It’s a great question. All I know is every time I think I’m good/comfortable/right size for me. I change it in some way.
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What type of music are you making?
What would you say your 4 most important units are?
Is Logic always at the centre when you work?
Personally I would end up unhappy with too much of the combi units. I mean
TE x 2 and Blackbox, bluebox and Deluge and Polyend tracker and multiple Elektron boxes and novation circuit.
Almost impossible to give those all the time they deserve as standalones. Feels like working with 6 different daw’s on 6 different pc’s with a external mixer all at the same time.
It’s not about the size or amount of gear but how and why the complement each other or overlap and overkill. Imagine that the place is on fire and make a list of what you would take out first without thinking.
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Thats not a studio its a shop🤣
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Good question, it’s all over the place — I’m not a genre die-hard, but most of the time my work (if it’s involving synths/gear like this) is in a pop songwriter lane, writing/producing tracks as an artist I challenge my genre every time, and writing for others gives me the opportunity to work with all kinds of different flavors which I really enjoy/prefer.
If we’re defining important as most consistent used, anything I have that fits in a backpack (especially the Deluge/Blackbox/Op-1/Op-Z) get way more use than anything else, when I have to make decisions — however, different sets of gear get different amounts of focus at different stages of production, and some things I have even though I don’t have a practical use for them (like Lyra) because working with it generates sounds and scapes that I can’t recreate, and it’s actually less stressful holding onto it knowing that I’m perfectly happy with the limit of my use for it now, because it’s unique nature is more than worth the price tag and desk space. Similar feeling about some of my other analog pieces, but probably that’s the area with the most significant overlap that doesn’t add as much to my experience.
In terms of Logic, I work with it because I have the most experience and agility in it, I have no philosophical loyalty to it or distaste for others, but as I’ve understood it thus far the good DAW you’re fluid in will beat the best DAW you’ll be lost in, so that’s been more the deciding factor than anything.
I LOVE building custom cases.
The goal is to be able to set up for a gig in 10 minutes or less.
My first attempt was quite a bit of gear, a fairly large case, and it was just TOO heavy to carry by myself and barely fit in my car at the time.
At the time I had no elektron boxes.
Once I got an Octatrack, the RYTM had just come out and I had a Tempest.
I sold the Tempest to get the RYTM, and then figured I should go ahead and make it a dark trinity.
I wanted a tighter set up.
I knew eventually I wanted to add a large visual component to my gear, so the easier it would be to set up my music rig, the more time I’d have to set up my visual rig.
I knew it needed to be something I could do by myself, and fast.
At the time I had a SlimPhatty but decided to sell it and see if I could satisfy my needs with only the dark trinity and maybe a pedal or two.
So I started here.
I never finished the patchbay because I didn’t leave myself enough room for wiring, although I still LOVE the idea
Even without the lid, it finished out pretty nice and I used just this rig for about 3 years.
Over time I felt like trying to add more to my rig, and was trying to design a desk where the case could be removed for gigs.
In this 
thread if you scroll down you can see my first case with the Tempest etc, massive thing, UGH.
But in that thread you can see some CG mock up iterations I was experimenting with that did result in a new case.
I also decided to swap out the A4 for an AK, EXCELLENT decision.
This was some other iteration in between the desk idea and the dark trinity case.
I started to add some gear back in on that one too.
Once COVID set in and I was working from home I decided to buy a standing desk.
Once I got that, I decided to go for my dream set up.
At some point I will make a case in this layout, that I can simply slid off the top of the desk and take to a show. In this current set up things are still in flux. It’s close, but there definitely room to experiment with tighter ergonomics, add a small foot print polysynth, and some kind of hardware vocoder.
When playing live I use 3 55" monitors set up on speaker stands.
This video kinda sucks because it was SO HOT my computer was struggling with the video.
Although I like this set up, and I can set it up in 15mins or less, hauling the monitors around is kind of a PITA.
Eventually I just want a couple bad ass lasers with my fog machine.
If I decide to go ALL out for some special event, I’ll bring EVERYTHING.
The main this about doing all this for me, is to keep all my gear plugged in and secured.
Good for muscle memory, set up time, teardown time, and gives me parameters to work within instead of getting lost in endless possibilities.
My current set up is VERY close to being my idea of a perfect rig.
Having that in place keeps me from GASsing over shit I dont need, and learning my rig like the back of my hand.
I’m 48 years old, so I could make music with this rig for the rest of my life and be completely satisfied.
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I guess the best thing to do, if you are determined to slim down your setup is pick the best of each type of instrument that is suited to what you want to do, and lose the rest.
