Positivity beats negativity every time. It might well be hard. It might be harder without positivity.
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Not always but i wish you well.
Edit. Reverse psychology for instance. Ive seen this used a lot in psychiatry with repeating addicts caught in a cycle. By giving them positive pats on the back they kept repeating. But a lot of men responded better to negative outlook saying go ahead drink yourself to death or ill see you again in the hospital in a month. There reaction was no you wont im going to prove you wrong you wanker((or words to that effect).
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came across this yesterday:
What is the one piece of advice you would give someone starting out building a studio?
It’s not about what kind of gear you have, but more about what you put into your art and what it gives back to you.
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No gear…. 
are you seriou…. 
that’s… 
ridicul….
Ok, just kidding.
Not a terrible idea really. For me though I typically stick to one or two in, one or two out. I commend anyone doing this to further learn the gear they own already.
By the very nature of my situation though, even if I tried to participate, I couldn’t due to the constant building of new gear.
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Don’t forget the time and energy to getting “everything” set up and in sync simultaneously, and wondering what’s wrong when surely everyone has their setups all ready! All those “battlestations” glamour shots surely indicate productivity… oh wait.
For me, table-space to connect and have accessible (but not criss-crossed with wiring at all times) not only looks better and more partner-friendly, but is less imposing and with less complexity to get things going.
Buying gear does not produce happiness. Unfortunately, not buying gear doesn’t produce happiness, either. Not buying gear isn’t going to suddenly make us start producing better music on our existing setups. This thread is taking on a self-congratulatory tone, imo, and the new year has not even begun. The real gratification we seek is artistic, it will take time, and it won’t be magically granted to us by simply making a pledge. In the meantime, there will be that empty feeling only consumerism can fill. And we are experts at rationalizing our next purchase. Fight the urge!
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Sure but part of it is encouraging ourselves to learn our gear more deeply and not spreading ourselves too thin, which can’t be a bad thing.
The more tracks I finish, the more I learn. Like you said though, buying a new guitar won’t make me a better guitar player though. Not buying a guitar won’t either, but practicing instead of buying guitars will.
I think a lot of us would be happy with making more music and spending less money on gear. That’s the only reason I signed up for this.
Not about your post, but I see far too many people thinking about what others are doing as opposed to what they are doing. I don’t really get that.
I’m honestly thinking about just moving over to the thread about making music in 2022 and muting this one, as I find more negativity than encouragement in general, and I have a pretty good idea about what I personally want to accomplish next year. Looking forward to having a lot of fun making music.
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Frank Farelly comes to mind 
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We’re so collectively entrenched in consumerism that some people can’t stand this thread
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Completely agree with this. Buying no new gear will leave you with more time/focus to make music.
To me it’s seems like people attention spans shorten more and more, some (young) people can’t focus long enough to watch an entire movie anymore, and the main entertainment is watching short clips on instagram/tiktok. Maybe this urge to continuously buy new stuff without ever really getting into it comes from the same lack of attentionspan.
My goal is not to feel good about myself for not buying anything, but to really focus and explore/master my current minimal setup.
I think a lot of people here will eventually buy something, but I feel like just trying to focus more is a goal/succes in itself, even if you don’t succeed in not buying anything for a year.
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Probably not. But it’s possible. How many browse and dream of the next cool thing to add to the setup vs fully learning how to use the shit they’ve got.
It can become habit forming, constantly planning what setup’s next. Instead of using the setup…period.
You don’t need to be on board. But you can’t fault those who wanna be. It can actually feel good to break a routine. EX: I didn’t use social media. But I had to get FB for werk. I started using it regularly to test the game we were werking on. And you can easily get sidetracked looking at shit. But I dumped all that. And when I deleted, then closed my account…it felt liberating. Free from that bullshit.
Now, Ive noticed I check this shit too often for my liking. And wanna cut down. Unfortunately there is good info on this forum. So I won’t abandon completely.
Not yet anyways.
But to go full circle, if one can focus less on lusting after gear, and using the gear they have, they could quite possibly make improvements. Knowing your gear fully allows one to get to where they want to be without having to pull out the manual, or remember “how do I…”
Practice doesn’t make one perfect, but it does help one improve.
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Lol. Indeed.
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It should in theory help you concentrate more on the task ahead. But this strategy hasn’t always worked in the past. Some people just quit altogether. We will see.
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I fully support anyone who does this in any way, shape or form. Even if they fail. It helps your mental strenght and might just give you a different outlook on things.
Everyone just wants to be happy but sometimes you have to fight for it. Be brave.
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Please knock off the trolling.
You can imagine how difficult it must be to want to change only to have someone drop into the thread and repeatedly tell you you’re going to fail.
If you don’t have anything nice to say, then move along, as you’ve missed the point of this thread.
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The point of this thread is to say something nice?
I’m reminded of the old quip about what happens when you ask someone “How’s it going?” They are supposed to say fine. Not that they are feeling depressed and that their hemorrhoids are acting up.
I love this thread. I have great admiration for those who’ve taken the pledge. I considered doing the same, but am scared and weak. I would rather wait a year and ask to be added on December 31, 2022.
I learned to unicycle several years ago. It took me about 6 weeks of 1+ hour of everyday practice to reach my “no longer a beginner” goal of self-mounting and riding the 1/4 mile loop around my neighborhood sans dismount. None of my neighbors had anything nice to say. It didn’t matter, though. My commitment level eclipsed whatever benefit I could’ve gotten from others’ encouragement.
When I started unicycling, I viewed it as a novelty. Another weird thing I’d learn to do, then move onto the next thing. But I got hooked, and I did a “deep dive” into unicycling. I learned how to idle, ride backwards, hold the seat with both hands while riding, go off-road, hop up stairs, wheel-walk. And all these techniques took lots of practice time.
I hope NGNY encourages us to do more of a “deep dive” with our own setups. Good luck!
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That’s not what I said.
The point of the thread is really to voice your desires for change and offer support to those who have the same, maybe even offer some tips, not shoot them down before the race even begins.
I’m sure there will be other threads for that.
So anyway. Let’s get back to where we were. Too many flags.
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Do you want a job in my practice? 
You seem to understand the complexity of the issue quite well
Okay, here is a tip I don’t think was mentioned above. Don’t be an early-adopter of the latest gear. For example, the M8 Tracker. Wait an entire year before considering buying one. If nothing else, the kinks in operating system should be worked out by then. No intention to malign the M8 (I believe it’s awesome), but I expect to start reading more discussion about how its functionality can be emulated by existing gear. Bottom line: We must believe that our artistic goals can be met on existing gear.
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Love the positive peer pressure here. I’m not sure I’ll be able to withhold myself if/when syntakt drops and is what I suspect it to be. Also, Avalon Bassline coming in February. AND, I’ve been wanting to get back into push2 for a few months.
Other than that, I’d be pretty down to participate:)
Edit: the Bassline is technically a 2021 purchase though
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