That’s an area where I’ve been fortunate so far. In Sweden, the Craigslist equivalent is a great place to buy and sell at decent prices and as long as you’re patient with the purchase, you almost never lose money. I’m net positive when looking at the hardware I’ve bought and already sold again (not counting the things I still own).
No one needs in brand names,
We all need food.
But no one needs a McDonald’s Big Mac ™. Or a cheese pizza.
I’ll leave it to you if you need soup.
So you can only say i want a => name your own electronic music product. You don’t need it.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
We do need ways for creative expression. And we do need to use our imagination and a chance to be ourselves.
No brand or symbol or label should ever own us,
Now you’re just being unreasonable! 
I haven’t had one since my order arrived stone cold and try eating a cold Big Mac. You wont eat one again as long as you live.
I don’t know if I’ll do no new gear, but I am willing to do something like “money for gear coming in has to equal money going out”.
it’s one thing to not buy gear but asking us to sell our babies is crazy talk 
Haha you are right I’m completely nuts. Thank you for defogging me for a brief moment of clarity 
I’m in.
I was already on this track myself, didn’t know we had a thing for it. Some accountability would be nice.
My personal terms are actually: No Buy, Sell or Trade.
It’s not about money so much as the time theft of researching gear, and for me this happens just as much in the selling process as the buying.
My current bit of kit covers every base I could ever possibly need. The one thing I have that I’m currently on the fence about is my Prophet X. As it stands, I think I could part with it and be fine. But I actually bought it with the proceeds from a specific project and I think I want to finish that project out with the PX to fully judge it.
Regardless, hanging onto it for a whole year is not going to hurt me. I need more time to simply use the stuff I have without constantly thinking of whether or not its got a “permanent space” in the setup.
I’ve been needing this for a while. I make music in a semi professional capacity and while I’ve never relied on the hardware for that, I like having a core kit that inspires me. I’ve attempted a minimal setup with little overlap. It might seem like a lot to some, and I might slim down in the future, but what I have is feeling largely core/essential with all of the current items really being the best in their class for my specific needs / workflow (for sometimes very specific reasons.)
The Current Setup: (sorry if this isn’t what this thread is about.)
In order of most to least important to me.
Polysynth - Prophet 6
Drum Machine / Electron Sequencer - Syntakt
Monosynth - Moog Sub 25
Sampler / Utility Recorder / FX Box - SP 404 mk2
Weird Experimental Rompler / Gap Filler - Prophet X
Bonus 1 - A Polyend Tracker that was already for sale before I started this. I’ve got no bites and decided just to closet it for the year because there are occasions where I love the thing standalone. I might still try a last minute trade and officially begin this on Jan 1.
Bonus 2 - A good buddy might let me borrow an Ottobit JR. I have some plans to sequence it with Syntakt running through it for some poor mans low bit-rate MD vibes. This is the only “cheat” I plan to allow myself.
Love this. When you “Came out of it as a new person” did you purge hardware from your workflow entirely for a bit?
I worry I will get myself into that kind of phase and sell things I actually like if I make it through the year because I can be pretty black/white with things.
My Prophet 6 will never go at least, as I bought it with the proceeds from my first real soundtrack gig. 
- There is always a voice in the back of my mind telling me I could live with just that synth and the various pieces of software I use (Bitwig/Studio One/Renoise in that order.)
I mean, I know I absolutely could. So what value do I apply to the rest of the stuff I have? Kind of rhetorical and something I need to ponder on over the year.
Alongside my NGNY, I’m going to keep a gear journal. If I start jonesin for something, write it out and convey what I think it would do for me. If I jones to sell, write down why (usually I want to sell simply to buy something new.) Then I can look back at this in the future and hopefully learn some shit.
Curious to hear from those who have walked the line, but came back and found a healthier way to enjoy, appreciate and integrate hardware. I mean, I know balance is the answer but who knows where I will be this time next year.
Well I failed this challenge a little in 2023… however I stuck to my policy of only buying something new if something old can go. So it went a bit like this:
New
1010 Music Blackbox (sold again)
Elektron Syntakt
Synthstrom Deluge OLED
Hologram Microcosm
Sold
1010 Music Blackbox
1010 Music Bluebox
Moog Sirin
Meris Polymoon
Eventide Blackhole
Yes. Finally have time to write this.
I’ve been really busy with my book shop as it’s yuletide but also because it’s just hard work to own a succesful enterprise.
I’ve enjoyed taking part in this challenge two years in a row (failed both times) and learning things about my self and my behaviour. Before NGNY I just bought and sold gear almost monthly without a care in the world and in many ways that was not sustainable. Now, after surveying my behaviour for two years, I know what kind of situations make me want to buy gear (stress of not having enough time to spend with my setup, feeling of accomplishment and wanting to reward myself etc.)
I’ve definitely grown as a person and try to carry on living this way in the future too. If someone wants to take the baton and start a NGNY 2024 thread, I’ll probably join it and try once more because it’s a good way to lessen my impact on this planet and also a good way to be at peace with myself.
I’m not the one to do it for reasons mentioned above. I’m too busy with my ever growing business and also the shame of failing the challenge when you yourself should be the one showing an example is very hard on the psyche. I’d rather be just one of the people taking part instead of the one showing the way forward.
So feel free to start a new thread for next year, I’ll probably take part and fail again but such is life. No one is perfect.
Got to the online checkout on a OBNE Float pedal then pulled away at the last minute. So I’ll make it through the year. Useful and necessary exercise this year.
I’ll join next year too. I don’t think I need any more hardware. I’ll aim to get rid of at least one of the currently owned items and I’m coming to terms with the idea that it’s not the gear, it’s me. 
I’d rather not start and administer the thread though - someone else needs to volunteer for that.
I’ve read every word of these threads for two years now, even though I bought a lot in those two years (though I have slowed down considerably, recently). Some of you are too hard on yourselves. It’s okay to fail in a minor way at an absolute prohibition, which may have been unreasonable in the first place (the absolute part, not the general idea). Lots of New Year’s resolutions don’t make it to the end of January, because arbitrary mileposts are not necessarily the best place on which to hang aspirations (hmm that may be a mixed metaphor but let’s keep going anyway).
I will read next year’s thread also. But, if you will consider advice from a flagrant apostate, I don’t know that it needs to be administered, with a list of who has succeeded so far and names crossed out. If someone needs that kind of structure, let them post their intentions and ask to be held to it. We all know how to use the search facility. In the end, we are responsible to ourselves (and to those directly affected by our actions, by which I mean partners and family and probably not others on this forum). To quote Samuel Beckett (and he did not mean this as inspirational, I am sure): “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”
This doesn’t werk for addiction tho. Failing to learn is good, but more for growth and problem solving not addiction. And some may have issues with purchase addiction.
An alcoholic must not take a drink once on the mend, or it’s back to square one. Purchase addiction is/may be similar.
Addiction needs to be dealt with head on.
I am not addressing addiction, it’s true. But I doubt that true addiction can be addressed on a forum where nearly everyone is anonymous. There’s a reason that face-to-face meetings are critical for twelve-step programs. [Edit: and personal sponsors!]
This might be the next step for NGNY - assigning accountability partners or sponsors!
looks like I will pass this year and try for next year with no new gear as well. The Elmyra drone module looks cool as does Malevolent but my Virus can get me these tones.
i might have a decent shot at this after recently acquiring big ticket items i intend to keep forever 