Interesting point raised by several people here, the main issue might not be total number of gear, but how much you use at the same time. It seems true for me at least - it’s when things get wired up that the focus shifts for me, but using one device at a time, I can be productive on either a Syntakt or a Digitakt or an MPC.
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This is how I plan to use this combo
Had the syntakt up to trade as wasn’t getting use and I got the sp thinking I’d use it for sampling and as an fx box but think it would be great sequenced with the syntakt
Fired the syntakt up this week and been loving making beats with it so think I’ll add the sp soon as I feel totally comfortable with the workflow
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Did a Marie kondo ish exercise yesterday sort of thinking about what Sparks joy or inspires in the studio.
I’ve always been most creative just on a laptop away from my studio, but I realise it’s usually down to a seed of an idea. As I’ve naturally transitioned away from sampling other people’s music, I’ve needed to find other gear that can be the samples or components of new ideas and music.
I definitely suffer from the anxiety and apprehension of gear full studios, but my method of navigating it all is to use only a handful of machines at a time. I have stopped buying so many new things, I felt like I was only scratching their surface and sampling them before flipping them and not getting deep enough into their capabilities.
My studio now has two islands, a main laptop/monitor sound card space with a few midi controllers and a master prophet 5 synth setup, and then another table with various grooveboxes and processors which focussed more on just exploring sounds and ideas.
One area is for experimentation, one is for finishing.
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It’s great, the Syntakt sequencer is so straightforward to use, and with the new “midi mode B” option in SP-404 MKII firmware 3.0, you can play samples from banks A-E all from the same one midi track, giving you 11 other tracks dedicated to the Syntakt oscillators.
I haven’t tried this yet, but you can even control the FX buses entirely from the Syntakt using midi cc messages. Personally, I prefer not to use master effects on unmixed audio so I’d probably recreate those things in the DAW after multitrack recording, but for live performances and sketching out ideas, it’s pretty neat to have this.
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Here here.
Real happy with the Syntakt & Opsix combo.
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Yeah I’d saw that and will be something I’ll look at down the line.
I’d not used the syntakt because I was learning the Octatrack but now I’m hooked into the syntakt
May run the sp and syntakt and sp into the octatrack as an fx mixer though I’m back to adding more gear and was trying to stay minimal
It never ends lol
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Good that you’ve stopped buying. My studio is incredibly modest in comparison: Syntakt, SP-404 MKII, MPC Live 2 (not used, will sell it after stemming out all song projects), and an MC-101 (not being used much but good for polyphonic needs). GASing for the Polyend Tracker Mini though, I’ll be honest. 
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Quite the opposite. My music often starts in my thoughts and if I can just grab this or that tool to make it audible I have the most creative times.
The other way around it would be like a painter with yellow, orange, and red colors only and thinking of a blue river with green trees at its banks … wouldn’t work for me 
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For me, my day job is a professional sound designer and producer, so it’s inevitable I try out new gear, but it becomes a point where I have to ask myself the pros and cons of productivity when it comes to investing both money and time learning this stuff. For commercial stuff, no one is ever interested in how I created it. But of course, I’m also a hobbyist and make my own music too, and sometimes it’s good to just enjoy making stuff for the act of making it or feeling inspired and learning stuff. It’s a fine balance.
For example, I have a Syntakt, and it’s really fun to use, but I just can’t get on with how it sounds and have tried but can’t place it in my music. In this instance, it’s taking lots and lots of my time pushing and fighting it to avoid the techno/industrial sounds it’s great at making but don’t suit my UKG funk stuff I’m creating right now.
At some point, I have to look at the tool and machine, know and accept my current capabilities for what I can lift from that piece of gear and then decide if it’s worth investing more time and effort to push it harder, or invest money and time in a new bit of gear that can achieve what I need.
And that’s really the first point on the elusive gear journey. Do you know the sounds/vibes/genre you want to play with?!
Create the toolset most efficient and productive to get those tunes out and flow with it.
It’s why my eurorack now gathers dust, it’s the dregs of larger systems with a handful of modules left, and it’s not tasked with a particular purpose. It’s effectively a utility CV generating thing now.
If you want to make an ambient EP, select the gear to make that productively, same with a techno banger, or a shoegazey lofi guitar thing.
The reason a lot of folks have different opinions about working ITB on a DAW is because it also has to do with whether that tool suits the music they’re trying to create too
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I’ve had the Polyend reg tracker and an M8.
Interesting I built muscle memory around using the Polyend and the pads and performance buttons etc did add live and expression into it all. The M8 on the other hand felt like awkward programming with not much way to play anything into it. Depending on your approach, bare that in mind with the mini.
