#NGNY22 - Happy NoGear New Year!

The Lounge General Discussion
#991

Ever since I bought an MPC Live, I’ve thought of it as the be all end all master sequencer of my setup. I’d write everything on the MPC and use all my other gear as just sound modules.

Today I was toying around with my synths and on a whim decided to sequence my Digitakt and -tone with their own sequencers and use the MPC just as midi clock and transport button for them. It was an eye opening session. Now I can have the best of both worlds, the Elektron sequencer with it’s trig locks, probabilities etc. and the MPC sequencer with it’s sample chopping prowess etc.

This is exactly the kind of thing I wish to learn this year. How to use my gear together to the fullest. I usually just fool around with one piece of gear at a time but this feels like a way forward to creating more than just good riffs and snippets of melody.

Maybe I’ll delegate some traditional band roles to my setup. Today Digitakt was the drummer, Digitone the pianist while MPC played the bass. There’s still a bunch of gear to take the roles of guitarist and percussionist and whatnot.

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#992

I’ve just been thinking of Live 2 & Bass Station 2 (can be USB powered) as a portable setup.
Nice to have keys/mod wheel to input notes to the Live’s synths also instead of using the pads.

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#993

Happy new year, everyone!

I love the positivity in this thread. It’s so refreshing to browse online and finally not have somebody telling you you need to buy something - the expensive thing preferably.

After a long time of nogear, last year I bought a few things and I do regret it a little bit. No biggie, but I preferred my old mindset which was I only have the OT and the MNM and that’s all I’m ever gonna have (it wasn’t my choice but I had no money and I knew I wasn’t ever gonna have it)
I’m thankful to have a bit of economic independence which came as a surprise now but buying the A4 and AR brought me also a bit of disappointment and a break in productivity (in order to learn them and I’m still in the process of finding a new workflow).
Now whenever I feel tempted about new gear I always remind myself how I always get disappointed at companies’ design/quality choices (very often driven by profit motives) and how much time it takes to get a new workflow. Nothing brought me more productivity and joy than deep learning the MNM and recording it.

Cheers! Happy NoGear New Year!

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#994

Me on muusikoiden.net before NGNY2022. :grimacing:

image

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#995

yes nice one! here’s another one more about looking into artist work over the new gear: https://www.youtube.com/c/DubMonitor/videos

#996

Keep in mind, the tune isn’t a product of the gear used. The tune is a product of how the artist used the gear.

Doesn’t matter what AFX or Ae use to make tunes…it sounds like them and the tunes are still sick. So make what you have do something cool. I think everyone here has enough “stuff” that they should be able to create.

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#997

Personally I believe there’s more to it than this…

Nowadays it’s very easy to just sound like the gear you are using. Especially given how consumerist modern music production has become.
I see (and hear) so many repeated setups (TR8/303, Elektron Trinity, Peak/Vermona, DFAM/M32, etc, etc, you all know what I mean if you’ve spent 20 mins on YouTube in the last 2 years)…

With these types of set ups you’re going to find it hard to not sound like the gear first and foremost, generally speaking.
Now there’s nothing wrong with this, it’s fun, it does sound cool, and if that’s what you’re into, cool… but to get to ‘artist’ level takes more of a focus on individuality in your music.

AFX did/does it… most artists you like do it.

The gear is a tool and not the main focus.

We all have unique sounds/voices that we were born with, or that we live with. We have our own environments… using these resources and crafting your own sounds will make your music unique to you way quicker than that new Dreadbox polysynth you’re being targeted with will.

Record hitting your radiator with a pen.
Record your Digitone through that guitar practise amp your parents got you when you were a kid.
Record the ambience outside your window.
Sing and record it.

Use YOUR music making resources.

(This is as much a note to myself as anything.)

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#998

Indeed… Not that I compare to afx or anyone, but whatever gear I use I always end up with my own sound, with recognizable gimmicks.

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#999

As a former gear addict (and addictive person in general), I had a big GAS period between 2010 to 2015. In 2016, I managed to do a 0 music gear (even small gear), I succeed with help of a close friend and meditation (mainly), and now I have a safer relation with GAS and addiction overall, I found my own safeguards and I hope you find yours :wink:

So I wish the best to all of you, challenger or not, and hope it brings you more happiness to your life !

