This is similar to a couple of guitar players I know who own like a dozen plus guitars, and yet keep buying and selling them when in reality they don’t really need to.
Just a natural urge for a change every now and then I guess.
Speak for yourself cowboy 
That being said, I used to be like this. I’ve gotten myself over it. My two cents is that the primary focus of “gear culture” is the gear, music is a secondary focus. I’m quite happy with my tidy little setup and I get a tune out now and again as I’ve taken a big step back from gear culture–I don’t go on websites that sell gear, I don’t look at threads about gear, I don’t watch gear videos. Heck, I won’t even watch jam videos unless it is a link from a friend.
2 Likes
- Possession
- Capitalism
- Showing off
- Disorder
- You’re a Synthfluencer (I hate this word). Oh, sorry, you said buying gear so this one is a little biased.
4 Likes
Ironic timing for this thread with all the Music-related conventions around the corner. I say I’m done as I can’t wait to see what is revealed!
1 Like
I feel like this is partially just because people are into different things. Some people here make noise, or industrial, or techno, or idm or compose for clients - the fact that we do it using some kind of music production device/software/ instruments is the common factor.
We’re also having this discussion on a manufacturers dedicated forum.
3 Likes
This just occurred to me. How many of us are thinking about this now because rising prices and inflation mean we have less disposable income for new synths? 
1 Like
Has anyone considered that their gear is actually using them? That we perhaps are just hosts and are being slowly assimilated and that the sounds that we make are actually a way for them to also control the many thousands of people who listen to the things we make with them? Is Nick Blatt a head Borg? I don’t have the answers just questions…
3 Likes
Reminds me of the George Carlin bit:
“Could be the only reason the earth allowed us to be spawned from it in the first place. It wanted plastic for itself.”
5 Likes
well for me the past several years with the covid lockdowns nothing was open to visit and try gear out in person so watching videos had to take a chance buying a lot of stuff online. But people love to buy and consume it is in our nature.
Programmed Weaponized Mech?!?
All my God!
No wonder he’s always talking about PWM.
It’s a call to arms!
2 Likes
I for one welcome my compositional overlords.
2 Likes
If I had to choose I would take my orders from platapuses but anything is a step up from a fellow human…
3 Likes
I enjoy learning new things, sometimes a new thing to learn is a different piece of gear. These electronic instruments can be little self-contained universes that we get to explore and live in for a while, and my brain really likes that. I also marvel at the engineering feats of some of these instruments – they’re quite impressive.
I don’t like buying gear more than making music. If I didn’t have money to buy gear I would be very happy with an $80 Renoise license, a cheap linux computer, and a bunch of free samples and software synths. I also think new gear can dip productivity, because I spend time learning and exploring, rather than making music, but that doesn’t bother me, because the learning and exploring is part of the magic.
4 Likes
Pre-post edit: I’m rambling a bit because this is a complex question, and I have a hangover.
I’m usually interested in new gear if it improves on or adds something new to my set up. Sometimes the FOMO gets me, but usually I’m selling something to offset the costs, which adds its own problems to the cycle.
Since COVID and the semiconductor shortage kicked off I’m usually trying to buy gear earlier because I’m trying to get ahead of inflation or picking things up before the gear moves into unobtanium-ville. In 2017 I got my prophet 6 for 2300 and they’re now at $3500. No way in hell I’d buy one now. I bought my Digitakt at release for $649 and they’re $899 now, etc., etc. A couple days before I intended to preorder the Isla S2400 the price jumped from ~1650 to 1800 USD (can’t remember the exact original price). I was super salty, but I still went through with it anyways since it was something I had already planned on getting. The positive is this is making me think more realistically about my gear choices, but its getting noticeably more difficult to justify new gear.
I think things are getting to the point where the synth market has grown so large there’s enough choice to really tailor a setup to your needs. Sometimes it takes a long time to find what it is that works for you. Some people like to collect or want every capability under the sun. Sometimes you buy an OT, sell it because WTF are pickup machines, and then buy one again a year later and realize she’s the one for you. 90% of the time I sit back and realize for all the money I’ve spent, I could have just bought another Elektron box and eliminated 3+ pieces of other gear from my set up. Hence why I’m no longer interested in eurorack/modular gear…
I think as hobbyists/musicians/enthusiasts we tend to have a level of passion for our gear, so the value we place on hardware might outweigh the actual dollar value. Most consumer technology can be viewed as a social construct. People watch other musicians, youtubers, etc., and see something they’re doing with the gear that gets them excited and they want to buy it. When I was a kid in high school I was obsessed with Victor Wooten and knew he played Fodera basses, so when I was 30 and could actually afford one, I dropped $6k on a Fodera without ever seeing or playing one in person. I still own it and love it, but I’m also still a mental midget in my 30’s. The relationship we have with technology is often what drives our interest and shapes the experience we have with music. Maybe we have so many music hobbyists because people want an authentic experience. Maybe its escapism. At the end of the day its a cycle driven by an industry based in consumerism, and a group of individuals willing to invest their money in something they’re passionate about.
There are a lot of other factors you could talk about: marketing, dopamine, the effects of late-stage capitalism on mental health and consumerism. That being said, NAMM 23 kicks off next week, so good luck everyone.
4 Likes
It’s all in your head. You have gear? Make what you intended and polish your work. Refinement Daniel Son. Wax on wax off, just wax it and wax it real good.
7 Likes
Magical thinking is so boring.
Yeah it’s useful to connect with companies to agitate for a bugfix or to occasionally include a feature, but discussing how “unusable” something is in feedback loops of self-paralysis, ecch.
I mean, this by and large isn’t a “merchants of cool” scenario in that a lot of GAS I see here is for peers in our community, to some extent a parasocial relationship and supporting small producers of gear that don’t have huge marketing budgets, synthfluencers or dark patterning of social media algorithms to shill.
2 Likes
Very interresting topic. I just remembered when i was 18 and only had a sampler, a keyboard and an Atari ST with Cubase. I was making music almost every day for several hours and never ever thought about buying new gear. Of course i didn’t had any money to buy stuff and the internet wasn’t around back then. And the companies weren’t producing new devices every year or so. I was very happy making music and somehow wish i could go back to that state.
But i also gazed in awe at other artists studios in keyboard magazines from time to time. Never in my wildest dreams i thought that i would have all these machines in my studio that i have now.
I’m still pretty productive but this gas thing is definitely slowing me down sometimes.
But yeah, the process of finding out about new pieces of gear, reading about it, watching videos, comparing it to my setup etc. is also a very fun part of it for me.
8 Likes
Fear of failure. You can’t fail if you don’t make music.
6 Likes
Well, congratulations for getting yourself out of that hole…second acts are generally more interesting anyways.
4 Likes