Easy. Necessary.
Dont reget it at all!
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Yes. Too much gear I wasn’t using.
I don’t miss the synths because I can make those sounds in Bitwig.
I still own a few boutiques because they’re fun to jam on and record loops and samples from.
I did get the Tracker because it seemed fun as a stand-alone unit.
I kept my Alpha Juno-1 because it was my first synth, but it mostly sits in its case.
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after a decade and a half away from music, getting back in to things I went soft synths + Ableton & Sonar
Since then I’ve learned that I truly prefer the sound of hardware synths in a live situation - maybe the frequency response extends a little further? I dunno - I just find they sound more of what I enjoy about synths.
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I went through something similar with bass, guitar, and related pedals/amps. I sold everything except for one electric and one acoustic guitar. I eventually missed it enough and started playing much more and explicitly taking time to learn more, and let myself get back into buying stuff for it, but being much, MUCH pickier and deliberate about it. My playing is better, I can write in many more genres, and I feel much more inspired.
The real lesson for me was that it is easy to get distracted by “stuff”, but skill takes both time and practice, and no amount of money thrown at music retailers will change that.
It is also easier to talk about gear on forums rather than practice routines, since experience and learning style vary greatly between each of us.
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I’ve owned the Octatrack twice, A4 twice and RYTM twice. I’ve had the Digitakt, Mother 32, the Grandmother, Blofeld, Lead A1 and Micromonsta.
All the GAS has done is left me drained with no energy to actually make anything and I realise the stuff I was doing was nowhere near anything I could do with a cracked version of Ableton and a bunch of VSTs (which is how I started).
All I want to do now is mix different genres of music into a DJ set so I think I’m going to leave all the gear and go back to the Octatrack once more but coming at it from a different perspective this time and focus of sets rather than tracks.
I’ll mix in Ableton Lite (legit this time) via a Zoom H4N but asides from that I’m getting rid of the synth, guitar and pedal addiction I’ve developed during my time here and go all minimalistic on you guys.
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Never tired of synthesis since I had rebirth 383 in 1996. It’s always a part of me. Now I understand why guitarists fall in love with their guitars. It’s a tone that speaks the way you feel. I have my go to instruments but if worst comes to worse I will use VSTs to write things. There’s always a patch I want to play and rework.
My favorite set up was having a Juno 106, Akai AX60, and an Ensoniq ESQ-1. It covered so much ground and they were fun as hell to work with. I left them with friends and moved, using only VSTs. I don’t think I produced anything noteworthy during that time.
I moved from Reason (full VSTs) to Logic (all midi out/in - live knob tweaking audio recording). I still like that method, but now I just do it all live to stereo. Perfect? Nope. Fun to work around the limitations? YuP!
I don’t think I can ever live without at least one knob per function synth. MFB Nanozwerg is my go to now.
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Declutter!!! The more gear you have the more of a slave you become to maintaining gear. There is a tipping point, where you spend your spare time servicing, cleaning, repairing, buying new furniture, replacing corroded cables, finding the midi loop blah blah blah…i recently moved, and spent a whole day with soapy water cleaning mould off cables before i brought them into the new house…none of this time was spent making music.
But saying that…my rig is shrinking involuntarily…some of my gear is 80s and 90s, some of it is made by companies that no longer exist and its no longer serviceable. In the last little bit i have have lost a TX81Z and an EMU XL1 to age…when i listen back to recordings of time spent with these bits of kit i realize thier distinct character was like a personality, and no amount of artificial intelligence can attempt to recreate all that they were; The sum of thier parts. It gave them something unique…And that imprints onto the feel of the music…moving meant that when it was time to unpack, i could slowly take out each bit of kit, asses its validity, characteristics, and usefulness to the team outside of the rig as a whole.
I decide if its character and mine actually got along or was it something i endured, was it like a friendship that i was trying to make work but all the effort was me, was it demanding my time, my money, did i only like it when i was drunk? Or did its personality offer something to the team that was irreplaceable and if it were gone tommorow would me and my circle of friends morn and try to compensate for the loss somehow…
With this attitude I culled 1/3 of my kit, put it back in its box and left it there to see if i could get on without it…this post just reminded me to have a sale…
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I’ve had most of them. For some time, I’m only on the Prophet 12 now. I pretend I get excited by new releases, but I know they won’t replace my P12.
Samplers still attract me, tho.
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Fuckin’ A right, there…
I went through the same shit with cymbals, and drumsets… always looking for the thing that would change my sound up.
I sold things that i regret selling. I will say that… i sold a cymbal that should NOT have sold and went through years of trying to track down the buyers to find it…a dead end, enentually…
But the thing that needed changing was in my mind.
and i remembered my friends words from long ago:
“If you cant do it on a Coke can, you cant do it…”
i moved on from synthesizers to grooveboxes. does it count? 
grooveboxes rock because they do it all.
i’m sill using synths and interested in them, but it narrowed down to the certain kind — small or very small monophonic/paraphonic desktop units to pair with grooveboxes. whatever easy mountable to the rack is considered too cumbersome, and i have no interest in it.
GAS is inevitable, be it synths, drums, guitars, plugins, you name it. but narrowing it down can be effective.
