Pre-existing kits I think… but they are easy enough to customize if you want.
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Taking a break for a while instead of buying new gear advised, but that said, the Twisted Electrons BlastBeats is pretty great for tiny clicky beats, is immediate with no menu diving, and is a happy accident machine due to the somewhat unpredictable nature of it
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Finish tunes would be nice, but making little ditties while winding down is good too. Thats a good idea with the OB-4. Might need to try that.
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Thats a great idea! Something visual that shows work is over. I’m going to see what I can easily setup. Maybe it’s just a new bulb for a lamp.
Agreed. GAS got me partially into this mess. Lot of good ideas here totally outside of new gear, which has been great.
I just use the stuff I know inside and out. That might be an acoustic guitar, my electric guitar setup that’s been unchanged for years, my Moog, or (increasingly … I’m a year in with it) the Octatrack. The point is that I’m not learning, I’m using.
Logic Pro is like that, if I stick to stuff I know.
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A few years ago, I decided to keep the radio off in my car. I am an itinerant music teacher, traveling between school sites 5-20 minutes apart. My job is so stimulating, there is so much going on, that my brain is overloaded with information during my short commutes. I don’t want to be so distracted that I lose focus on driving.
It sounds like you are suggesting that the antidote to the focused thinking of your computer-related job is a diffuse state with a relatively uncomplicated bit of gear.
For me, the antidote to cognitive overload is quiet reflection. I don’t know if going from one device (your computer) to another (musical kit) is the best solution. It probably wouldn’t be for me. YMMV.
I frequently watch some TV when I arrive home from my job. Seems like I am trading a focused form of stimulation for an unfocused one. Maybe this is unhealthy. Perhaps I should go on a short walk and engage in unfocused reflection of my day. A mentor told me that the most critical quality of a good teacher was reflection.
That aside, I am a huge fan of the OG Digitone. You could get one used for cheap. If you enjoyed the MC, the DN would be a not-too-difficult level-up. During the 5 years I’ve been using the OG DN almost exclusively, I’ve been on a steady learning curve and improving the quality of the output. There are no “machines” on the DN. Sound production can be as simple or as complicated as you want, and complete, fully formed musical works can be produced on it. Something to think about.
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Won’t be a fit for everybody, but a nice EP sound from your source of choice is my favourite thing to just sit down and play, when I can’t deal with programming drums or composing sections, etc.
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I use older gear a lot because it’s simpler. Old mpc over new model with a trillion options. Old samplers over the modern stuff with too many features.
The daw for me is a soft synth/ plugin host and recorder more than anything. I don’t spend much time in it when I create, I just have it open so I can hear the inputs from my gear with plugin fx on them.
Synth wise, something with a keyboard that you can pick up and play on is nice.
Just simple gear that sounds great and does what you need without feature bloat is really great for what you are dealing with. The problem
I have with a lot of modern gear is the manufacturers update it and try to make it do everything for everyone. In the past, with minimal internet, there was no such communication. You made a synth or sampler and maybe had a few firmware updates, mainly for bug fixes.
The negative of older gear is the learning curve can be higher at first but once you get going , you will have the muscle memory to just get down to business. It’s very easy on the mind, and enjoyable. Just my opinion. I have some modern gear but i typically only keep the simple stuff (example - Moog messenger) and sell the complex “do it all” type gear.
Second negative is older gear will probably need some repair work done on it. But once you get proficient, you can start finding amazing deals on stuff that only needed a simple repair and was sold for very little.
Just another option to consider.
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I’ve been there before (working more than full time while doing my masters in a pair very unstable/stressful jobs one after the other). That went on for close to two years and probably took about another 3-6 months after I was out of it to mostly heal. I think I’m healed most days but there are times the scars open right back up and I realize how much that time of my life messed me up.
For me, the answer was I just had to set music aside for a lot of that time. There’s songs I started from before that time that I am just now finishing a year after it ended. I didn’t have the motivation, the energy, or the patience to do music with what little free time I had. I tried to keep doing things like I had before but I wasn’t in the headspace where that could really accomplish much. The literal handful of times I played synths during that time it was either the Osmose or an analog poly synth that is mostly knob per function. Simple, easy to engage with, quick results. Something I could really shut my brain off and just play with for a bit.
I second this emotion…
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Walks are a big help for me. I often put in noise cancelling AirPods and not play any music. Just to make it mellower overall.
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Wires are my pet hate - not just power but even headphones. Either it’s permanently set up and plugged in (my Montage) or it’s absolutely wire free - so I downtime with an iPad or my Strat, unplugged.
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When I’m feeling burnt out on programming sequencers, or doom scrolling, I always revert back to SP404. The button combos can be a little much, but the surface level functionality is so chill.
Veering away from recommendations here, but this sounds like really good advice.
I don’t want to sound old and jaded, but… well this might sound old and jaded! Haha. Your job is obviously giving a lot of sensory input, so it’s natural to get away from that.
I think for most people though, when Insta is only a tap away, and even something as potentially nice and fun as listening to a podcast on noise cancelling headphones, there can be a point where we lose that gap between the inputs, and the reflection that comes with it. Sometimes we fill silence as well. Humans sometimes like background noise too. I’m a sucker for putting a sports show on. In fact it’s quite soothing after the madness of a modern day to look at have something that brings you joy in the background. These are all normal things to consider, but I suppose filling time can go to the extremes.
One example of this is I did buy some nice cancelling headphones but I don’t actually use them that much, except for the odd walk/call. One reason for this is that especially on evening walks, I much prefer to hear what’s going on around me, and if I’m lucky enough to be by some water, that usually is more calming than any podcast I know!
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When my IT career started kicking my butt, and programming the Monomachine & Tempest started feeling like work, I switched to Eurorack, which was a temporary fix. Eventually Eurocrack’s negatives crept in, so I bought an iPad, Beatmaker 3, AUM, & a lot of AUv3s. That’s was a great relief, for me at least. Now retired from IT, life is much more peaceful. Eating a lot healthier, exercising more, ignoring news and social media…keeping it simple nowadays.
Edit: I would have suggested the guitar, I’ve been playing since I was a young kid, but after years of typing on a keyboard and gorilla arm from working in datacenters, I can’t play for more than a few minutes at a time nowadays.
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you lucky dog you.
after working in the industry for coming up on 10yrs (started late in life / last career was in education), i totally grok why people end up vying to want to do something w/ their hands (eg woodworking, farming etc) away from a screen. i’m on the verge myself. 
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Yeah, can’t agree with this more. My job is looking and a screen all day and when I get home I don’t always want to look at a screen. You know the meme, "work screen, bad. Home screen, good.
And lately it’s really hot so I often have fans blowing which really make my eyes tired, so just being able to close my eyes and do practice drills (scales or rudiments).
Makes me feel productive and engages my mind (when I want it to) and I don’t have to be staring at a dang screen. Also lately my vision has gotten bad so I need to buy better glasses. The ones I have now for reading make my eyes even more tired.
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Personal recommendation is to use artificial tears to offset the strain and drying out of the eyes. I don’t even do it daily, once in 2-3 days and helps a lot.
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Ableton Move, for sure!
You can get pretty far with it standalone, especially with audio tracks added in 2.0 and bouncing patterns to pads in 2.1 beta. Limited number of tracks / voices, limited set of instruments & FX, simple interface largely w/o having to use the (small) screen + its battery operated (4-5h running time).
And once you have some material, you can easily transfer it to Ableton (it comes with a sufficient license, if you don’t have one) in the form of Set file, which has all the MIDI, audio and devices intact, so it’s easy to continue.
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