It’s a hard decision! Keep or box.
Incidentally, I almost bought a P12 a few times after demoing it a long time ago, and loving the sound, but never did.
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Kinda made my decision as regards the P12 - posted it for trade on a Finnish music forum. May end up selling it if nobody’s got a Prophet 6 (or 5) they want to trade for the P12.
Just realised I’m yet again making the decision way too hard for myself, so said f it and posted it for trade. 
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As usual I read this thread wondering what amazing things I’ll be able to buy to minimize my setup 
My work space had become cluttered with synths (that I masterfully filled every square and vertical inch with). I spent the weekend taking most things to the basement. I’ll bet with things within reach and not smushed up against each other I’ll be happier.
For those of you that have a setup with 4+ hardware instruments I challenge you: take away one half of your hardware, spend 8 hours (either consecutive or non) with the setup, see what you miss. Report back!! Could be that those are 8 torturous hours, but I’ll bet they are also instructive and fulfilling.
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I think the best thing I ever did was choosing one thing as my main focus (maybe I’ve said this before, even in the same thread, my memory is shocking, so apologies in advance). Right now, that’s Digitakt, but I could do the same things with OT, SP-16, SP-404, MPC, etc etc. Other things I have (currently SubH, Ether, a contact mic, and Bitwig with the Grid) are just meat for the Digitakt grinder. Someone above mentioned feeling horrified by setups with keyboards, boxes and pedals everywhere. I feel the same. Stick to one main thing, whether that’s a sampler or a computer or a piano or a guitar or whatever and do 90% of your stuff with that (like really own that piece of gear) and your productivity will shoot up. In my experience at least, for whatever that is worth.
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There’s a thread about my year and a half plunge with an AnalogKeys if you are interested:
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Maximize minimal gear is what I’m desperately trying to do. It’s a constant battle trying to create over collect.
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I find that limiting the setup by just recording into inputs on my MPC LIVE2 keeps things small. If I want to use Logic, I just use a four channel audio interface.
Laziness focuses me.
Having everything ready to go is just too distracting.
Right now I’m settled on the MegaFM and Minilogue XD.
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One day I’ll clean off my desk and do this with the OT - Rytm & Virus Ti into OT inputs, done.
One day…
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This is great. My original thought was to minimise things so that I’m left with 1 mono (1.5 = a 0-Coast & Werkstatt), 1 poly (Peak) and various processing options, but I do have some incredibly deep additional tools too, so “minimising” is a very relative term. Once you add in things like Norns/Supercollider, Live/M4L and the world of iOS it starts becoming incredibly difficult to describe it as minimal on any level! 1 unit is a whole different level, though.
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I usually just press the minimize button one my browser window…what kind of gear have you used in the past that you’d like to revisit?
I tried a depth year, but it didn’t work for me. It just made me realize that trying new things (or my possible lack of knowledge with things I already had) wasn’t what was keeping me from making music. I dragged it on for about 8 months and probably made less music than before.
Having learned this lesson I followed it up with starting a creativity blog: 1 post a day for an entire year. It was intense and insane, but I did so so so so much work during the course of it. I found that the thing that was keeping me from creating was my own expectations and judgements. Putting myself on that insane course gave me no choice to say no – IT’S DONE JUST POST IT. Listening (and looking – there was lots of photos and design work too) back I don’t think there’s anything necessarily amazing in there, but in the course of doing it all I learned a ton.
YMMV. 
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Yeah I identify with this a lot. The idea of ‘done’ is a huge struggle for me, but in the last 6 months I’ve finally admitted I have a problem. I think for me the hangup or hurdle is more in my personal expectation toward mix quality. I’ve 15 ideas that are at 80% done forever because I’ll toil with the mix and it will never be good enough.
Intruiged by the creativity blog. Is it personal or shared somewhere?
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Deeper vs. wider, fox vs hedgehog, etc reminds me of this Rick Rubin interview with Brian Eno where Eno talks about being a farmer vs a cowboy. A farmer will cultivate every patch of land, nurture it, etc for years, where as a cowboy lives for exploring new frontiers but never fully settles in one place. Something like that. Maybe we’re GAS cowboys? I enjoyed the analogy.
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The first step is admitting we’re the problem 
I still need to work out a better search function, but it lives here: Noticing — "hello," said matthew.
(this might be the push I needed… have been avoiding it since I finished.)
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This looks great, will be checking it out. I’m immediately digging the photography and all the textures and interesting compositions you’re getting from every day objects. Thanks for sharing
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Love the calmness of your blog. I had a film photography blog for many years with just uploading one or two medium format film photos scanned a day. I loved the fact it was only one as it made me work harder. I’ll be following yours as it has some lovely music as well as great photos. Thanks for sharing this 
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Haha well it is a total reduction right? Looking at a farmer. They don’t just maximize yield, but potentially also need to be a plumber, carpenter, mechanic, veterinarian, etc - on top of developing personal business relationships and building community. Still enjoy the comparison though.
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Thanks for listening!
Before the AK I used a midi keyboard/ableton setup (still have a load of unfinished material there I have to drag out someday). It was too complex. Required too much “System” and “templating” if that makes sense. But with the AK I never lose track of what’s what. 4-5 things, or slots, seems to be a kind of cognitive limit, at least for myself.
Equally important is having the controls physically close. I’m often doing 4 things with two hands: I might have my left thumb on a low key while also using the joystick with the same hand, or holding an arpeggiated note while I press the FILL button just above, etc. I can easily cross over my arms when needed, too. It’s all always quickly reachable.
What seems to work is “extending in depth” while “limiting in width”. Fewer, more powerful things. These Elektron boxes are perfect for that approach, you can get a few of them all in a nice tight space.
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Haha honestly you’re not wrong… my recent purchase of the Waldorf M has been making me question every other synth in my studio. Like why would I use you when I can make a sound I like more on the M with less work. I’m sure it will wear off eventually, but I probably should clean house on my boxed up gear.