Who the hell uses spoons to eat soup and ice cream. People forgot about hands?
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Straws are my choice
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I always wanted hardware when I had just a laptop. Now Iāve got almost all the hardware I could ever want and I mostly want time, energy and health to use it properly. And a monomachine.
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Aside from me who uses spoons for most foods when it makes sense, I believe people who are deaf in the eyes rely on spoons for soups, ice cream, religious conventions, astrological litigation, and as selfie sticks.
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When I was younger I wanted nothing more than to play with my gear and make music. As Iāve got older I seem far less interested in actually making music and enjoy more the research element, watching videos, reading reviews etc. it takes a lot for me to actually pull the trigger and buy something but once I have I just feel deflated in the sense that Iāve got nothing to take up my time and research because that goal has been completed and in reality I havenāt got the time or inclination to put all my plans into action that I thought I would do once Iād got the new equipment. Maybe Iām just finished with actually making music and prefer just researching and increasing my knowledge, I donāt know itās just weird really.
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my home studio is pretty full so no room or not much left for new gear so until I can afford a much larger home, I am good.
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- Buy lots (second hand)
- Sell lots
- Have fun with it
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Because itās instant gratification. The smell alone when you open that new shiny boxā¦
Because I truly believe this new piece of gear will finally make my setup complete. Itās perfect now. I really, really needed this to finally start producing. Oh, and it looks great next to that other groovebox! Wait, I see now I never connected the power adapter to the box I bought last monthā¦
Because learning and understanding your own gear is tiring. And that after a day hard work. The kids were so annoying today. Meh, I still donāt understand the Sound Pool. Why is that LFO not resetting at step 4? Wait, this newly released groovebox might be much easier to handle, letās checkout some reviewsā¦
Because Nick Batt did a review on it, it must be good right? Ah, it will be reviewed in the next issue of Sound On Sound. Letās first check out the last episode of āBad Gearā, as Loopop was very positive. And the review of Andrew Huang was very funny, I wonder what Stimming would do with it?..
Because writing music can be very confronting. I spend two hours on āthe mixā but my snare still sounds like shit. Maybe Iām overestimating my āmusical talentā? What if everyone hates my music? What if I hate my music?..
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At least if we read the above we donāt have to pay for 6 sessions with a therapist.
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Another thing is that itās easy to buy a solution but actually getting answers to musical dilemmas involves me head-desking, asking a shitty trained machine learning model and getting annoyed when it bullshits me, finding useful stuff on Reddit theory boards but taking too long to find the language, and buying technical books i donāt have the time to run through the exercises of.
pants
falls over
Iāve had good luck with tutoring and iām working through that, if anything to have external accountability and someone to bounce questions off beyond āis this goodā and āwhat should i do hereā.
Still would be nice to have a fiverr for experts in the field to get beer money foā mentoring.
Ive gone back to software and barely buy anything anymore. Ill be selling gear the next few weeks. Of course I have a hardware setup of classic pieces that I will always keep but the rest can go.
Im also thinning out my plugis because less is more. I make a list of 3rd party plugs I canāt live without and then let the rest go.
Itās just easier and faster to get new unique sounds that work for me in software, quickly dial up drum sounds and more detailed sequences, arrange and mix. DAW plugins have gotten crazy good so barely anything else is needed.
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The enthusiast.
To me, Iāve learnt over the years that part of what keeps me making electronic music, is staying enthusiastic about the tools used to make it. That research and learning keeps me inspired and excited, always seeking something new and experimental.
During lockdown when I had more time, I spent a lot of money, time and energy buying and experimenting with new gear, and coming out the other side now, knowing what works for me about to write and produce a new album.
Gear is distracting, but it is also part of the process for my genre of music and part of the magic and appeal.
Sound design wise, in most cases the best sounds I can create are on a computer, but whether I feel inspired to create or find them there is a different thing.
A machine or gizmo that makes me feel a certain way and might eke out a performance or a nugget of an idea is worth it.
I agree with other comments though about getting trapped in fantasy and not actually creating. That is our responsibility as artists, we gotta use the damn things!
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ā¦because it sometimes hides a lack of creativity.
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I was new to this (still am) and had no idea what I needed but did know what I wanted to do. So I bought a ton of shit trying to figure out what works and what doesnāt.
Iām happy for now and have sold almost all the unused gear. Great feeling when you slim down but I know it wonāt last!
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I like learning.
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Let me also add, Iāve also done the minimalist thing before too. Have to be careful itās just not another form of fetishism. A good mind set is to think of all this gear and tools and imagine you have the abundance of any piece of gear you might ever dream or wish owning. Just pretend you can or have them racked up in a spare studio room. It frees up ideas and can break that āif I only had that thingā thinking. You do have it. When it comes to those āsolutionsā type thoughts or I āneedā that. In my experience, those thoughts are generally quite surface level and weak. By actually moving away from the mental idea of a solution and trying to have a go with the things I have, itās that process where creative interesting things or hacky outcomes emerge that are tons better than a new shiny thing. But yeah, helps to have a few solid tools in the box still and not just make the whole music thing a challenge for its own sake!
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I donāt think thatās fully fair.
- it is a response to insecurities and frustrations
- it does hamper creativity through not being as intuitive or having as much time for exploration
A creative deficit isnāt so much about a complete lack of personal voice that GAS is meant to address, I think if a lot of us had more mentorship and more not even direct answers, more
discussion that allows us the confidence to get through.
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A good solution for me is learning an instrument. As I like synths, I am back at learning piano (for the 4th or 5th time). It works really well to cure my GAS. I think that the focus is not on buying a gear to compensate something but is more to improve on myself to be able to play certain things I want
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I love dreaming of the āpotentialā that a piece of new gear has. āImagine what I ācouldā createā.
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That too. Iām looking for a bit more instrumentalism, going to focus on exploring one thing dedicatedly for a bit. Iāll still use the rest of my gear but can try thinking from a less broad perspective (for once!)
Iām a generalist by necessity but it does sometimes rob me of the level of confidence in one area as iām building up a lotta disciplines.
I feel a lot of exhaustion/apprehension about creating is just the level of elements to juggle as a solo artist! I probably just overcomplicate but it helps to learn from people and i havenāt had a ton of options. When i do collab itās awesome, but not often enough.
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