An overwhelming amount of synthesizers and the development of Anti-GAS

I just don’t effing care anymore.

There are so many. A new synthesizer, sampler or drum machine is unveiled on average every week it seems. Maybe even more frequent. Yeah it’s NAMM right now so it’s the time of the season–but even without NAMM they’re just all over the place. It’s exhausting. I can’t keep up.

It could also be because I’m poor and saving up cash so I’m less inclined to get anything. But even the stuff I have in front of me I just don’t have a desire to use (except the Octatrack). It could be a phase cause all I’m doing is playing piano, bass and guitar and playing with soft synths. Maybe I’m just in a phase of wanting to develop my chops and skill level which only require time and no money.

That being said, I think I’ve just grown out of physical stuff unless it has to be physical. I see these synths and think “Well I can basically do that in software. I have the Arturia V Collection and Serum, what can’t I do with those?” Yeah I get it…Touching stuff and having a physical relationship with things is COOL but jeez if I’m making a track the convenience of having dozens of varied soft synths and keyboards and drum samples right there in my computer with tempo lock and awesome FX and so much flexibility is just too good to pass up. Judging by my recent purchasing habits, I just know if I were to buy any synth I’d use it for a couple weeks and then it’d sit there while my software does actual work that actually pays me. They’re just fun expensive distractions.

Played with VCV rack recently and it’s very cool. I’m not sure if the reason I don’t have a desire to come back is because it was free so I haven’t invested anything, or if I’m just genuinely not interested in making modular patches from scratch. Modular land is still very confusing to me, and that’s probably the most compelling aspect…But making random bleeps and bloops and sequences also doesn’t appeal to me.

I also get that I’m in my own bubble, too. A lot of you folks go out and play gigs with your boxes so having real deal instruments is important. I’m just speaking for me here cause I’m a bit of a studio hermit at the moment besides the occasional gig on bass or keys.

It’s also awesome that so many affordable, deep, great-sounding synths are coming out–really a great time for electronic musicians. I’m just finding myself not caring.

Good on guitars, too. Got a great Tele, a great SG, a good Strat, a good acoustic and a good bass. Why get more? I’ve had a Blues Jr. for nearly eight years now and I love it. Why get another tube amp? Other than maybe a vox…

Idk. Guess I just wanted to rant. Anti-GAS isn’t the worst thing. Yeah it’d be cool to have a Hydrasynth or a Prophet or whatever but I know they’ll just end up not being used so what’s the point? I’m close to selling my Monomachine and my K2–the only two physical synthesizers I have left.

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I’ve always had an issue with buying single purpose synths(probably because I was introduced to electronic music making via Elektron and can’t fathom spending money on just a single voice)- groove boxes or get out.

But yeah- excess gear seems like a nightmare. I’m in the process of converting to mostly ITB(if for no other reason than to avoid the Midi/Audio I/O nightmare)(also plentifulness)

Also, unless music is my main gig(or making ANY money) I can’t stomach having a wall full of gear/toys as an adult man just for a hobby.

Then again- as all things: things expand and they compress. This hasn’t been the first time that I’ve downsized…

Edit:

I guess to conclude: find enough hardware that works, and hold onto it as guilty pleasures. For everything else, surely the most efficient means of accomplishing your goals would be the computer. Too much can lead to pollution, anyway. My big music set up only served to deter me from making music anyway

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It is a total nightmare. MIDI is a pain in the ass haha. Having a soft synth right there that’s automatically locked to the tempo, with FX that can be locked to the tempo and a piano roll that can quantize on input, with no fussing about with MIDI channels or any of that shit is just nice. It’s very, very nice.

I still need to get my Arturia Keylab working properly because I can’t pitch bend on things but whatever. More nonsense.

This is kind of how I feel but I also feel bad knowing I spent good money on my Monomachine and literally used it for one track for a friend where I programmed in a sine-bass sequence…Granted, I wouldn’t have come up with the sequence and the groove (which kind of defines the track) if it weren’t for the Elektron workflow, but still.

