I think that was part of the issue why I left ableton to begin with - I thought the fun period had ended, but looking back I think Iāve been mistakening fun for exploration. The awe of what you can do in a DAW has long gone, but I couldnāt imagine myself being in a more creative state than when Iām opening a few instances of simpler or granulator, putting a few midi lfoās in each and loading a random sample on each - Iāve missed that more than anything probably. I know itās all possible and infinitely more so on an octatrack but it just wasnāt the same for me. I imagined hardware being more fun and it just wasnāt! Donāt get me the wrong I love immediacy of a good poly, but me not being a music man Iām much more suited to drawing my noise rather than playing it.
Get a bigger screen.
I just tried the opposite. Went from a lifetime of keyboards to FL studio a few weeks ago. After a week I bailed. It was taking forever to do what I was doing instantly with real synths and a Squarp. In the end itās just a different way of reaching the same goal.
Happy to transfer my FL license code if anyone wants it.
Sounds like it will be liberating!
Power to you!
I hear you. I started out pretty hardware focused. Music had always been a textural experience to me from before my electronic music making days the turning of a knob, the pushing of a slider. Never a mouse anywhere in my process.
When I finally forced myself to play with Renoise- it felt parallel to working with hardware- I canāt say why, but it worked.
Iāve got a couple pieces of hardware left- but after so many hours wrestling with I/O and the stress of trying to get it all down- primarily hardware setups are hell to work with
Hi!
I make reduced simple music.
For me itās a timeout from computer world - I work fulltime on them.
I like to sequence and soundexplore on those boxes and that keyboard, but when itās ready for record I multitrack into the daw and make there minor adjustments that I canāt on those boxes.
I guess itās for everyone a different experience how to produce music.
There is nothing wrongt or right.
you may want to look into this thread.
Sounds familiar 
ITB is great, but the one thing that sucks and is no fun is trying to make plugin instruments and stuff sound better. Analog saturation, and hardware machine timing is a lot of work to try to match while ITB. Hybrid approach like you said with the 303 clone and maybe 1 solid analog synth and a drum machine with Ableton slaving to it might be a good solution. All ITB though is for the birds IMO.
Yeah saturation Iāll most likely be adding an OTB element to achieve. Thereās a distorted type of bass that I adore that I hear in a track I like every now and then which Iām been trying to nail since day dot and have frankly never gotten close to, which i think would be a doddle with something like a minitaur and mf101.
Now that you posted it I remember reading it with great interest at the time, just as lockdown started it was when I probably used ableton last!
Interesting, I went the other way around, Iāve worked almost exclusively in a DAW environment for a long time (since Cakewalk!) and Iām now making the jump to nonDAW to limit myself and kickstart creativity from those limitations. I just felt overwhelmed with the possibilities, and the creative process Iāve come to enjoy is more improv, expressive etc.
Iāve started with a DT, and I hope to expand from there. I still use iOS to record).
Yeah I plan to limit myself when Iām in the DAW somewhat, I used to baffle myself with possibilities for a while but sort of calmed down a bit in the last year before I went OTB. I think for me I realised it was the process and the application rather than trying to gel together as many sounds as possible, hope it works out for you!
Iām in the process of selling off pretty much all my hardware. Whilst the synths were fun, I realised that I never actually finished anything that I was happy with and always had to bring the sounds into the computer in order to get the sound I wanted. I recently bought a Maschine mk3 and Iām enjoying that workflow atm. I might keep one hardware synth as a bread and butter sound module as it is more fun to turn knobs that click a mouse, but not by much (for me anyway). Ultimately though, whether i have hardware or am itb, it comes down to me and I must stop procrastinating in order to be productive. I need to put in the time to have a fun and effective workflow.
You can have hardware comp or FX. Run shit out of box and back in to analog it up a bit.
Run the output intoā¦say a Heat. Nice 
No spaghetti mess, nice and simple.
Half the problem with synths is they can be so fun, which is probably why so many end up just playing rather than āworkingā with them.
Work is really a whole other matter, itās a more methodical, focused approach. Not to say it canāt be fun doing work. It makes me think that what makes DAWās work best is a proper studio environment, because it has this specific location focus. āGoing into the studioā is a nice thing to be able to do, youāre there to do just that. Perhaps a topic for another discussion.
All the best!
Iām making a prediction. In a years time you will be bored of Ableton.
Exactly the place I am in lately!
These last weeks, Iāve been working on some beats for a rapper. The idea was to really push the way I use hardware. But I quickly got frustrated: āI need this synth but itās boxed in my closet / the synth is unboxed but I canāt find the right cable / I need a good organ sound for the hook but I have nothing to make it etc.ā. Iāve realized that with the money / time / space I have now, working solely with hardware is a bit of a deadend for me.
Sooooā¦ strongly thinking about keeping OT only, and pairing it with Maschine as a giant soundsource.
My recommendation as always is to put your hardware aside for a while and see if you miss it, unless you need the money, because you might lose money if you bought things new. And then when you realize you miss any of them you do not have to go and buy the boxes again. Give it as months or two.
I also use Ableton for a long time and still do, but also enjoy making music OTB. Always going back and forth.
But I also know that I spent way too much money lately because so much great stuff has been surfacing, this is what I need to control. G.A.S. Sucks big timeā¦
Excuse the ignorance but what does OTB stand for?
One of you put your finger on it - FUN. Music making has to be fun, like any creative endeavour.
But of course - hard work cannot be escaped, and depending on the type of music you make, the exact nature of that hard work differs.
As a video editor, I know that my āfunā bit is throwing footage onto a timeline, making a mess, moving it around and seeing those magic moments that click, that work, and the whole thing starts coming together. The work, much like most music projects Iād imagine, comes with refining, changing, undoing, reworking, restructuring, etc, to get the project DONE.
I went DAWless because the amount of work involved was getting in the way of just basic music creation. Going off grid, with just a DT, has been hugely rewarding as I get back to what I love most - making music. But of course, Iām far from making finished projects.
Iād imagine one day Iāll look at ways of feeding my DT experiments / playtime into a DAW environment for at the very least, mastering and basic structuring tweaks. But even here I might choose a hardware multitracker. I like the idea of laying down tracks, mixing and then BOOM. Track done, move onto something else.
The same thought pops into my mind time and time again - that these days, we have more technical power on our phones than the Beatles ever did. It reminds me that the tech side of things is just a gateway. Everyone has to unlock their potential in a way thatās perfect for them.
Out (of) The Box
Over Teh Bridge 