#NGNY22 - Happy NoGear New Year!

The Lounge General Discussion
#1895

I’d say my number one incentive to take part in this challenge is to consume less, to live more ecologically, to not spend all my time awake thinking ”what should I buy next?” I want to get out of that rat race.

As a kid, growing up in the 80s I remember a couple of my relatives competing on who had the latest and most expensive kitchen equipment/tv/computer/whatever. Every christmas they visited each other’s houses and showed off their latest bread machines, VCRs and 24” CRT televisions. I thought it was laughable back then. Grown men measuring their penises by who had bought the most expensive electronics.

Now I realize that I’m doing basically the exact same thing with my music gear. Posting pictures on this forum and my social media: ”Look what I bought!”

There’s thousands of us posting those pictures and it’s quite bonkers if you ask me.

Saving money, time and whatever is an added bonus for me.

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#1896

Checking back in. I still haven’t bought anything (money got real tight all of the sudden). As a matter of fact, I’m returning the Moog Sub 25. I just have to find a big enough box to ship it back to Sweetwater. So yeah, still hanging in there.

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#1897

I’m disappointed to say I’m out.

I’ve had this nagging feeling that I needed to shake things up a bit. This is quite literally make or break time for me in regards to music and I simply felt i needed to change my main workstation to make this journey.

So my Mpc Live’s up for sale, and I’ll be getting an Octatrack.

Still keeping my Op-1’s though.

I am disappointed in myself. I’m also mindful of my personal circumstances and mental health issues, so I need to go with heart on this one.

Cheers!

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#1898

You can still decide to undo the buy of the Iridium (or sell it) and stick to your original plan? There are enough synths in your arsenal to keep you busy for a few years and I’m sure Joebas will write some kind words next to your sin when you do :slightly_smiling_face:

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#1899

I’m still doing okay.

Honestly I’ve only been working on furniture and building things for my studio this last month. Hopefully I’ll get all of my current gear setup in a relatively permanent position to spend the rest of the year working on music with no thoughts about changing anything.

I still browse all of the new gear and studio threads. I don’t really have any GAS honestly. I have so much gear I don’t really need anything.

Looking forward to using what I have is about as gassy as it gets right now.

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#1900

My greatest anxiety right now is the two new 1010Music devices being announced on this coming Friday and today’s minor leaks. Not sure if I’m strong enough to resist a $300 mini wavetable synth and another as yet unknown device from one of my very favorite developers right now, especially since I’ve fallen hard for the Blue and Black recently.

This is the first really big test and I—mortifyingly—already have a sin notched in this thread. :pray:t2: January has been extremely challenging on many levels and the need for a shot of gear dopamine is sky high at the moment.

I will not think bad thoughts. I will not think bad thoughts…

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#1901

So how long can you guys last without buying gear in 22??? I lasted 25 days :sob: I ordered the Jomox modbase 2 eurorack!!!

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#1902

This article really hit home for me.

The mental overhead of new purchases also applies to stuff you already own. You may feel guilty you don’t use it. If you’re selling it, you have to think about that.

Between this, and the concept of going deep, I’m having a great time making music, and also generally not buying anything at all.

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#1903

Sure you don’t want to stay on the list, and just get noted for a sin?

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#1904

Octatrack and OP-1 are great partners… I usually don’t even bother with syncing them…

My main way is to record longer takes on the OP-1 and then sample them into Octatrack for some chopping and sample manipulation… then I can use OP-1 as a synth to play along with Octatrack…

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#1905

I bought a hydrasynth explorer. I don’t feel bad, I feel like I needed it for my setup. It’s the last purchase of the year…

#1906

Sin noted :wink:

#1907

I’ve broken… already…. Ish. I still have time to repent, but it has showed me how hard this will be… here’s what happened-

I’ve committed to this thread this year and decided to start off by also committing to Jamuary. I’ve been doing well so far releasing a video a day and spending more time creating than gear browsing… until the last few days… my two kids (both under 7) contracted covid, both are absolutely fine, but means we are all stuck in the house-so less time to play my instruments and more time on the phone scrolling killing time- Always dangerous.

I also listened back to all my Jamuary posts and started the self loathing-I promised myself I wouldn’t as it was about the commitment, the creative process and learning gear - not the quality of the output, but listening back much sounded to ‘same-y’ and uninspired.