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I didn’t have too many, but for a time I tried to create music 90% based in HW synthesizers. I found it worthwhile and challenging, but really lost perspective on my expression and what it takes to create truly unique music. Now I have a few MPE controllers and a ton of VSTs. Of course I still use acoustic instruments still, but HW synths have lost their appeal to me unless they offer some interface like the osmose or continuum. After working ITB now with physical controllers I feel that there’s truly no limit to my musical ideas, and my only limitations are physical limitations within myself, which is liberating and humbling. It’s also just easier for me to play something really dynamic and malleable, so I still appreciate hardware over software in many instances, but the only hardware synths I’ve owned have played me more than I’ve played them
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I owned quite a few but at different times. Never owned more than 4 at once.
I kept digitone and analog four, I have some strange emotional relationship to them.
I don’t need them. I probably made my best tracks with laptop only. But since the laptop became my only instrument at work it can’t be for my hobby anymore. Recently got maschine mk3 which crosses the bridge quite nicely.
Anyway, I could never collect too many synth or hardware in general cause they feel like a burden. But I could try them all! Synths are interesting and fun, and they are all different
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I’m synthless at the moment. That’s not to say I don’t want them. I would actually love one of the new black A4’s, not much else is super appealing to me right now. I’ve bought a bunch and sold them all. I guess I’m waiting, waiting for something, I dunno what. Push 3? Push Mini? The next Elektron synth? I’ve already mentioned it in other threads how I’ve taken more to audio processing lately, so to me the sound source is somewhat irrelevant to me once it turns into a smeary ambient mist. That said there’s not a lot I can’t do with a laptop if I want some more overt synthesis sounds, and at that point the lack of hardware control will probably get me buying hardware again. I probably am gearing up to buy and build and get started with a modular system, but I can’t bear it under the Covid environment and with other various material goals I have at the moment (kinda want a good offroad car for camping more than anything rn).
only device I’ve ever really “given up” (it’s been in a drawer for a while) is the korg kp3. Been pretty selective on what gear I acquire over the years.
(analog four, which is my top device, I only bought once the mkii came out, though I had been eyeing the mki for years. the kp3 was the second device ever in my setup)
Really seldom are there ever pieces of gear that really resonate enough to add to the collection—it feels like I should be making more stuff with what I have before I get anything new. (most recent purchases are a 0-coast and a Touché, neither of which are newly released devices. things I’d been aware of for a while, and which fill a unique niche in my setup)
I really like pulling as much as I can out of anything I work with, and the last few things I’ve acquired have a long time till I’ve exhausted what I can get from them. (the mpc1000 core for polyphonic sequencing/sampling is the top candidate for an upgrade, but it’s good enough for now)
Hello, interesting,
you mean funky sequencers are in op-1 or you created your own sequencers in the grid?
Yes I have the same feelings about percussion sequencing. Just to know you could use micro timing or probability makes elektron another level. You are using just the audio from rytm in ob or are you also entering midi notes in clips?
I just tried it a bit with a4 with my old hp some time ago. Hoped i can use it also as drum midi controller (and of course percussion synth in clips). Thing was a bit too much lag to kick in notes in clips and not being able to see the notes immediately.
So i still put in percussion notes with computer keyboard(if i do anything at all, lazyness and not liking headphones…) and its very ok, also created some shortcuts for clip control.
Theoretically i have lots of funky sequencers in reaktor and vcv, theoretically…
Btw somehow obsession vst by synapse is the first vst for me that remembers encoder assignements for bassstation across peojects (only have the demo)
If only there would be a sound as knobs position key (like manual on ju-06) on bs2…
Sounds nice, has sinewave and now even a afx mode and midi ccs are accurate, nick batt once said.
That said, as i dont finish or record anything anyway mostly i just turn on tr8, dominion 1s quirky sequencer with velocity mod and maybe some ju06 pads above for a quick jam…
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Funky sequencers in the OP-1, especially Tombola 
Yes! I make excessive use of microtiming, probability and conditional trigs on all my beats, hence why I can’t leave Elektron 
And I gave up on OB and now just record the Rytm main outs into my soundcard, which gives it a nicer, glued sound imo. I tend to record drums as a stereo file, forcing me to make decisions and stop messing around with plugins on individual hits in Bitwig, then any melodic elements are recorded separately and lined up with the drums manually.
Same for Bitwig. I’m not at that level yet, but I will learn it at some point. For now, I’m happy using piano roll or the TE/Elektron sequencers.
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I sold digital hardware synth, cheap mono analog and FX pedals because I can find some VST sounding same or bettter with a better UI, large screen and less menu diving.
Just a midi keyboard (keystep) and a PC and I have better result than every other hardware synth…
In fact, not really. The high quality synth sound way better than any VST. Some hardware synth (typically analog but not necessary) really have a soul, something special. Some mentionned Prophet 12, Ensoniq, vintage Roland… my only goto hardware synth I will never sell is the Vermona PERfourMER MKII. When I hear it, It make me something, can’t explain why, it’s the only synth that do this on me.
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The GRID is amazing indeed! Where it all falls apart for me and I feel that I “need” my synthesizers is when I perform live or make music with large projects and a lot of tracks. I tried Push2, Komplete Kontrol, Midifighter with custom skripts, you name it. But keeping the overview and being creative is really challenging without a real interface. From the sound point of view you don´t need any of that stuff anymore imo.
Another point is the audience that I have to work with. I upload a live session where I play a FM patch with two sine wave operators and lot of reverb. If I do that with Ableton Operator or the Waldorf Iridium the result will sound exactly alike. But I don´t have to spell it out for you guys how the reactions will be different.
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