I had an old Harmon Kardon stereo and loved that thing. Have one in my car for while. Still good on no gear as I spent a lot putting a new transmission in my car and home repairs this year. I still have lot of gear to master anyhow.
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How’s everyone holding up?
After reading a few threads it’s come to my attention that the GAS is strong in this forum.
I can’t state it enough.
I’ve found SO MUCH joy in sticking with a set up for years. Learning it well but still things to explore, sweet spots to find, routings to try.
It’s a super special feeling to lock into a permanent rig, at least the main core of it.
So far this year has been easy peasy as a result. I even got a fat raise and buying new gear is way low on the list of things to do.
Hope y’all are hangin tuff 
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There you go, hope you’ll like it!
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Liked it, well done! Listened to (most of) it at breakfast. 
My fave bits/moods were the very end and then the bit from ~28 to 33 mins.
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Oh wow, already! Thanks a lot for the feedback!
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Tuff as nails, and broke as a joke 
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Sounds like album material 
Sometimes I just feel like giving up the whole synth hobby.
I have a day off maybe once a week sometimes only two times a month. This morning I decided that I would program my Roland A-Pro 300 midi keyboard to control my MPC Live and my V-Synth. So my plan was to make two quite simple control maps for the keyboard.
I started the A-Pro Editor on my iMac but it could not find the keyboard. I tried a soft synth and nothing wrong there, I could play Pigments normally from the keys. It was only the Roland editor that didn’t have any connection to the keyboard. Fought with that pile of shit for maybe two hours until I decided to move to my Windows XP computer and install the editor there. Well, now I’ve spent well over two hours trying to install a driver for the Roland keyboard in Windows XP.
Computers suck the life out of me. I wish there was an easier way to do things than the “easy” editor which does not work on any platform. Very very frustrated having spent basically my whole day off fighting with this shitty controller and it’s editor software. I bet the Linnstrument does not have problems like these.
It’s not long ago that I managed to program a control map for my looper pedal on the same editor, but suddenly it has stopped working.
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Doing so good that I forgot about it. I haven’t purchased a piece of gear in 6 months now and putting 100$ a month aside for when I might want to buy new gear, maybe never.
What has happened for me is the desire to find the one synth that will cover all my needs, instead of gasing on all these small tools that might fulfill one thing or another.
I have a small mono (mopho) a small poly (medusa) the OT and the M:C. It’s an awesome setup but I feel that my next step will be to trade in the Mopho and Medusa for a prophet rev 2 as it will fulfill my need of a decent keyboard, my need of poly, but keep the same programming workflow as the mopho.
But I am not Gasing about it which is great. I am just thinking about simplifying even more my setup. Simple is so good for my mind, for my life…
So 6 months into the no gear new year, 700$ saved up, ready to trade to simplify even further my setup… It feels really good.
It also spilled into my other spending habit and I stopped buying stuff just in general. It feels so light!
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I hear you, when all else fail, I grab my bamboo flute and go play in the forest. Music can be so simple sometimes…
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This has happened to me too, and it feels great.
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Ok I’m back in the game.
I don’t know what happened really, yet, but now that all the money I was given is gone, I feel once again the need for sobering.
I totally lost it.
Anyway, I found myself grabbing the guitar and a slide to play over Pink Floyd, so many memories… This black guitar is right besides the piano, as easy to grab and play, it’s here to stay and I can tell it was not that bad a choice 
I have started to remove some gear off the desk, to concentrate on the one I prefer, the one I brought for my live performances last weekend. I’m slowly focusing again.
I still have to check why I failed. Just because there is something in this related to my freedom (as “reaching long-term self-imposed goals”, not “doing what I want”).
This episode will stay in my mind until it really means something to me.
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Update: As GAS increases, I’m thinking more and more that for me there’s no lagom (Swedish for just enough or moderate) when it comes to acquiring gear. Meaning that if I buy one thing, the floodgates will open and the situation will spiral down just like it used to through selling, trading and buying.
What makes the situation more difficult right now is that I’m on summer holiday, I’m at home with the kids, I’ve got a bit of loose cash and seemingly have more freetime. I can run these gear purchasing scenarios in my head and convince myself I’m making a more deliberate decision after six months of not buying anything - as if that would turn GAS into something else!
I’m also coming up with all kinds of excuses like ”it doesn’t matter if I buy something now if I’m buying gear on 1/1/2023 anyway”.
The good thing is that the device I want is discontinued and isn’t very common on the second hand market. So until I see one I’m safe. Maybe.
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Even though I removed myself from the list I keep on coming back to check out the success/fail stories and I’m still battling back the desire to buy any more stuff, the fact that inflation is battering us here in the UK though is sobering to say the least, I really want a midi fighter twister but at 250gbp that’s no small chunk of change… and who knows when all this global madness will stop…
Do I want it? Heck yes, do I need it, probably not, I barely have the time right now to use the gear I already own… If a used one came up at the right price I’d probably buy it though come what may…
Thanks for listening though, at least I’ve managed to talk myself out of buying new in the course of this post…
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Excellent, sounds like the good stuff is sinking in!
Here’s a them song for everyone 
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Seconded. Acoustic instruments and electro-acoustic instruments (electric guitar, rhodes, etc) are will offer you new perspective and context to place your electronic instruments. I think electro-acoustic music peaked to some extent with the Jazz fusion work of the 70’s.
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It’s been a very productive year thanks to this commitment! I’ve trimmed down my gear and more is on the way out as I’ve come a lot closer to an easy flow with what I’ve got. I also kept going with books, clothes and other stuff around the house. Most importantly I’ve also cut back on all sorts of time obligations.
However! I’d been borrowing two smaller pieces of gear, one for a long time and the other for a couple weeks. I bet you can guess what the second one is. I needed to return them to their owner and so I’m here to “confess” that I bought new ones for myself though I’d like to remain on the list.
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I don’t think that counts. NGNY isn’t about not spending money. It’s about the mental overhead of researching, buying, learning, then selling gear. All you did was pay some money to keep your setup the same.
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Approaching 16 months on my personal time-line, ended up selling a couple things, but still haven’t bought any gear since March 2021. I’m afraid I’m nearing the end though.
During this time, I’ve been able to complete 4 LP’s worth of music (2 of my duo, 2 solo) but now I’ve run out of all my audio content that I created to feed my OT, outside of 1-shots that I’ve been recycling for the past 4-5 years. Problem is, I no longer own any sound sources and I’m ready to get back into the sound design aspect of my creative cycle.
I’ve been GASsing for a Tasty Chips GR-1 for a couple years now, but kept thinking better granular hardware options were on the horizon, but nothing else has been appealing to me.
Going to take another month or so to contemplate it and consider what I’d sell to cover the costs, be it my pair of Kush Tweakerz or maybe just all my rare Rephlex/Warp/AFX related LP’s.
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Big sales for end of financial year ending tonight.
Having had something gone wrong with my internet banking mid transfer that trapped my available dollariedoos in limbo means there’s fat chance of me taking part. 