Btw, Elektron sequencers are essentially hardware trackers too, but just so good having direct physical buttons to steps
Yeah it definitely has its sonical comfort zone and you need to pick the instrument that matches the sound you’re after. Just like you wouldn’t replace an electric guitar with a piano in a rock band. 
I find the Syntakt to sound good in many different genres, but it definitely has a techno proclivity.
That certainly explains it, and might also explain your anxiety and apprehension of gear full studios.
Sounds like it’s time to sell it for more than one reason!
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For me it’s a creativity and expression thing. The Syntakt can take me to completely new places that I would never have thought of in the DAW. You hold Track and twist a knob and you can transform a song idea into something completely different. Those moments of “what the hell just happened?” don’t happen nearly as often in the DAW for me.
The other thing is being more physically and mentally connected to the process by playing with a real instrument. It just does something, like it makes me use my ears more intensively. Then there’s also the aspect of performing the music which I find rewarding. Uploading a jam on YouTube rather than just keeping your music to yourself - that feels more natural when doing it using an instrument.
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Yeah, my dream device would be a portable Digitakt with stereo sampling and a built-in mic. The Polyend Tracker Mini is the closest thing to that.
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For productivity I go ITB, either fully or recording in hardware jams to finish. It gives every option I need for every stage
I got the Octatrack so I can play my tracks live. Once complete bounce as stems or loops and put in the octa.
Sp404 though I bought for sampling and to use as fx box I’m also interested in DJ mode to make beat tapes.
Currently syntakt and sp are doing what I got octa for. Put track parts into sp, sequence with syntakt and add drums and sounds with syntakt then jam live
So I guess for productivity I’m itb but hardware helps feed sounds into those productions then at the end provide a way to play them live
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Exactly.
Any large studio can be downsized with a little restraint. After a studio grows beyond a certain point, there is zero need to turn on every piece of gear for each song or project. However, I would advise investing in equipment that allows the various pieces of gear to be connected and ready to go (mixer, patch bays, MIDI interfaces, power conditioners, etc.)
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This post made me realize something: as I “completed” my setup over the last few years, my productivity has gone way down—to the point where I’ve barely made anything at all in 2023.
So I just went downstairs, unplugged everything from the RK-006 MIDI hub, and brought the Model:Samples up to plug in next to my living room chair. That’s how I was the most productive before, and I’m sure it will work again.
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Makes much sense, but you can escape from this trap and if you like the sounds of the Syntakt - here we go
Hoping not to make an obvious and redundant suggestion …
On an Elektron sequencer we can go from Techno to Groovy with no problem. It’s only a question of using the p-locks and the microtiming facililties in a Non-Techno like style … if this makes sense to you.
As an example, which goes for many step sequencers, I created a simple traditional Irish Jig-like tune on 6/8 beat on a Metron/Voltera combi (these are Eurorack modules, allow Elektron-like p-locks, and are quite on the Techno side of gear). My audience said, yep, that invites to dance … that’s got the swing.
Just know, where in No-Techno style the accents are, how strong they vary, where typical articulations are used, and if you want to be “on-grid”, “driving” or “layed back” - but sometimes a “simple swing” setting may not be enough.
If I may suggest this … it’s a nice exercise …
- Create a basic 16th pattern of highhats, which are firing like a machine gun
- Check out variations of p-locks at the different notes to get a secondary and than a third kind of rhythm to overlay this pattern - even if no particular microtiming is used at this point, the pattern should groove already.
- Now adjust microtiming …
- And don’t forget the “live-recording” features of the p-locks
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Thanks great tips! Yeah I’m sticking to this machine, it’s my only Elektron left after selling my original A4. And if it doesn’t work on this album I’m writing anyway, nothing wrong with making a techno EP too!
Thanks for all the great replies, peeps. This thread went the way I was hoping. Ran out of likes to give yesterday, sorry if anybody feels neglected for their contribution! It has all been very informative.
If anyone is interested I have decided to arrange my stuff so that the computer is the boss and does all the sequencing and recording work. That way I can just use what I feel like at the time. This is the most low-effort way to deal with it at the moment I feel. Once I have enough money put aside I am going to get a smaller Jaspers stand so that it’s not so imposing in the room (currently using a 4 tier), and also an AD/DA with high line count (probably a Ferrofish Pulse 16), so that I can run all the outputs of my MD & MM into the 'puter at once, and a patchbay as well, so that I can put things through my external FX.
That’s all about £1000 down the road though, so in the meantime I have a bodged together solution with multiple interfaces and lots of digital connections that does the job but with half the ideal channel count.
Any more ideas and input are most welcome.
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