I barely made it into February. Spent all of January learning how to use my Roland MC-707 and improving my piano skills.
My Vidami pedal has been a vital tool for learning off of Youtube videos like MC-707 tutorials, piano lessons, M8 Tracker tutorials, etc. People who have never used a Vidami don’t understand how much time is saved by stepping on footswitches to rewind video, loop a selected video segment, and change the playback speed.
I got a coupon code for the next-gen Vidami, Vidami Blue which has Bluetooth. Thus ends my no-gear new year.
So first month has been exempt of any purchase but I can not say it has been without any GAS or that there has been a deep musical dive either. I still find myself watching videos of gear I don’t have and wonder if it could be the solution to my creative problems, marvelling at the sound of that luch polysynth (while I have a Digitone) or the bass sequences of that mono (while I have a Typhon). I think I’ve also transfered my GAS to other hobbies, for example I’ve bought some courses and nice sketchbooks for my drawing “practice”.
In conclusion, no gear but not as much of the intended effect either, which makes me think that maybe this is a chicken and egg situation: does the lack of focus come from GAS? Or should I focus on deep diving instead of avoiding buying stuff?
Made another sale today, serato controller is gone, another 200 chipped off the credit card bill , the way I see it is there’s plenty of scratching demos on YouTube I can sample so what’s the point having hardware especially when I I’m no qbert…
Setup has been reduced to…
Ableton and push 2
Ipad and audiohub and launchpad and launchcontrol
Allen and heath zedi 10
Beyer DT 990 and 770
Laptop
Okay, confess time here. Is this a sin? Yeah I think it is… Doesn’t feel this way to me, you may judge, if its a sin, then fine by me, a little then.
The story: At the end of 2020 I traded my ER-301 for a Analog Rytm. I thought that was what I wanted… Nope. Regretted a month after and I wanted to trade it back. But obviously the other guy didn’t want that. Fair enough… Sold the Rytm to fund a new 301. I was looking for one the whole time. There was a order window open shortly but missed that unfortunately because I am not on twitter. All the time I was looking for a decent second hand one but the prices were ridiculous and I gave up hope, I bought a Bitbox micro instead halfway 2021 but that was not the sampler what I wanted, but I was dealing with the fact I could not get an ER-301… What happed a couple of days ago. there was one second hand of a guy I know 20 minutes by car from me… And… for a really decent and fair price (like in the same price as when I will buy directly) I didn’t hesitate and bought it, got it yesterday… There I said it… Its out. I am not regretting and still committing to this!
On the other side… I have had a positive thing also… I got an email about the [cough] Retrokits [cough/out] something and I could get into the early preorder thing… I was strong and didn’t do it and tossed the email in the bin. I feel good.
Thanks, I am really glad I got the 301, this thread crossed my mind though when I emailed the guy back. I know I won’t regret it. It is also why I am not selling anything at the moment. This happened to me a couple of times, sold gear but regretting some time later. Its stupid…
So…I kept my Mpc Live, but i’ve added an Analog Heat. I wanted something to enhance the experience of using my Op-1 as a standalone instrument/workstation.
So there it is. Technically the first sin was cancelled out by not selling the Mpc, but then i went and sinned for real. Perhaps even the fact i did list it for sale was the actual sin
Anyway, I’m still inspired and influenced by this thread & everyone here, and i’m going to keep at it as best i can. I do feel settled with the core of my setup (Mpc/Op-1s) so hopefully that’ll keep me busy and focused now.
I think the long-term redeeming value of NGNY for sinners and pure souls alike is the intention — we’re all trying to be better about buying things needlessly, getting distracted by shiny new toys, budgeting in a smart way, etc. The periodic slip-ups are less important than the larger intention.
I just read a post in this forum where someone was venting their frustration over a product that hasn’t come out yet, because it doesn’t exist yet, in fact hasn’t even been announced yet. People torture themselves over invisible things because they’re trained to want more, more, more.
If you’re practicing gratitude and attempting to silence that greedy, entitled voice we all have in our heads, then I think you’re succeeding at NGNY regardless of how your transactions shake out.
