I’m having no trouble with gear lust — I have plenty of great instruments here to keep me busy — but I’ve been having the strangest urge to buy a Nintendo 64. I don’t really play any video games but I had an N64 as a kid so there’s a nostalgia connection.
Is this just my brain redirecting GAS to something else? Is it just the cold of winter and Omicron keeping me indoors and wanting something fun to do on the couch? Is it my approaching birthday and a subconscious desire to reconnect with my inner child?
Or is it just that Tony Hawk Pro Skater is a really fun game? I dunno, but that’s enough self-reflection for one day.
I hooked my guitar up to my guitar synth and patched that through my pedal case which has a very basic looper, a basic delay and a basic reverb and I had hours of pure unadulterated fun. Honestly felt like a kid in a candystore. I can hardly even play the guitar but everything sounds just magnificent through my guitar synth and now being able to loop that and play on top of it is just magic. It was instant ambient beautiful soundweave.
I’d say that my ultimate weapon against GAS is not any synth or any sound source. It’s my patchbay. Being able to quickly and easily patch any gear into any other gear is just phenomenal fun. I have no need for anything except the things I have at my disposal. Even thought about canceling my preorder for the Boss RC-600. My Boss RC-1 is just perfect for my looping needs, especially as I can patch anything to go through it, or even hot swap the sound source through my patchbay. Why would I need so much extra functionality? That would save me around 600€.
I’ve been thinking about setting up a patchbay too and once even had a Behringer pb for trying it out from a friend of mine who didn’t need it anymore, but in all honesty I didn’t understand it at all at the time. He didn’t need it anymore bcs he didn’t understand it either.
I remember when my mate gave up smoking using that Allen Carr dude’s book (yeah, he died of lung cancer) and the last part he found particularly challenging. It was to look upon all those smoking around you with pity.
Coming back to my own GAS issues, I’m seriously thinking I made a mistake swapping things in and out before starting the challenge. I shouldn’t have swapped DT for OT. I’ve done nothing productive with the latter, whereas I was on a roll with the former. Same thing for getting rid of SubH and 0-Coast in favour of Cobalt8. But maybe I’m just in a rut? I dunno. I’m giving it some time before making any rash decisions anyway.
I have a Boss SY-300 which is probably the last thing they’ll pry from my rigor mortis stiffened hands when I die. I love it. It’s more like a multi effect with a very strong synth section and you can choose the oscillators to be traditional synth oscillators or the sound of your guitar etc. It also has a send/return for added flexibility. And the best thing is that it does not need a special hex-microphone, works on any electric guitar just like that.
Patchbay is pure genius. The only downside is that you need double or actually triple the amount of cables you would normally need. In my setup the upper row of 24 patchpoints are the inputs (of my mixer, MPC, fx, other samplers) and the lower row of 24 are the outputs of all my gear. They are connected in the back. If I put no wires in the front panel they are automatically connected. My lower row 1 and 2 go to upper row 1 and 2 and so on.
Then I can easily route my guitar synth to go to my MPC input for sampling and then route the MPC through my pedal case and to any channel pair of my mixer. I’ve had many patchbays but the ultimate best is the Samson S-Patch as it has switches on the front panel for switching from normal, half normal and through -configurations.
I’m watching a demo vid now. Pretty incredible!! I’ve never seen one anywhere and am not particularly familiar with these things. Looks like a very fun and flexible unit indeed.
Maybe 2023 will be the year for setting up a patch bay for me then. I’ve got tons of 1/4" patch cables idle anyways so that’ll soften the blow fortunately.
Lot’s of potentially cool things are not happening bcs of the pain of having to re-route the signal in a traditional way and it’s something that has bothered me quite a bit, especially now that I’ve included guitar pedals and whatnot into my setup.
Naturally I’m just kidding. Feeling very good about this thing really, peace of mind.
Cobalt8 seems like a synth that really rewards after a while. I’ve heard some outstanding sounds coming out of it but when I tried one quickly in a music store I was a bit puzzled.
Yeah, it’s cool. I like stupidly simple things so that my own problem solving mentality takes over within some pretty severe restrictions. So, I’m torn between the above mentioned gear and just going back in the box right now. I’m feeling miserable actually. But I’m not sure if it’s just me (mental health issues) or just being uninspired or being cut off from buying gear. Hence why I’m waiting to see what’s what.
Sorry to hear that. Now I’m trying to think if I said something stupid accidentally, bcs this isn’t my first language and sometimes points just go over my head, plus I’ve got covid atm so I’m even less capable of picking up all the meanings. Hopefully not.
I can definitely relate to the uninspired feelings and feeling cut off from the buzz of researching and buying stuff. But I know enough from this forum and other scenarios (AA meetings) that feeling uninspired will pass - it will for you too!
And feeling cut off from buying, well that’s just for my own good. I do feel much better for generally, it even if it feels like something’s missing still. That’s only natural after quitting a major obsession (I only speak for myself) and that will pass too. Already, I find myself looking at my laptop and thinking “actually don’t want to look at anything”, and closing it and doing something else!
Was actually gonna post this earlier today, but I’ve also been feeling pretty uninspired for some time, especially the past couple of weeks. Probably just work-related stress mostly, plus one gear-related incident which I’ll come back to as soon as it gets solved (hopefully tomorrow).
Haven’t been playing a whole lot and when I have, it’s the same ”signature me” i.e. moody four-bar loops all over again (no matter what gear I’m using). It’s almost as if I’m going ”Might as well cook up something for the Current sounds thread”, which is horrible cos I love that thread.
It feels I either need to take a small break or figure out what I actually want to do musically now. Would love to start writing with more purpose but only having 1-2 hours a night doesn’t really allow me to get into the flow. (This is why I absolutely need this challenge to be a success for me, I want to ”buy” that 3-month leave from work!)
I’ve had these stretches before obviously but I think one way of feeling I’m doing something that benefits my music has been buying stuff. Like, ”I haven’t come up with anything good for weeks now… but at least I bought that Prophet 6 which is gonna be a helluva weapon for me”.
Yeah, I’m in a similar sort of place. Still making music, but it feels very “by the numbers” and I’m struggling to like it (but that’s not particularly unusual).
Found myself watching videos of a synth I sold last year, felt like Facebook stalking an ex.
Do you have a good way to improvise? Aka just play something that makes sound, synth/non synth and not worry about looping? Even your phone mic and some pots and pans might spark an idea
Stop that.
Dont make things for that thread.
Set a goal, make an album/EP. Then if you’re feeling sharey, grab a 40sec recording and post it in that thread.
