For about 6 years it was nothing but the OT/RYTM/A4 with a Strymon deco.
A couple of years ago I brought the SlimPhatty back into the mix, a mixer, RNC, and a nice verb/delay. Then I swapped out the A4 for an AK.
Been running this for a couple years and it’ll probably stay like this till I’m dead.
The OT is absolutely my favorite machine. All 3 core devices are more than enough to explore for years to come.
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If I were you I’d approach the gear in groups.
Group TE: a stand-alone setup that is easily the most portable and accessible (compact size in particular) I’d keep these separate from everything else. Maybe keep them in different rooms for random creative sparks?
OP-1
OP-Z
Elektron corner: On an Elektron thread, not much to explain, but these 3 should work well together.
Digitakt
Digitone
Octatrack
MPC Live II - The odd duck. Beast of a machine and can easily be the heart of a Dawless setup if that was the intention.
Synth corner: The below two create a modest but very capable and diverse sound source:
Microfreak
Korg Minilogue XD
Roland Corner: This to me is easily the most expendable of the list. If you use and love them, then keep them. If they start collecting dust, I’d offload them. Everyone is different but for me SH-01 is the standout here.
TR-8s
JU-06A
SH-01
TB-03
Just a random user’s thoughts on it. If you enjoy it then that matters as much as anything else.
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Gearlust today is so so treacherous. Companys are releasing new gear in a crazy rate, remembering thinking for so long if Roland would ever release something great again, now theyre releasing (great imo) stuff all the time. You really have to fight that in a way.
Of course its also fun and inspiring with new stuff but as with everything, it easily almost get adictive. Its quite a task to keep focus. Then add children, work and so on and the little time you have is like often sitting exhsusted in the sofa clicking home new gear. 
Anyway, bought a Pocket operator PO-33(the sampler), so playful, and you can take walks making music at the same time. Its actually a great groovebox on its own and makes you think that you dont need much to have fun/make music.
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Just curious, was GAS overcame through lots of gear? If so, was is merely suppressed, i.e. if you let go of enough gear, GAS returns?
Completeness will ALWAYS come from within, not without.
The only perfect selection of gear is what you accept as such, for yourself, at any point in time.
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I’ve posted links to this thread in quite a few others recently but it’s been SO useful for me in controlling GAS.
My core kit is OT & Rytm. This leaves 2 OT inputs to add whatever I want, and means I don’t need a mixer, FX boxes, compressor etc (use OT master track). Up to now that’s been Virus Ti, this weekend I switched up to a 303 and DSI Tetra. I’ve got at least half a dozen other things I could plug in so there are a lot of combos.
But everything starts on OT & Rytm. As a result I’m learning those better (I couldn’t say I know them well yet), plus when I hear a sound I like I can sample it and let the OT do it’s magic. For me, ideal compromise between learning one box and the obsessive interest in synths.
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Adding my two cents to this great question. As someone who has had and still has my fair share of GAS and going through both the process of buying and selling off, I’d say that buying “lots of gear” taught me a few things:
- More gear doesn’t really ever cure the underlying problem that leads to GAS. It’s a desire that will probably never go away completely, so part of it is learning how to accept that and avoid it when it’s not helpful. That underlying problem is probably not the same for everyone, but it’s likely going to be a combination of not having the energy to actually make music, not being experienced enough with the tools you already have, assuming that inspiration will come from the gear instead of from yourself, and even deeper problems like not being happy with your work, your current life situation, etc etc. You’ll have to figure out what your core problem is and deal with it.
- Aside from giving you the insight #1 above, more gear does help you understand what kind of workflow(s), type of gear and sounds will truly bring you joy. These are important lessons that you wouldn’t have learned as easily without going through that journey of buying and selling.
So in the end, is buying lots of gear worth it? I’d say it is, as long as you pay close attention to how it changes you as a musician, and more importantly, how it doesn’t. By staying curious throughout this GAS-intensive period, you can gain some really valuable insights that will save you from lots of future bad choices of gear that won’t suit your workflow and desires. And if you go through this period buying things mostly second hand, it won’t necessarily break the bank either.
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It completely went away for me.
It wasn’t because I got overwhelmed with a bunch of gear either.
It was because I didn’t use GAS to try and scratch that itch, instead I made myself use what I had and fell in love with it to the point that I don’t feel the need for anything
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Plenty of good advice in this thread. You probably need to strip things back a little (or a lot). I’d box most of it up and start small.
Check this article on Sky H1 and her approach. It might help.
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Honestly, I think gas may come also from the fact that you have money available which was not the case for a long time and you want to make you gift.
Like people going shopping the weekend, but that cost a lot.
And you can feel bad because you have too much stuff.
