Over the last 20 years I have owned and sold more than 60 synths, samplers, drum machines et c. Most of them good gear, some I have owned and sold two or three times (MPC 1000, Machinedrum, Octatrack, Nord Drum, Sherman Filterbank). Often because I needed the money, sometimes because I needed money for new gear.
Now at 50 I’m mostly over that, I think through more what I actually need. Hell, I even made a point of buying an Octatrack mk I with the headphone jack issue so it would be harder to sell it! Also I got a good price for it. I usually do.
Anyway, I can’t say general GAS is my problem these days, instead it’s my ever shifting focus. You see, I play bass. And guitar. And program synths and sequencers. But not necessarily all at once. It follows certain cycles. So over the course of a year I GAS for a new bass. Then a new guitar. Then a new synth.
I wish I could reprogram my brain to only focus on one kind of instrument. Maybe even on one specific instrument. You know, get really good at playing ONE THING. Or at least devote the time needed to really master Ableton with all its wonderful instruments.
When playing bass, you could record some basslines.
When playing guitar, you could record some riffs.
When playing synths, you could record some melodies & chords.
Just have to be aware of the tempo and keys.
Then later, when playing with sampler, you could start blending things altogether.
I have this problem-ish, and identify with much of this interest in so many proficiencies to master as a solo artist. I am pseudo-pausing songwriting focus to focus on bass practice instead since i am certain the mindset will help with my composition as well!
Year ago at university we read a philosophy paper about the various degrees of desire.
So on this account we might have a higher order desire to continuously create original music, and a slightly lower one to master the Octatrack, which is then continuously interrupted by this desire to “snack” on whatever new devices we can afford.
(This is not to say that brain literally works like this, but it is a way of conceptualising it.)
Sometimes I think it’s not buying too much gear that stops people making music, it’s all the time spent moaning about buying too much gear that’s doing the damage.
Honestly who gives a shit?
Do what you like, try not to feel bad about it and try not to make others feel bad about what they’re doing.
If you’re not having fun, do something else for a bit.
I don’t think high marketing is really the issue here.
I remember being in a store in ~2005 seing someone playing the monomachine and I said to myself… Whoaa that’s exactly what kind of sound, and soundshapîng possibility I would like to have. My track would be better with that.
And I was able to make a track per week at that moment my gear was simple but my studio was well optimized and works quite well. The SFX60 would have cost my whole studio
We are not interested in one kind of sound or type of music. But being good at multiple things different instruments, musical genre is time consuming and can be exhausting.
Sometime you just want to lie to yourself. And pretend to yourself you will be a rock star with this new instrument
Doing one hour of sport per week won’t make you an Arnold Schwarzenegger. Accept a bit of lie of yourself sometimes it’s not that bad. Avoid to do it if you lie too often.
I’ve managed to quit the GAS rat race mostly by taking part in NGNY for two years in a row and waking up to the unsustainability of my old ways.
A lot of my success in getting out of the vicious cycle has to do with ending up with a few choice pieces of gear that I absolutely adore and worship. The Linnstrument and MPC Live 2 would suffice me for a lifetime. There’s no need for anything beyond those two and a DAW to record. A few amazing synths on top of that and I’m good. I love each and every piece of my small and well formed setup. Don’t need anything else, don’t want to get rid of anything.
A big eye opener happened last night when a good friend of mine was visiting our house and we played with my music gear for hours. He ended up going home with a short shopping list (MPC Live 2, Linnstrument and V-Synth XT). He’s much more of a proficient musician than I’ll ever be but seeing him use my gear and drooling over it, convinced me what I kinda allready knew. I love my setup. When NGNY2023 is over I might look into replacing my monitors but then I’ll just keep on keeping on. Don’t fix a thing that ain’t broken.
For me I like a lot studying a new workflow. It gives me new ideas that I can use in my daw or with another machine. It is a little bit like buying a new video game console, except that I am less interested by the latter now.
But as I explained, learning a little bit like a hardcore gamer allows to focus more on the game/machine than to upgrade the setup. What helps me is to watch videos of people mastering their devices. It gives motivation/inspiration.
If I followed my instincts I would have already bought a sp404 mkii, Octatrack and M8… but now I am trying to stay focus on the Digitakt and OP-1
It’s funny you’d say this because you’re one of the people I’d highlight if talking about minimal setups - I get the impression you really don’t need more than a Digitone - Syntakt almost feels overkill for you
For myself I have a time-based excuse; I was “out” for many years while in grad school and then a few cross-US moves happened. I kept up with a purely software workflow for a little while (and enjoyed the stuff I did then, sure it’s was 99.99% Sylenth and Diva, so what?).
But I entered a place of massive career uncertainty and had to slim down my physical belongings and intellectual pursuits in a real way, and so all my creative energy was focused on writing papers (academic career path; stupid, but somehow it worked. 8+ years of existential terror, but it worked). Anyway now on the other side of tenure I can finally exhale and think about hobbies again. A little bit of it is making up for lost time and playing with more money now than before, but there are dangers and I already have more gear than I can realistically use. In fact, in about a year I’ve not finished a track (plenty of rhythms, progressions, basslines, and melodies but), but I’ve sure learned a lot of gear workflows. Some of that is refusing to just decide on a DAW, but it’s also hard to do creative work in total isolation (this is true in my day job, too).
I’m thinking about slimming down a bit again to have a smaller setup (to leave room cognitively for my bass, for one thing), but that’s a different set of problems. A “help me decide which half of my stuff to get rid of” thread might be useful for a lot of us, come to think of it. It’s weird but the work of deciding to let something go is usually the hardest part. Listing it, haggling, shipping it? That’s all easy - it’s getting to that stage that’s tricky.
I’ve spent more on other hobbies in the past (or, at least, a greater percentage of my disposable income adjusted for inflation) but that’s making the relative privation fallacy - it doesn’t make this good or sustainable.
After being diagnosed with a myriad of chronic health issues after turning 40, I gave myself permission to just enjoy life and not guilt myself over all of the time and money I spend on “hobbies”. My only rule being that I can only spend cash, and not put things on credit.
Life is short, do what makes you happy, don’t burden yourself/family with debt in the process. Hurts no one.
But to answer the original question about buying/not using gear. I live in the middle of nowhere, closest music shop is an hour away, and they stock but don’t demo anything I’d like to try. So my gear purchases are made in the attempt to find what works for me, what sounds good, etc. I’ve purchased an obscene amount of gear in the last year, but sold at least 75% of it, and lost a considerable amount of money in the process. It makes me sick thinking about it, but it’s the price I pay I guess. I often wonder if folks who can demo gear in a local shop tend to be more focused with purchases, or do they still succumb to the urge to have everything?
To which I would add: “If you come back to music after taking a break and you’re still stuck, do something to expand your musical vocabulary. Take child’s piano lessons with a teacher, or play in a band, or dive in and start learning an instrument or style that’s always drawn you.”
Any of these activities will sometimes be frustrating, embarrassing, and slow. But then you make some little breakthrough, or come back to your old music with new ideas, and it’s very satisfying.
The biggest myth promoted by electronic gear manufacturers is that this whole playing music thing is supposed to be easy. It’s often not easy—sometimes it’s a fucking pain in the ass. But if you hang in there, it usually gets easier … and YOU DID IT.
It has to be very special for me and really want it… I almost never buy gear… I would rather buy my wife stuff. I just got her a purse for a couple grand yet I can’t bring myself to buy the new Roland sh4d… I haven’t got anything since September… 2021…
