Have you committed gearcide?

I love the idea of wiping everything but the closest I get to that is rendering out loops and one shots from all my old projects and creating sample packs with them (which I’m in the process of doing now, but I’ve not done it for years so it’s taking an age)

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Ha - I hadn’t thought of it that way but I’m sure you’re right

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Sort of actually yes - as part of:

A) Freeing up funds for buying a home and organising my wedding (which I decided to do at basically the same time, for some terrible reason)
B) Reassesing how I approach music creatively and focussing on what enables me to have the most fun and produce the best output

I’ve sold all of my Elektron gear, most of my effects pedals and all of my eurorack.

I’m planning on buying a new MPC later this year (I want to hold-out incase they drop any new hardware along with 3.0), as I was pretty prolific and fast when I had my MPC One, and I’ve kept a Minifreak and re-bought a Subharmonicon - I also plan on buying a Labyrinth and rebuying a Mother-32 at some point.

So I’ll have a little Moog sound studio type setup and an MPC - I might end up selling the Minifreak.

I’ve been doing a lot more work in Ableton as of late - my circumstances are different and my time availability, and so I’ve been finding that a lot more approachable than I used to - I don’t get to spend hours every day at the eurorack any more and so that whole setup just became a faff that prevented me from being creative.

I’ve put something like 10k back in my pocket too!

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Re: OP - I wouldn’t say I’ve ever been that rash, though I’ve entertained the idea by putting everything but a few bits away. Out of that has come the understanding that primarily all I need is an FM synth, a poly module, sampler, and mixer+recorder. Even just a single synth and sampler would do as far as sound-makers goes.

:open_mouth: I haven’t been too active here in the past year or so, but I’m surprised to read this - your Elektron + eurorack work was top notch.

Oh, there it is, I hadn’t finished reading your response yet. :laughing:

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I’ve done this multiple times. binge and then later… purge. usually the purge also encourages more binging (“well I sold so much… I can just get this, and this, and this…”). I just figure it’s part of the process. we get sick of stuff or feel like we’re not using it, there’s other stuff out there that’d be fun to try, can’t keep everything, etc…

not since my first years doing electronic music did I ever attempted to go down to almost nothing, like just laptop and a controller type of setup. and that was more a product of the time, before the hardware renaissance really took hold of the synth world. I can’t see myself doing that again, unless out of necessity.

I sort of did this a few years back. I’d had a studio of gear I’d built up from around ‘97-‘08. At that point I had to move and put most of it in storage for nearly a decade until I bought my home and actually had some room.

I pulled a few things out and decided I didn’t want most of it anymore. I had good pieces; an MPC2000XL, MS2000, Nord Modular, ESQ1, and a bunch of other stuff. I just never felt like I really got going with it, and I didn’t have room for all those keyboards anymore.

I sold or traded nearly everything but a Nord G2, BCR2000, MOTU midi interface, and an Alpha Juno that’s in too rough a shape to move and is put away.

I ended up with an Octatrack, Analog Four, and Digitone, plus some cash for other stuff that I’ve picked up along the way.

I’m much more comfortable with this set of gear and feel like I’m making the sorts of sounds I’ve been always wanted to.

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:ok_hand:

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I’ve done it many times, the hardest was when I moved interstate and had to sell my rack gear:

Akai:
S612
S900
S1100

Ensoniq:
EPS 16+
DP4+
ASR-X

All modded with sd card readers.
Ouch… still hurts

If I could have kept anything it would have been the S612

But I’m in the process of doing it again, but now when I find something I love as much as the S612 I take it off the possible sell list.

In the keep forever list:
MakeNoise 0coast
Strymon El capistan
Digitakt (currently for sale! Only because I just bought the mk2)

I just don’t have enough time these days to chill and make tunes, but I’m slowly building a tight group of machines that will always be sitting there when I have the inclination or time to have a jam

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It is strange to describe unloading a lot of things as a sort of death. I get why, but it remains strange.

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haha thanks! I haven’t lost any love for either, but life changed and I wasn’t able to engage with them in the same way - I’d love to pick up a Digitakt II at some point, but it would be an extravagance so one I’ll save for a future impulse purchase :sweat_smile:

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It strikes me as at least mildly disrespectful of people affected by real atrocities, but yeah I get the concept. Not a thing I do though, and likely not a thing would do unless moving into a new space demands it.

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Once I sold all my gear in the early 90s because I lacked creativity/progress… and got two 1210s and went full DJ. Many of the synths I owned are unobtainable or overpriced now. Still no real regrets.

Now I limit myself to one or two boxes exclusively. And whenever something new comes in something else has to leave. It also helps staying focused.

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I haven’t had much gear yet. But I gave away my Behringer Pro VS Mini to a user here. While it sounds ok, I was mostly mislead by the youtubers who use pedals and not disclose them…(not that they have to). I figured on its own, its sound is nothing to writ about. Since it’s value is like a few burgers nowadays, I hope it went to the right place for a good purpose.

I am also ready let my Minilogue XD go but can’t make up my mind yet what to get instead. It’s mostly a MIDI controller right now in my setup.

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