For me that’s not a problem to just give you pleasure like this. BUT the problem is when you feel really bad about it. Other problem is I don’t think it increase creativity in the short middle term… it’s just I want new toy 
But learning is by doing… and you can do with really cheap stuff 
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I make more money than I’ve ever made in my life, and don’t want for anything.
Still no resurgence of GAS 
I seriously don’t know how you three kid having mf do it. I have one (6 year old girl) and I barely have time to get creative and I’m a stay at home dad. I do all the home school stuff and spend nearly every day with her which I am incredibly happy to have the ability to do but holy hell with only one my studio time now vs say 7 years ago has gone down by like 90%. I used to be able to spend the entire day (or multiple days even) in the studio now it just happens randomly when my wife and her go out and do stuff. Definitely not complaining because I’d rather be doing this than anything else but I literally don’t know how people balance having more with their own personal needs.
But to stay on topic even if my studio time is currently few and far between I’d much rather have a nice wide palette than a narrow one so that way when I can work on music or just play I have access to as much as possible. I tend to learn gear pretty quickly so that helps but even so I don’t personally feel like having more limited time for being creative correlates with needing to have less gear to work with. I can see the point of streamlining with a minimalistic set up but like I mentioned above you can always only power up one or two and focus on those. That’s what I’m doing with the Octatrack and Virus ti and the moment and when/if I get to a point in writing where I feel like I need a specific kind of sound/tone that I can’t get then I’ll power on something else. I’d much rather have access to as much as possible for when/if I need it. That’s the way I see gear…music is painting and our gear is either colors and brushes.
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Try make a track with just tr8s and sh01 and post results.
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I can only cosign this to the fullest.
Our consumerist society promotes buying new stuff over everything else, but in reality, I found out truly investing your time and energy into something you have and being fully dedicated to it leads to way more new sounds, skill, originality enjoyment and productivity.
For a long time I had no money to buy anything, and when I finally got a second hand mpc 1000 back in the early 2000’s I spent years getting the most out of the machine. I truly learnt it like the back of my hand, and I’ve made some of the most succesfull (both creatively and in terms of reach) music I ever did.
The FX suck big time, there’s no internal synth, the sound is workable at best and it looks cheap by design, but it was my baby and I got it to do things it was never built to do, just because I spent so much time with it.
I think your (op’s) plan of getting into the DT is great, it could be your core piece of gear for the coming decade if you truly submit to it, and you’d make better music than if you superficially learn 10 pieces of gear.
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I miss the mpc 2000 xl but got the mpc 1000 around 15 years ago.
And with a really old korg analog string keyboard and propellerhead reason with a midi keyboard, it was my most prolific setup.
Ho my god a so good setup
I don’t had money but a large amount of time.
And I had a really simple goal, really really simple. Play one hour and a half max and record a song.
So I prepare my drums, I record some piano loops. Then hit record and play live. Could be 3 minutes to ten minute in one shot.
The song was not great most of the time but often it has an intro/outro a main and a verse. And I was pretty happy with the result.
I mean I really put myself into the song and it had a lot of character.
Today I am able to have a really large palette of sound and I can sometimes make song which look way more finite. With the right audio level. But I ‘m too much into detail and lack this : do it energy.
And this energy you have it when you just just throw away from your head what is not important.
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got a full closet of gear – so my Collector subpersonality is happy.
only using 3–4 boxes at once – so my Musician subpersonality is also happy. and when he gets bored/stuck/etc with some box, i just shelve it and unshelve another.
(disclaimer: this approach works really well for smallish desktop kind of gear, but might be not applicable to other kinds)
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Divorce helped with finding time 
.
Additional kids helped too. A single child needs your constant attention and effort while multiple self organize into play activity that allows you just enough free time to get into something before you must break up a fight.
Finally my priorities are shifting a little bit. I get more time to play since I bought a drum set and a bass guitar. Those two seem to draw them in. And while I spend most of that time with them teaching them to play, I get to make music. (Seriously. Plenty of time to mess around with sound design while a kid desperately tries to coordinate simple snare/kick/hat patterns in the drums).
More on topic, OP what I’ve you done since starting this discussion? What did you use and what did you ignore?
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haha I identify with this so much!
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I see a lot of suggestions to “put away everything but one piece of gear and learn that for six months.” Here’s my question: is OP’s goal to learn gear or make music? If the goal is to make music, then if pick 2-3 pieces of kit and make a goal of finishing something (anything) in 4-6 weeks.
Use presets, loops, whatever it takes, just finish something that you are reasonably satisfied with. Then do it again with the same setup and try to push yourself a little further. Then do it again but swap out one piece for something else. Get yourself in a habit of creating something once a month or so. You’ll learn your gear and figure out what is your core setup and workflow
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