But nothing worse than not being able to do what you want, because of some limitation, so it can be a difficult to choose.
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Completely hear you on this one, and it’s a hard one for me to crack (other than OG Circuit, which I love but totally don’t use anymore because it’s been made completely redundant by other things, just haven’t sold it yet because who’s buying OG Circuits when the new ones are selling used?)
The others have less clear overlaps (off paper, obv spec sheets on these have many similar features):
OP-1: Awesome for generating novel sounds, beats, and track ideas, a handy midi key in a pinch and usb-audio FTW for sampling from devices easily —many tracks on my most recent album started as a beat, sample, or loop from the OP-1.
OP-Z: most portable instrument for songwriting in my experience + it’s only gotten better w/ updates, I wouldn’t use the sounds in this thing on my tracks (most likely) it’s been really useful in creating songs.
Deluge (my hands down favorite) and Blackbox do the best job of being useful portably and in studio, but are both far more suited to starting/building songs than having them done and ready to bounce.
Bluebox is a great mixer, but might get the boot in favor of something with similar feature and class compliant audio over usb, but I’m not rushed there, and honestly I love the Blackbox so much that I never underestimate 1010music’s potential updates making a major difference on my experience there.
The Polyend Tracker was a totally unexpected one, I thought it’d be the silliest thing in the world, but have found its workflow uniquely inspiring and what comes out of my work on it to be very different from my norm, which is a really valuable aspect of any HW for me. That said, its lack of battery power and speaker make it a far cry from ease compared to deluge/OP-Z/OP-1, but I could see keeping it over something I use more often because it’s unique.
I’d totally get rid of my Akai Force (even though it’s powerful) — I got an amazing deal on it but in using it, the design decisions made across the board are so stupid — like I don’t know what humans they tested this thing with — stuns me that they didn’t make the screen tilt or make it vesa mount ready, because (other than the joke of bpm detection) it’s a pretty solid device inside, I just hate the form factor.
The elektron boxes I see as their own world — grooveboxes and instruments that, while portable, basically live in my studio as the “best in category” machines for their function, but probably redundancy to sort through there, to your point.
Lol but seriously though — one of the biggest bummers is I wish I lived in a city where I had a bunch of synth heads/musicians around (I’m in the Washington, DC area) that would come over and hang and jam in a fully stocked room — if that were a thing around here, I wouldn’t even worry about having way more than I needed/could use now.
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Dallas has a bangin scene of underground electronic artists.
Convextion aka E.R.P
Cygnus
Blixaboy
DJR9 and the whole disco revenge squad
just to name a few
Move on down 
Too bad Bathhøuse broke up, they were fucking incredible
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Wow! Thanks for all the detail and other threads! Definitely taking to heart the “plugged in and secured” bit — the studio as an ecosystem is an important workflow consideration that I easily ignore, and having things set and ready will help.
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It’s done so much for my perspective on making music and purchasing, or NOT purchasing gear.
I’m SO used to it now when I sit down to make tracks it all just flows, no screwing around with rearranging things. It’s like I’ve found my musical style as well as workflow and brings a peace about me.
Make multiple setups for different genres of music.
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1 mono
1 poly
1 sampler
1 groove box
my setup
mopho
medusa
ot mk2
m:c
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The addition of a patchbay to my flight case and moving of the secondary audio interface to the flight case and the Machinedrum out of it and to the desk has made all my synths feel like tubes of paint. I have my current favorites out, and the rest are resting off to the side (M:C), in a drawer or on a shelf. Still working on my cabling. It’s a mess but at least I know where my ins and outs are and swapping is pretty painless.
I got a Deluge that I’m trying out as the new core (and brain) and it’s just burning through almost every test. What a workstation. I’ve paired it with Machinedrum and Digitone while I’m learning it. I love how it comes with so many classic drum machine kits. It feels like the missing bread for all my different butters, let’s everything else work to their weird strengths.
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I still have too much, but I’ve intentionally limited myself to a small amount of space for my electronic music setup. If I hadn’t, I think I would have filled the entire room (or house!) with synths. After creating this limitation, it was obvious what I needed to keep. The instruments I use most often with my Elektron boxes are on the same power supply, so they turn on together. The other instruments are still wired to the Elektron boxes with MIDI, but I power them on separately so I don’t get overwhelmed by choices.
In the past, I’ve tried the approach of having a sampler and mixer on a table and using a few synths at a time, but I was annoyed by swapping out cabling and power supplies. And it was too easy to justify buying another instrument, because I have a lot of storage space.
