Almost certainly not the last one I’ll need. A year is a long time after the speed I’ve been buying things at!
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hahahah. The “new gear” enumeration trend is definitely a social one, and may fill a need but there are healthier and less (in the end) isolating things we can share. Maybe workflows and ideas for limited gear?
One of the things I like the least about music forums is that art often gets downplayed to consumerism and discussion of spec or the unceasing flood of new products every few months.
My brain can only hold so much at a time and I’d rather focus on abstracting what could be done over what could do it.
Unsure how many persons here are diagnosed with the more distractible brand of ADD but it applies to all my work, arts and paycheck alike. And yes, that may also apply to posting here, but I’d call it harm reduction. It’s also not producing but it’s an attempt to be mindful and conscious over and restructure my antipatterns. And not in a binary Pass/Fail sense 
Hopefully my rambles don’t come off as sanctimonious, this is all stuff I see in myself and am trying to (publicly) wrangle with in the thread. So yeah, there’s some projection but with empathy and acknowledgment.
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Departures so far…
Maschine studio…
Komplete kontrol a49
USB midi host
300 quid back in the bank, I was sorely tempted to get a launchpad to use with my ipad but that urge has passed now and I’m weighing up what to cull next…
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I was thinking whatever gear I have on my studio in three weeks’ time, I’ll make a more deliberate than usual attempt to design sounds for them, as I usually just make sounds for whatever jam/track I’ve been working on. Thinking Machinedrum, Monomachine, Digitone, maybe Prophet-6. So I was thinking making sets of sounds and then sharing the sysex files for free. Truly make it a depth year and have something to give back to this awesome community here.
As for what @subduct asked about our last potential purchases… To be honest, in my head I’m going crazy. Today I even caught myself thinking I’ll give myself permission to make ”one last purchase” before 01-01-2022 and make it something wild/surprising/special, meaning I’d get something that I haven’t really researched that well (won’t mention the synths by name here). Felt a bit like I was rewarding myself for completing a challenge I’m more than 50% likely to fail. That’s fucking GAS for you right there! But no, I didn’t buy anything (yet).
One of the most difficult things to do will be not to make trades for a year. That’s my usual MO (and buying second hand) when I change my setup. However, I’m willing to go as far as to pledge I’ll match all my ”actual” synth spendings and donate the amount to a charity. So if I trade a 900€ and get a 1200€ synth back, I’ll donate 300€ to a charity (of my own choice). I dunno, maybe this idea is starting to get more Catholic (indulgence) than I’d like it to be. 
Another thing is that if I go into this ”challenge” just constantly repeating the mantra ”I can’t buy anything this year”, I’ll be very likely to fail. So I need something to take my mind off that - and like @Joebas and probably many others here, once I’m actually playing my gear, I almost never get those nasty GASsy thoughts.
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I like the idea of spending more time on making patches and then sharing them here. I will focus on the DN and MC
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I was eyeing up a Squarp Pyramid to go with my yet to arrive Perfourmer…but I just can’t do it…the Digitone will be fine on sequencing duties, for a year at least.
Then I thought about how I always wanted some Ciat Lonbard stuff, but I would want at least two…
Then it became clear that my internal acceptable threshold for additional gear had already been reached with the Perfourmer purchase and I stopped.
So it goes
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I use Pyramid to control digitone, digitakt, octatrack, deepmind, hydrasynth, guitar processor, bunch of vst channels inside Maschine (regular controller, not plus), and still have some free channels for additional neutron, 0coast, dfam and microfreak which are kinda of “mood” setup not connected to a main desk all the time.
Pyramid is a great sequencer. Midi effects are weakest part of the box at my taste. Llimited arp, limited delay… But the sequencer is one of the best I’ve ever seen.
So, you have less than month to get Pyramid 
Btw, I’m in. I have enough gear and not enough time to play with it. I think I have to find another way to deal with stress besides of gear acqusition.
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Yes, and the selling and research and all that. I’m someone who loves deep dives into what to buy and comparing, and getting deals, and negotiating, all of which is the antithesis of art. Just to pay down the credit i built up doing the same.