Now the reason for the above not being ‘great’ is clearly the skill of the human involved coupled with short time/one take nature of the things I am recording-that was the whole point of the challenge - to get lots done rather than spend a month playing the same 4 bar loop on my own in my room. I am actually really happy with what I have done… but day 25 was tough and suddenly there was the digitone….

Firstly I watched videos, read reviews, decided that a 4 voice multitimbral FM synth was EXACTLY what I needed to freshen up my approach.

Secondly I worked out what I could sell if I got it and decided I’d be finically BETTER off by buying it (a terrible GAS trick that)

Then I remembered this thread… but - and this shows what an insidious little beast GAS is - I used this very thread to support the purchase!!!

I told myself that everyone here has far more stuff than me, so it was easier to commit, and besides it’s an Elektron forum and pretty much everyone has at least something by the company-I’ve committee to NGNY without owning any of their products-surely that can’t be right and in fact I need to change that immediately just to get on a level footing in the challenge…

Purchase made - one Digitone…

Oh… immediate guilt/realisation that the Digitone is going to do nothing for me-sure it will make the next 5 jamuary jams more fun. And will sound fresh and new for a bit-but within a month I’ll fall into the same old issue I always have - using the same few presets/sounds and the same few sequencer tricks and it will be like all the gear I already have.

I’ve already emailed the retailer to cancel the order and will call today to ensure. If I can’t get through and it’s delivered I’ll return it.

This is going to be a hard year though.

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#1908

I take the red pill, it will be almost impossible to resist buying a Cosmos and a Microcosm this year but I am going to try. I know that I have all I need to produce the music that I want to make. Would it be possible to introduce an exception like “if I can give away double the value of an instrument I can get a new one?”. This way if I really want something I have to make a very big sacrifice to get it, and always going for “double of what I am going to pay”, I cannot keep the 1 in- 1 out trading frenzy.

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#1909

Very agree. I think of other things I have given up, or better stated, other changes in lifestyle I have made, and it is a process. We’re aiming for better, not perfection.

In fact, aiming for perfection is a sure way to fail. Which maybe is something that people want, so they can be off the hook, and not make a change to their lifestyle, and themselves?

I’ve surely self-sabotaged giving up smoking and drinking in the past with “ah well, I had a beer, I may as well buy a bottle of whisky” type thinking.

As I said when I 'fessed up above, I want to keep trying with the ethos, for me it is about focusing on what I have, and gaining expertise/depth. That hasn’t changed. I just happen to have an M:C now, so I can mobile jam/sketch/armchair noodle without firing up the main setup.

The main setup is still the “minimal” DN+OT+BIM+BAM+AH

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#1910

However much I’d like to agree with this (see my post earlier this morning) I use the ‘I’ll be finically better off’ reason a lot to justify purchases-the problem is I tend to eventually re-buy the stuff I sold and never get off the merry-go round… rather than an exception I feel like this is a justification that opens the door to exactly the issue this thread is trying to avoid-and that I’m clearly struggling with!!!

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#1911

You did great - that took introspection and willpower. I salute you :muscle: And don’t worry about the Elektron thing. I’m currently without them, and it works just fine.

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#1912

On a more general note - I hope the people here saying things along the lines of ‘I sinned, and I’m not even sorry about it’, are not doing so for my sake, or anyone else here.

I’m not a priest. I just take notes, in the hope, that it helps some of us. I have no bad feelings or judgement for anybody. We all have our own mission, and I’m happy to try this together, but nobody owes me anything.

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#1913

That is a good article. It articulates something I’ve thought about quite a lot, and I summarise it to ROTI (return on time investment).

I’ve been meaning to list all my gear and ROTI analyse it with the aim of creating a ‘sell it’ list.

ROTI for me is judged on two main factors:
-level of productivity/output/results attained from time investment
-level of enjoyment attained from time investment
-level of use/usefulness generally

Score each section 1-10 for any piece of your gear, it’ll give you your ROTI score.
Do it with all your gear and you should see some patterns.

Pretty simple.

When I think of my best performing ROTI gear over the last 12-18 months in these terms it makes it easy to see the key pieces of gear to me, and also the opposite.

This idea/process probably exists somewhere already, I’ve got a habit of reinventing the wheel in a less elegant way than has been done before.

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#1914

Yes that would be better. Technically I’m swapping out, not adding. If that makes any difference.

But yes, I’ll accept it as a sin.

Thanks

1 Like