I’ve been following this thread with great interest.
I’m not subscribing the no-new-gear for now (I don’t have a particular GAS problem), but I’m completely with the “deeply explore what you already have” philosophy.
Also, I want to encourage all of you who have committed to the no-gear commitment 
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Thank you 
Agree. Let the nay-sayer sweat over what you’re doing. Doesn’t bother me a bit. I’m happy with what I’m doing. If someone what’s to get all in a fit over it…let ‘em.
It’s their heart attack 
This looks like a really good read. Also his book on Digital Minimalism looks good:
Technology is intrinsically neither good nor bad. The key is using it to support your goals and values, rather than letting it use you.
Not that you guys need it because you seem to be dealing with it well enough, but I thought I’d add my experience to the mix…
My GAS problem received a serious blow on its head a couple of years back when I did exactly what you guys are doing now, ie I took a year off from buying anything at all. It really taught me something new and gave me an increased confidence in myself. That confidence has only grown since then. It doesn’t feel like discipline - more like I have become more relaxed and comfortable with what I have. Increased knowledge adds to that too I guess.
If you focus on success and not failure, you will fly through it. It doesn’t last for as long as you think it wil. After a while you will hopefully settle into it and relax too. To me it felt more like a training regime than for example a diet; as you get stronger it gets easier.
There is a spiritual text that says: “To win the world you have to win your mind.” I take that as saying ‘if you can control your thoughts nothing can get you down’ - grossly simplified of course, but not without truth. So if you can get through one short year of this and learn how to adapt, it will likely make you a better person. You have a lot to win and nothing to lose.
For those committed to NoGear New Year, I commend you. I’ve got my eye on a couple things, so I won’t be able to join you.
But for those of you that did commit, I think a free pass should be given if you are buying an Octatrack for the third time.
Once was enough for me. Something about the sound of it…?
Is there an OT sound quality issue? Maybe I should start a thread about that.
Oh no, you have summoned them.
I just want to quickly say that I’m feeling this is still presented as a sort of productivity issue, while in my opinion it should be a wellbeing one. I really think none of us should think of this issue in terms of maximization, but for lack of a better word, in terms of fun. Let’s not turn our hobbies into work. Let’s try to eliminate what’s in the way of what feels good, and to me the urge to make a productive use of our time is as much of a problem as the endless gear consumption. I think that the former is also a big reason for the latter. But let’s just not put too many restrictions on something that should be a welcome escape. No distractions, but no expectations.
Edit: I don’t know if any of you watched the Get Back documentary about the Beatles, but the time they spend noodling around, playing covers they know, or just making joke versions of their own songs is mind blowing. Even in the process of writing an album on a tight schedule, they just spend an awful lot of time having unfocused fun. You will not spend a lot of quality time with your gear if it’s not fun, and for most people having very high expectations for the output is not fun.
It looked like Fun due to the editing of the film and picking out the best bits. But Macartney said they still put in 10000 hours of graft each track or what felt like it in a recent interview.
Yes, I agree to your points.
My thoughts are instead of buying the 23rd monosynth I do not need, NGNY might be a motivation to use next year to finally save up for a new and way more performant computer. That would be useful for anything else as also for music making.
Plus no learning curve aka distraction from what is already there.
Just installing the plugin overkill would scare the hell out of me…
I’m in.
I got Digitakt as a surprise present from my wife in August (at that point I had Push 2 laying around for two years), and vouched that I won’t buy any gear until the end of 2021, or until I finish 10 tracks, whichever comes first.
Currently I have finished 4 tracks and I own Digitakt, Deepmind 12, Crave, Sub37 and I was on the verge of buying Diva when I decided to buy Digitone. So in the end I have more gear than “finished” tracks. I must mention that I’m new to producing, so in reality Digitakt would be enough for me for long period of time, as I have a lot things to learn that are not related to gear itself.
Even before seeing this thread I agreed with friend that we will try to do no gear challenge, so I’m in. I put Deepmind and Crave on sale, and tucked away 37 for some time. I’m restricting myself to Digi combo for as long as it’s needed.
The funny thing is that I already did this with bass guitar for around 10 years, and I said to myself that I won’t repeat the same mistake once again I’m really sad when I think about how much time I spent researching, buying/selling gear and watching YT videos about gear. If only I have spent that much time on music 
On my end this “challenge” is a bit about money, but it is more about going deep on learning and creating music. In the end I want to create, and that should be focus of my FOMO, and not new feature that some synth have that I might need (as in reality gear is not a blocker for my level of knowledge).
Good luck to all of you, both buying and not buying gear in 2022
Have a nice holidays and and a musically productive next year
I don’t think this has to be mutual exclusive. Most of us are making music just for fun and as a hobby, but having a sort of ambition to actual finish some music does not have to mean you need to be productive and must reach your targets.
By defining a sort of goal it can help to have a bit of a direction what to do with all this time we have now not buying gear 
I dunno if this thread is working. I had my setup, but I just did not like my SA Collider (the reverbs are meh, imo) so I am returning/selling it, and bought an OTO BAM. TBF I stated above that I wanted to get a BAM before the HNGNY started, and now I have done it, partially because I was forced to decide NOW! Rather than give the Collider some more time, and then be stuck with it for a year.
Anyway. I’m still in. Actually, having read the “depth year” post again, I’m more in, and won’t be buying books or films either. Although, if I finally finish all my books, I’ll use the library!
EDIT: Goddamit! 
I ordered a BIM in error. Now I have to return/exchange it. I’ve been ill, my brain is scrambled.
Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll love BAM (once you get it exchanged)! You sure the BIM shipped already? Anyway, you’ll do well in the No NewReverbs Year challenge, if not anything else! 
In an attempt to optimize (trust me, I know…) my setup I just sold one synth and now I’ve got that money burning a hole in my pockets. Back to my old ways, the obvious excuse being it’s not 2022 yet. A couple of other excuses as well which I need to address but hopefully not by buying anything. I think it’ll get a wee bit easier in about a week but even then it’s gonna be up to me to change that mentality.
Well, already I am thinking “why not keep the BIM” ahahaha. It sure has shipped, cos I am looking at it.
Things seem to happen/ship a lot faster in the UK then!
And trust me, even though I only buy gear second hand, I’ve had several of those ”why not have both” moments.
This was truly incredible. Signal Sounds in Glasgow. I ordered yesterday afternoon and it arrived just now. 
Greetings - you have been added! 