I can see this. I think I started this whole sound journey when I got pedals for my electric guitar and wanted to make Sonic Youth and Boris feedback sounds. This led me to samplers and synths and blah blah blah. Now I don’t use guitar pedals at all…Like, literally zero. I just plug my guitar directly into my amp unless I’m learning a song that specifically calls for wah or phaser. When I want to play guitar I want to PLAY GUITAR not play with pedals like when I was younger…

It’s the same with software. How many god damn reverbs do I need? I think I have like six and only ever regularly use two. Same with delays. Same with saturators. At some point I just have to be honest with myself and be like “Nah, I don’t fucking need it. It’s only 15 bucks? Nah, fuck it. I won’t use it anyway.”

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I’ve had the same thing. Hopefully any loss you may accrue(which, its a mono machine, it shouldn’t be much) can be appreciated by the track you made using it- that’s my logic. What really sucks is taking a loss on gear you didn’t make a track with

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That makes sense. I definitely won’t lose anything on the Monomachine if I were to sell it (still very hesitant) as it’s only appreciated in value a lot since I bought it. But I can say that I haven’t touched it in over three or four months and that the last time I turned it on it left me with the sour feeling of “Oh, this is why I don’t play it. I just make the same shit all the time and never do anything with it.”

That’s the other cool thing about all this is that you can just buy and sell stuff which I’ve been enjoying doing. Might lose like a hundred bucks in the process but like you said, if you get something creative out of it then it’s worth it.

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once my rig works well for me and satisfies all my demands, i don’t want to buy any moar gear — even if it’s accessible and affordable.

this is the key, i think.

but if one does not really know what his|her rig has to do — this one is doomed to act like a synth collector, and there’s no chance to stop :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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I’ve noticed a lot of this kind of feeling, people selling and re-buying the same gear an insane number of times, and I think it’s a kind of modern day anxiety disorder. It seems like people end up feeling some sort of obligation to their equipment, like it’s judging them. Not everything needs to be routed flawlessly so it all works at the same time, the MIDI doesn’t need to be set up flawlessly in some sort of master config where everything can be turned on at the same time and work perfectly together, etc. I really believe this stuff can give people huge anxiety when they feel some sort of need to have everything perfect.

I have lots of synths, they don’t all get used every day or week, but they’re all unique. I think of them like art, and it’s fun to turn on one or two or three and just get lost in the bliss of a jam. I already paid for them, and will never sell, so I don’t even think of them as having monetary value.

I’m the master of these objects, not the other way around.

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Some people like to collect things, especially if your in to design and aesthetics.

I get what your saying. Hardware companies keep releasing the same product but slightly different - the akai mpc one for example.

My philosophy is, I am merely renting hardware products. I only ever have three and if I want something new I have to sell something. For example, I want a DFAM for a new project I am making. I have sold my Digitakt and I will by second hand and use it for 6 months and then sell it. I might loose 50€ but that’s my renting fee…

Trying new gear is exciting and it keeps me learning about different ways to synthesize…

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I also want to say, there are synths that I haven’t turned on for a year or more before, kept in the closet, but then was overjoyed to be reunited with when hooked back up. It’s just like re-buying except that I didn’t have to lose money, have anxiety about selling and shipping, have anxiety about buying, condition, etc. Basically, I’m saying people should keep the things they like and not worry so much about how much they used it THAT MONTH or whatever, who gives a shit, you’re only accountable to yourself, not to your possessions.

edit: @Patrick I wasn’t replying to your comment but it appears like this post was aimed at what you said about renting. Relevant though, how many times have you paid that 50, 100 euro “renting fee?” 10 times? 30 times? Because it’s not really renting, your cash is tied up and non-liquid the entire time you own the piece so it’s like the shittiest possible version of renting where you’re both buying AND renting…

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Fair enough.

I also just don’t have much money :man_shrugging: If I made a decent living I might be even more inclined to agree with you. As it is now it’s precious money I spent on things that aren’t being used…