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#1000

yeah exactly, though still I had to go through the process to learn. Maybe its just a millennial thing haha

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#1001

Well it was discovery for me as well. I wouldn’t say what I said had I not gone thru the learning process.

Sadly, I hate my sound palette. And I am doomed to sound like I sound. So I have learned I will never make music I like.

Adding: on the plus side…it will totally help me with NGNY. I don’t need anything…it won’t help. In turn completely eliminating GAS.

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#1002

That’s the saddest thing I read today !

#1003

Part of why it took so long to recognize Einstein’s achievements was that the physics world was convinced that all of the major physics problems had been solved already by the turn of the previous century. They gave him a Nobel for his work in Brownian Motion, not Relativity because he still wasn’t well understood by even the best physicists.

Music isn’t physics, but I find that breakthroughs often come after a feeling of hopelessness. Try all the options. Then try some more. Then do the impossible. Sometimes it works!

Also, everything you’ve posted sounds at least 1000x better than anything I’ve made.

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#1004

This I like:

And this:

And these:

And this:

Shall I go on, @phaelam? :slight_smile:

(p.s. Now I think the last one is actually from the MnM.)

Hell, this is great:

And this:

One more:

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#1005

By curiosity, what is the music that you like and what Sound palette would be appropriate for you.

Personally, I think you got a very nice Sound palette. Embrace it.

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#1006

I totally agree about the lost time from learning new gear/workflows. I feel the same way.

I enjoy making music, but hate having to learn new workflows. Spending time thinking about “what button do I have to press to do this”, or “why is it doing that” feels like such a waste of time to me.

Where I have screwed up in the past is thinking theoretically about things, rather than practically.

For instance, I think a lot people (especially when they start out) get suckered into just looking at music like an ingredient list. To make a track I’m going to need: a mono synth, a poly synth, a drum machine, a sequencer, etc, etc. (Or whatever)

Then they buy the ingredients and they don’t get the desired outcome so they think the answer is just swap the ingredients, when the real answer is you have to know how to cook or you just have a bunch of ingredients.

I fell into this trap with electronic music production, guitar, and most recently with software instruments.

I sort of beat it with the first two (stopped overbuying, not all buying), but fell into the trap again when I went ITB because I was starting from scratch, was curious about everything, and I instinctively repeated the same mistake.

I think I can beat it now because I recognize the pattern.

For instance, last year I bought a flute thinking it would be cool to be able to add some stuff to some tracks, but instead of going it alone (and most likely not using it), I started lessons and I’m actually learning how to play it properly and it’s great. It also reinforces that instruments are things you learn over the course of a lifetime.

I bought some percussion stuff recently, and I know I will hit my limit if I just go it alone, so I’m going to start some lessons next year as I’ve always wanted to improve my rhythm and time. I realize going in though, that it will require a time investment to get good results. That’s the answer to killing GAS for me as one person only has so much time in the day.

I also believe that’s why the most productive people are the people that have the least complex setups. I still have a ways to go on this front.

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#1007

so true- well I have plenty of percussion, bass, voices and sequencers and tools like mixers and audio interfaces so really it comes down to my improvisation, recording and mastering skills to turn into songs.

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#1008

very true in fact if you look at how basic the setups were for electronic artists in the 1980s like Depeche Mode, NIN, New Order, and so forth they had a sampler, guitar, drums and mixers plus an effect or two and that was pretty much all they used to record hit selling albums. Only after they all hit it big and became wealthy did they acquire tons of expensive gear.

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#1009

I LOVE Autechre, Meat Beat, Aphex…
I make easy listening elevator music. I mean I like listen to that stuff…like Fila Brazillia, Baby Mammoth, Leggo Beast…but I don’t wanna make that. I like edge. but I’m about as edgy as a sphere.

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#1010

Yeah, and for a lot of artists (DJ Shadow) comes to mind. The best stuff was on the minimal setup. More gear didn’t help in my opinion.

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