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I have bought and sold so much gear over the years. Over the last year I’ve gone back in the box and love it more than ever before. I’ve also bought a lot of great plugins and they’ve really enhanced that experience for me.
At the moment I could be satisfied with just my M1 Max MBP with Ableton, a bunch of plugins, and my pro3.
I’ve slimed down my setup to:
M1max mbp
Pro3
Hydrasynth explorer
Summit
360 hp eurorack (mostly mi)
OT/DT/HT/DNK
Op1
MPC One
For my live rig I had and have two rules.
It’s needs to playable with two hands and it has to be setup in under 5 minutes.
No complex routings, no cable plans, 1 to 3 boxes that’s it.
Every instrument needs to have purpose.
That’s why you won’t find huge tables filled to the brim with instruments that I don’t touch during performances. It looks cool, but I prefer setup with instruments that have multiple layers.
And I prefer to go deep on each instrument.
OT + X has been a staple.
TR8S + DFAM + FX pedal is fun as hell and I did long improve sessions no problem.
So, one brain + something fun with character seems to be a winning combination for me.
And playable with two hands.
That eliminates a lot of unnecessary fluff, keeps the setup compact and easy transport.
Like a spontaneous call of a friend who want to jam. You grab two fun boxes, a hand full of cables, throw everything in your backpack and your ready to go.
For studio use many times I just grab one instrument, jam, build patches and record the cool stuff.
And even there I have a very limited and considerate selection of plug-ins.
I guess my conclusion is to figure out what you really need to be productive in your creative process and get rid of everything that you don’t touch.
Something that can do drums that you like, a good poly synth and something with character. And don’t be afraid to change things up from time to time.
So I wouldn’t give away any of your gear, box up what you don’t need right now and exchange when need.
More focus and depth.
Cheers 
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This is good advice. I have a 100x60cm desk with a single shelf for monitors. Even that has space on it these days. No doubt I could fill a room with kit I don’t understand if I had the room and money!
I do this. OT & Rytm are always on the desk. At the minute, also a Virus Ti, for making techno, drum & bass. I’ve got modular (ambient/generative), drone/noise boxes, a 303 for acid, other mono & poly synths for when I want a change of style.
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I feel like I’ve hit a sweet spot with my setup…obviously what that sweet spot is is highly subjective but for me it isn’t necessarily about having the least amount of stuff (although I do sometimes get a little jealous of the idea of a minimalist set up when I see peoples small and streamlined setups) but for me it’s been about having access to all of the kinds of tones that I like and my want to use in my music.
My set up is:
MacBook Pro with Ableton
Focusrite Safire pro 40
Elektron Octatrack
Elektron Machinedrum UW
Elektron analog rytm
Elektron analog four
Elektron Digitone
Korg minilouge XD
Twisted electron Acid 8
Novation ultranova
Dave smith instruments Pro 2
Moog grandmother
Access virus TI
9U of 90hp eurorack
Zoom field recorder with various microphones
LSDJ with pro sound modded DMG gameboy
And various misc instruments
And with that I feel like I can get nearly every possible kind of tone that I want.
The only exception is that I’d love to add a large discrete analog poly synth of some sort
But really every thing I’ve always wanted (and a lot more) is available to me in terms of kinds of sounds I want to achieve and the proper tones I’m trying to get. I’ve had a lot of different setups over the years and I’ve owned countless synths but with this set up I do feel like I’ve finally hit that sweet spot where I don’t “need” anything else and I want for very little…don’t get me wrong I always want more eurorack, I want to built a giant pedal board for my synths with like 30 pedals, I wish I still had my vintage gear and I’m always drooling over new stuff BUT when I sit back and think about it I can get far beyond where I need to go with what I have and it feels good.
I think hitting the sweet spot has everything to do with your overall goal (writing music, wanting to own gear that is capable of creating sounds in the same soectrium as what your listening to etc)
For me that goal was a little of both, having gear that I can play that recreates (and goes beyond) the sounds I like and also writing music. For instance it’s unlikely that I’d use LSDJ in a track but I fucking love chiptune stuff and very much enjoy making stuff on it, same with the Acid 8, it’s probably unlikely that I’d use it on a track since what I usually write is more in the UK garage/future garage and grime spectrum but still I love laying down a 4 to the floor hard ass kick from my AR and making the acid 8 squelch along to it just for fun. So I have everything I need to write in the genre(s) that I tend to lean towards when I’m writing and I have stuff that I want that I enjoy jamming with and fucking around with. That’s the sweet spot for me