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For me, music making changed a lot over the years. Back in the days I sat in our rehearsal room (and later our studio) every day. We wrote songs, rehearsed for the next gig, learned new skills on our instruments etc. It was my everything. I even turned down or ended relationships if they had bad influences on my music. I bought a lot of stuff over the year, still have 2 drum sets, a bunch of guitars and bases in my room, built a complete 24 Track Studio in my house as soon as I earned money etc.
Today I turned nearly completely to electronic music. Because I like it and because I am able to create everything on my own (I never finished rock songs alone but how hard I try, I cannot sing!). I have lots of fun, but nearly zero output, that I would share.
That makes spending money an issue, because I invest into having something and not into better, different results. Overthinking everything, that took away a lot of fun tinkering around with synths and music at all over the last decade. Until I had a mental breakdown from way too much stress in my live, much time at home and realized how much I get from toying around with instruments. It doesn’t matter, how bad I feel or how less power I have after work, sitting at my desk, jamming, building sounds and learning how to make an interesting electronic song, takes me out of everything and is the best “medicine” I have.
I decided, that, as long as I don’t spend money that I don’t have, it is worth every penny, even that I will never again earn a single cent back from it. I transformed myself from “wanting to be the musician again with tons of output and a small amount of success” into a guy with a hobby that includes synthesizers. I try to limit the amount of gear to a point, where it makes sense. If there is a synth, that isn’t used, it needs to go, but I think buying synths to have fun with and take a time out of your daily business live is better, than buying every sneaker there is, and put it in a box in your basement… Well, I need to get better with the “needs to go away”-part, if I am honest to myself :wink:

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This quote makes me want to pump my fist in the air. Haha

I gave up on trying to make my AR MK2 sound like a 909 and couldn’t be happier.

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Singing is way harder than anyone lets on. Teaching myself to sing was probably the most humbling experience in my time as a musician. Listening back to recordings of myself and going “Holy shit…That’s really bad. Why is that so bad? Oh god I don’t know how to fix it” and even still to this day being filled with self doubt. I’ve literally sang some of the most classic rock songs in front of hundreds of people and I still can’t get over my own voice. I’ve listened back enough times but I’m more critical than ever. “No, you were pitchy on that note. Your timbre here wasn’t what it should be. Your dynamics are too flat and you’re not acting hard enough, it sounds boring.” etc.

But yeah you can do it…

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Oh, I am trying to sing since I started making music, I performed as the vocalist a lot of gigs, so it is not, that I didn’t try :stuck_out_tongue: I am constantly off by between 1/4th and 1/2 of a note. Yes, you can fix it with tools today, and I do/did so to record demos, but I am way to self-critical to accept that result on any kind of release. But I am okay with it, I don’t have to be able to master everything, I just need to find a way around it and that is instrumental music for me :wink:

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This is what make you “you” as an artist, perhaps.

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thanks for that, but it really sounds awfull! :stuck_out_tongue:

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when you already have some gear… getting more gear doesn’t really solve any problems.
the thing you can’t really buy more of is time.

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This is so true, specially if you are not that organized… At least I am the kind of guy that everything needs to be configured prior to the jam, or else my mood goes down the drain… I need to just sit and discharge ideas, so simplicity is quite important for me :smile:

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Great thread. When I started doing electronic music I was basically still a student and couldn’t afford anything except cheapo second hand stuff like Yamaha RM1X and Micro Korg. I had only 2-4 instruments at a time, but I made a lot of music. It also has to do with the fact that I lived in a small town with nothing to do except make art.

Then I found a 30 euro Polysix at a second hand shop, fell in love with the sound and immediately fell into this vintage synth collecting black hole. For a couple of years I spent way too much money on buying fancy vintage stuff and very little time playing them. Maybe three years ago I sold 42 pieces of gear in one weekend including a MPC 60 and a Korg Mono/Poly. With the money I bought three pieces of gear, an Analog Four, an Octatrack and a MachineDrum. That’s how/when I ended up on this forum. Less is truly more, (but I have to confess that I have none of those Elektrons left anymore.)

I am a collector by nature. I enjoy the thrill of the chase but for now I’ll confine my collecting to vinyl and cassettes. I know a guy who sold a huge synth collection and with the money bought a sports car. Now he collects cars. But he was always an idiot.

Partially because of my own climate anxiety, partially because I make next to no money/have no more space in the study I have moved very forcefully into software and a very limited selection of hardware (DT,DN, AK, MPC live and a bunch of rack synths plus my guitar & organ.) In the christmas season I updated my Arturia V Collection to the latest version and bought Pigments. Love them both. I feel a lot lighter and my conscience is clear.

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The black hole of missing creativity can’t be filled with new equipment… I tried it and failed miserably…

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