Drowning in a sea of possibilities

Buy more gear

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Pretty much

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I sympathize with the idea to learn every piece of gear or software in and out before getting the next piece. But I never stick to this rule :wink:

I have a lot of tools, but I usually use one at a time.

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Yes. That might be smart. Or having different setups were you focus on. It still needs a lot of time.

Thatā€™s true. Even those complex patches in plugins only require a few layers, some modulators and effects.

Thatā€™s always dependent on the music you want to create of course and how complex you want it to be. If you want to get into Cortini territory youā€™d be happy with a monosynth with a simple sequencer and a good delay pedal e.g. And creativity of course :slight_smile: Just an example. I love Cortini. But other music styles can get far more complex of course.

The thing is when you spend more time doing music, you have less time for GAS.
For example, Iā€™m here right now writing this because I need to rest after recording something for 2-3h :slight_smile:

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Lol, doesnā€™t very accurately describe Cortiniā€™s studio

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thatā€™s true :smiley: But the last two albums were, if I remember correctly, done with a mc202 and a strymon pedal, the other one with a TB303 and a Strymon pedal :wink:

Yes they were, thatā€™s true, I was only joking. But actually Cortini is quite a good example of my philosophy. He has a sea of gear and probably drifts between them looking for the sound he wants for any given project. IIRC those albums werenā€™t made in the studio, but on tour. I think he said he made Sonno as background music for him to sleep to when he had insomnia on tour.

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I have had this problem with drawningā€¦
but even more important, if I play with too much equipment, I am only scratching the surface of the machineā€¦

so now, only digitakt for a while
later I will add my heatā€¦

and probably after that, there wil be a simple mono synthā€¦

yes I read that as well. Great albums however :slight_smile: Yes, he says he loves to focus only on one instrument at a time, making complete tracks or albums with just one. But he has more money than I have I guess, so he wonā€™t care about unused gear too much :smiley:

More money and is a full time musician, which Iā€™m assuming youā€™re not? Maybe thatā€™s a foolish assumption. But it makes a difference, I get that.

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no Iā€™m not unfortunatley :smiley:

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Well who knows what the future holds!

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Personally these days I have almost zero GAS for new hardware that is released. This is predominately due to the advances that software has made over the last 10 or so years.
The last 5-10 pieces of hardware I have bought have generally been disappointing, as inevitably I start comparing to my softsynth / samplers and before I know it I have the shits with my new shiny piece of hardware because it canā€™t do this or that that my software can do so easily.
This happens every time, and itā€™s then I realise the hardware is completely redundant, and therefore generally sold shortly after.
Currently for music production I only use Push 2, a midi controller, and a bunch of plugins, and this simple setup is extremely powerful and productive.
I can appreciate the opinion of a lot of people that say lots of hardware is the only way etc.etc. but I personally just canā€™t see it that way now. When I started back in the 90ā€™s hardware was the only way, as software was virtually non existent, and computers were struggling speedwise to run spreadsheets, let alone a DAW.
A piece of hardware has to be extremely special and unique to catch my attention these days, but unfortunately hardware synths / samplers generally seem to be becoming simpler and cheaper in their designs, not more advanced as you would expect, so the gap seems to be widening even more.
I sometimes think full sized keys must be made with an extremely rare, unobtainable material?
And donā€™t get me started on the modern day analog resurrection. Boringā€¦
Saying that when someone releases a crazy digital all knobby FM / PM / wavetable / sampler / virtual analog monster Iā€™ll be all over it like a fat kid on a cupcake. Anyway rant over, and donā€™t even think what I am saying is relevant? Oh well feel better now :happy:

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Iā€™m new here but feel this topic speaks to me quite a bit. I started as a piano player who then gravitated towards synthesis. As of now I have a room full of hardware which I have collected over the years. If I want to just sit down and play what do I reach for? My Nord stage and a simple upright piano patch. I never get bored of playing it and thereā€™s always new things to learn, but itā€™s just a piano.

Now each piece of hardware in my studio will have at least as much depth as a piano yet in real terms I only ever scratch the surface. I could never buy any more gear again and just getting the potential out of everything I have could take several lifetimes.

Plus, looking at what some folks can achieve with such simple setups (check out ā€˜red means recordingā€™ on YouTube and see what he does with just an op1ā€¦) puts it into perspective.

I often feel I have to use everything I own on every track and I am just now realising itā€™s ok to keep it simple.

Sorry for the massive first post on here, will try to keep it more succinct in future. :grinning:

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Welcome - and, absolutely, do whatever feels right to you, and gets you the results youā€™re looking for.

Completely relevant, and always good to have advocates for ITB production, which I think is unfairly sneered at by many.

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