coming from the right place, but I couldn’t really tell where they were going with it.
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hear hear
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I already sit at a computer all day for work.
That is why I use hardware to make music.
I don’t want to sit at a computer. I don’t even want to sit at a desk.
I want one box I can take to the sofa, or sit on the loo making funny noises while the kids are in the bath, or take on holiday, or use on a train.
I want more than one box to pick up, because each groovebox encodes the workflow ideas of the designer: using a Deluge is a different way of interacting with music to using an M8.
I know I can do it all with software at a desk with a laptop. I don’t want to.
I was DAW only for years, productively and happily. Maybe if I was a tree surgeon I’d still love DAW. I am not a tree surgeon.
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“People get caught up in purism like [mockingly] ‘Oh well you can execute it with the software but it’s not as good as the real thing’, well that’s a prison, you’re sending yourself to jail with that thinking…Purism is a trap, purism is prison.”
I think ultraminimalism can be a prison, too. There are collectors in every area that has things to collect - I do not think this article would resonate with them at all.
VSTs are great. But, I would prefer not to jam or play with other humans while tied to a VST; there is more to music than bedroom producing. There’s nothing wrong with bedroom producing, but it is not the ultimate form of musical expression for everyone.
That said, learning one’s instrument(s) deeply is pretty important, and that gets harder the more instruments there are. A new module or synth won’t make you a better artist. It may, however, nudge you to think a little bit differently, and for some of us that is valuable.
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Doesn’t get much more “late-stage-capitalism” than trying to inject “productive workflow” into all areas of our lives. The whole get-to-work imperative within the online music-maker communities is just as bad as the GAS:ing. Probably my favorite thing is how everyone calls themselves producers these days, or worse: content-creators. The language clearly shows what all of this has become.
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I absolutely agree with this. I don’t ask my buddy who noodles around on guitar where his tracks are when he sends me a picture of his new guitar and I don’t tell him he can do the same thing with a guitar vst. But as soon as you add an electronic instrument into the picture it is different somehow?
I also don’t think there is anything wrong with being a collector either, but maybe that is a topic for another thread. My uncle collects stamps and I have never once though about shaming him and telling him to stop buying more stamps and start being productive sending those letters!
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I read “productive workflow” as “being effective at making the music you want to make”. YMMV
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Journalists are always looking for something to write about and I guess best to get your articles in and paid for before AI takes your job. I would probably get all PKD and start using amphetamines to bump up my word per minute and thought per second count.
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I agree with a lot of the article, realizing its 2 years old makes it even more impactful because it is more true than ever.
When that article came out, the Mac M1 was just hitting the scene and most models were pretty expensive. But now in 2023, you can get an incredibly powerful laptop for around $1k that can run hundreds of plugins with zero issues.
I still have some gear because some things just bring me joy that a computer can’t - the octatrack and how quick it is to set up for fast modulation that I can record live into itself track by track and then drag those into the DAW to finish. Amazing. An old MPC and Akai hardware because I just love those machines. A Dirtywave M8 because its a completely different tactile experience.
Truth is I still don’t use that gear nearly as much as my laptop right now. But I am really focused on releasing a lot of my tracks this year. I know other people don’t care about that stuff and just want to mess around and thats cool too.
I think having some hardware to mess with is nice. It’s just those “RIP my bank account” people who leverage credit to buy some new synth coming out that this is more targeted to.
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Yeah that’s a really important point about computers getting better. I had several under powered macs before the M1 came out, and they all choked on pretty small numbers of 3rd party plugins. And the latency was horrible. I had to abandon so many projects because the computer just couldn’t handle it. So “just use all this cool software” relied on buying a pretty expensive computer, whereas i could get a stellar analog piece for that price. Getting hardware around that time was a total breath of fresh air. The responsiveness/lack of latency gave everything a “real” feeling. Since my computers couldn’t run oversampling or higher rates with ease to use nice saturation plugins, the hardware’s output amplifiers also gave them a huge leg up in the “real” warm and big sound department too.
Hardware still has the edge, but i think the hardware bubble really grew thanks to the lack of computer reliability, maybe just for me. I put a Prophet 10 on a 2 year payment plan of 180/mo when it came out. While I love it, i’m not sure I would do that again with the new computers. I have a hard time parting with things i grow attached to though.
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We’ve had this discussion on consumerism/minimalism in various threads before, and after reading both sides of the ‘argument’ I think the main take away for me is that if making music is a (serious) hobby, the best thing to do is to approach it in a way that works for you and makes it enjoyable.
For some people the fun is in making a lot of music in a fast way, for others it is spending hours tinkering on an old machine, and for others it is looking at, and buying new stuff all the time.
The thing that I think sucks is people thinking they need something to be succesfull. In most cases, this means people believe they need a shiny studio with lots of gear to be taken seriously, in other cases people believe they need to minimize and be productive. I don’t think there’s any right or wrong way to do it, you don’t need a lot of gear, and you don’t need to make any music either, just make sure it’s enjoyable to you.
That said, most peer pressure seems to come from people making others feel like they need more stuff. Synth youtubers get paid to make us feel that way. I’ve been in a lot of professional recording studios and succesfull bedroom studios in my life and most of the ones releasing music professionally had a very minimal setup. None looked like bobeats’ studio.
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Last paragraph really nails it.
Another thing to mention is that each time you add a piece of hardware to the workflow, you are losing time to make tracks because you have to learn that hardware. Additionally sometimes one can force bad tracks because they want to feature a piece of gear they just bought and the music suddenly becomes secondhand, without them realizing it.
Example for me - Years back I bought a Moog Subharmonicon and tried to build a track around it. I tried forever and something just was not working. So I shelved the track and came back to it with fresh ears. Turned out the issue was the Moog. Due to the nature of the instrument, the subharmonic tunings were clashing too much. It was so obvious after I took a break and also the shiny new toy had worn off. I was amazed I didn’t notice it right away, but the new gear bias impacted how I heard the song.
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That’s a source of inspiration for some, not a chore.
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Its a fleeting source of inspiration though for people who are constantly buying new gear.
All critiques of consumerism are welcome as far as I’m concerned. But the efficiency/productivity/get tracks done mindset is also very unappealing to me. Sure I can do it all on a computer but it’s less fun. I view my time spent learning a new instrument or practicing an instrument I have (and my weekly band practice) as time making music. That’s literally the whole point.
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That falls within the scope of being effective / being productive so far as I’m concerned.
The most consistently active and productive musicians I know have very little in the way of “gear”. Maybe one or two hardware synths max.
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Paul McCartney has an absolute ton of gear and even built a replica room of abbey road studio 2 to hold it all. I would say he’s been consistent,active and successful for nearly 60 years.
I’m not saying it’s a universal constant. Just my anecdotal experience that most producers I know do a lot with less. Paul McCartney is hardly “most producers” anyway.
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