My abstract goals are to have more art to discuss with my artmaking friends and less “technology” trappings. More product, less “products”.
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That’s exactly what I want from this too. It’s completely pointless me having all this gear if I don’t make anything with it! Other people seem to replace their GAS with production techniques and actual output so hopefully we all can too.
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While admirable to give money to charity when we lapse into what we’re calling sin and end up buying something, we all know how GAS works. We become completely irrational when we want (and think we need) something, and having the incentive of it being a good thing to buy something because it’ll also benefit a charity is another way in which we’ll rationalise said sin. I say all or nothing with this one. If you sin, you’re out of the group and you failed. It’s harsh but it’s fair. No loopholes. No justifications. No sinning 
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I work in tech and starting out the temptation to deep dive into knowing all and keeping up to date got in the way of specialization and core strengths.
In a way jack of all trades is a strength… but keeping off the research/buy/sell/trade/upgrade treadmill and developing what we already know can help wonders in grounding ourselves over the internal joy of novelty (which can be found in mastery over what we own today!)
Separately I need to muse more on what “dopamine detox” amounts to and how it can feed back in here but i don’t know how it works well enough to even apply to myself let alone abstract suggestions to others…
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For those thinking about charity donations - I hear the risk of giving to a charity you hate is a better way to approach it 
: How I built good habits by donating money to an organization I despise | by Michael Sinanian | Medium
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I totally agree. And if I can get off the treadmill, I do get the “hit” of successfully working on some music, figuring out a patch, or understanding a new feature. I need to confine the research & forum activity to kit I already own. This will also mean I can contribute more usefully to this forum instead of just chatting on about gear, features, setups and only posting half a dozen clips a year!
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Yeah, right after I signed up, I started thinking I needed to buy a new reverb pedal before this thing begins, started watching videos, and looking at online listings. It totally had the reverse effect of stimulating gear lust. In the end I went to my one reverb pedal I’ve had forever, hooked it up, tried a few things and decided I really don’t NEED a new reverb l, and didn’t buy anything. I definitely see where you are at.
A few other thoughts.
I think that if anyone wants to donate to a charity, I think it should be an individual thing not a group requirement.
As far as the if you screw up you are out thing, I’m not sure how I feel about that one unless this is a contest. Someone might screw up and regret it and decide they want to try to get back on the wagon.
If someone buys something in February and says, “nah, I’m not doing this anymore” then it’s fine to be out. If the person buys something and says, “I really shouldn’t have done that, I regret it”, I think it might still be good to let them back in to try to finish out the year.
I think this should be more about trying to break bad habits and channel that energy into positive stuff rather than an endurance contest.
As someone mentioned, it’s pretty common to fall off the wagon a couple of times before you beat an addiction.
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Yeah, no worries if someone wants to be in or out, let’s just focus on helping each other and with whatever mental, process, technical, or creative roadblocks that lead us to frustration and the dopamine seeking.
We’re cruel enough to ourselves and the world is pretty jerky ATM, tutoring and support can at least get us out of ruts that may “trigger” consumerist solutions over thinking outside the box.
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Oh yeah absolutely. What I said about giving to charity was just what I was thinking might stop me from spending that ”extra 300€” on a synth, if the 300€ suddenly turned into 600€. In other words stop me from buying, period (as much as I like donating to two of my favourite charities, in particular.)
For me goal number 1A is to have a depth year with my gear. Goal 1B is to actually save the money to take time off work to work on music. Goal number 2 is to release something during 2022, as per the thread @craig started.
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Yeah, sorry, only my first point about buying gear before the end of December was directed at you.
The other points were just general observations.
Can I buy strings for my Bass 
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Again, my no purchases journey ends April 22. Haven’t felt to much trouble by it… just two things kinda hurts a little, that switch game I’ve been waiting for for years got released and not being able to buy the VST version of VCV rack 2 is very painful. 
guess it’s worth the wait thou… hope you all enjoy it!
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