The Digitakt is great with it’s direct ability to interface with Ableton, and you can use it’s effects to process the Minilogue if you run it through the DT’s inputs. I honestly would sell the MPC Live if you already have Ableton Live. Ableton Live does everything the MPC can do and more, and is probably a better environment for finishing up your tracks.
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100% this.
If I’m being completely honest I absolutely have more gear than I need, much more than what I need to write an album, which is my goal at the moment.
But when I look around my studio, every piece of gear I have is a different pallet of sound and possibilities. Many of them make me work in different ways than I would generally which can be conducive to creativity and new ideas. Some of them serve a single purpose (things like the Moog grandmother just exist for that Moog sound, the Acid 8 for any acid needs and so forth) so not every piece is a world of possibilities but they all contain different brushes and colors. Even synths with similar features may have a dramatically different tone in its oscillators and filters.
I think the amount of gear you feel you need (or want) really depends on how you view your gear and how much of a stickler for specific sounds and tones you are. More than features. To me it’s about three things I think 1. Owning gear I’ve always wanted, stuff like the Machinedrum the Virus the Moog those are things I wanted from the beginning and couldn’t get 2. What you literally need to make music and beyond that 3. Which pieces of gear fill those specific pockets of sounds you want at your command. Stuff like the Korg minilouge XD could be seen as a bit redundant in my studio but the minilouge reminds me (in tone) to my old Polysix and of course it goes far beyond that sonically but when I want those kinds of pads they’re there. I don’t know I’m just kind of going off the top here and maybe I’m doing some justifying but mostly I feel like it’s true.
Could I (and most of us) do what we want to do with less gear, yes absolutely. But if you view and buy your gear based off of filling specific needs and wants and you don’t get into collector territory than I think your good. If you feel like all your gear is getting in the way of being creative then I would suggest putting some away for a bit or taking one or two pieces away from the studio and only working on those and seeing how that goes before you go parting with things.
I can say that after 20 years of being into synths and gear and owning at 100 synths/drum machines over that time that I’ve regretted selling stuff 80% of the time even when I’ve made money from selling stuff (like when I sold off all my vintage gear one by wine once the prices started getting ridiculous) I’ve sold things that I could never afford to buy again. Essentially my take on it now is never ever sell anything unless A. You don’t like how it sounds/aren’t getting on with it or B. Don’t find yourself using it anymore.
Other than that I would say always keep everything. You can always put stuff away and take it out again later if it’s getting in the way of your workflow but once you sell it you’ could find yourself missing it later.
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Seriously put it all away except one and play with it with a DAW nearby
Don’t overcomplicated things for yourself and don’t fear the DAW. I’m going back to it, done with forcing myself to see it as inferior
The hardware will give you structure and something to ground yourself with and the DAW will fill in all the gaps
If you need something to be sequenced live two devices may make sense, one for recording/sampling the other for being controlled by MIDI (bounced before export)
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I won’t say it’s for show, but i believe he’s still primarily ITB!
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When I owned a model D and poly six, people would always be happy to come over for a jam. After selling them and acquiring 6 keyboards and 6 desktop synths, nobody wanted to come over and wait for me to get my shit together. Intervention ensued. Packed most of it away.
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If you had nothing, you’d find a way to make music if making music was the goal.
I cant imagine having kids who need my time and attention and telling myself there’s actually time to learn all of this gear.
I kind of agree with what I saw earlier, one piece of gear at a time sounds dull AF and a slow ass way to get going.
You learn by making music.
Pick a few favorites, sell the overlap and use that money for living life, maybe find inspiration in that to record some shit.
This sounds like collecting gear is the goal, it has nothing to do with making music.
My guess is if you actually start making music you’ll end up realizing you don’t need but a few pieces of gear.
In 10 years all that roland is gonna look dated and sound typical.
I’d start there, by putting them away forever.
Do you wanna find your personal style, or collect hardware?
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I’ve got an Octatrack with 4 synths (Behringer TD-3, Neutron, K2 and a Korg Wavestate) going into a Mackie Mix8 mixer into it’s CD inputs, and a Volca Sample 2 going into it’s AB inputs. For a while I would always start my studio time by turning on all of the devices. After that, very little would get done. My new strategy is to start by turning on the Octatrack. Get something significant going with it and whatever samples you’ve put on it.
You are forbidden from turning on another piece of gear until you have something going…, even if it’s just a basic placeholder beat. It’s entirely possible you might not need to turn on another piece of gear…, however, you can’t turn on another piece of gear a second time if you haven’t done anything with the first piece you turned on. The first piece of gear you turned on must be used for something, with no exceptions.
What @papertiger said - she nailed it.
I got three kids. I am fiercely, to the
point of almost hurtfully, passionate about music. But between work, life and downtime, it needs to find its own space or else it’ll just be a drain. That struggle is not easy but hugely rewarding when you find your place in it. Acccepting your circumstances is the key here.
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Speaking of having too much gear due to GAS habits, I pretty much have this rig in storage… the DB4, a DT, the Gorilla case… watching this video is making me want to set up a dedicated case just to have fun and not give a sht about what comes out of it. Have no expectations of it.
It’s the expectations that always fcks things up for me. 
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It’s a wonderful combination. That video is very old but I still use DB4 plus digi boxes (not 2 DT anymore though) 
. With the input matrix, loopers, eq section set to filters, and the fax per channel you can really improvise and morph between grooves easily.
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This is so insightful! And as a fellow parent of 3 kids (as @circuitghost) it really comes down to the core of it all.
At this stage in life I (we?) don’t make make music for fame and glory, I make it for the love of music and for the love of the creative process. It needs to be easy and fun.
Thanks for sharing your wise words!
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Also a parent of three kids without space for a permanent setup and trying to learn.
So far my setup is:
Polyend Tracker
Circuit Tracks
Reface CS
Bitwig
iPad
I’ve messed around trying to set up rigs like you see on YouTube and what I’ve learned is the setup time saps creativity and wastes precious time.
I’m limiting my synth gear to what can fit in one bag by the sofa and I’ve paused learning the DAW and iPad.
At the moment 90% of my time is Polyend Tracker and Reface and that’s working much better to help me learn rather than mess about on YouTube.
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We’re gonna have to have rollcall for 3 kid parents 
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(three boys here: 10, 7 and 4 yo)
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I have equal gas problems (and three kids!) but have started to appreciate that I don’t need (or even enjoy?) this much crap. I have a couple synths that I am about to list to cover the drum set and bass I bought to get my kids interested in playing. But this thread has really got me thinking I should sell a lot more or at least put away most of the remaining samplers and synths.
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Three kids in the house : my daughter (11), my son (5) and me.
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Is GASsing for a new forum really the answer?
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Lol
There’s something special about finding a few pieces of gear, and sticking to just that for YEARS.
Learning them like the back of your hand.
Start doing things with them that feel like your putting your own spin on it all.
Making the rig truly yours.
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