Jimmy Hendrix stuck with his guitar never wanting to change it.
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Well, he died early! Who would have known?!
Cruel
As far as I have understood so far I need to be able to interact in some kind of way with an instrument. Thereās a lot to the touch, the interface, the underlying structureā¦ but still itās impossible to grasp for me that might be a perfect fit for someone else. This is where I think this deeper understanding comes into play. Or the lack of.
Needless to say thereās just terribly built or designed instruments to be found. I started with a horribly sounding guitar long ago that actually prevented me from learning and improving.
Edit: I might contradict my own statement from above probably, but still itās most importantly the me part thatās needs to be capable to interact creatively with an instrument.
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in order to humble myself:
Core arrangement
what do you think?
mostly notes to myself for future projects after i wrap up what i am working on.
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that sounds scary like a scene out of a Stephen king book, how can he not know that what you just described is the costume of his inspiration, no different than an inspiring desk in front of an inspiring window for a different kind of writerā¦
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Good point.
Meta af
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each instrument gives us access to a different truthā¦ so it makes sense to try different instrumentsā¦ to find out which truth suits you bestā¦ (my 2ct)
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The concept of core gear is something that obsess me. I made 2 different kinds of music. One is rythmic noise (with elements of techno) with a lot of feedbacks and dirtyness. I only need an Octatrack and a midi controller with fader to achieve this. Everytime I tried to add stuff to this setup, it broked the global feeling of spontaneity and musical gesture. In this case, less is more, clearly. It focuses me on making music, I donāt think at all at the technical aspect. This is also my better live setup (and by far).
I also do abstract & minimalist ambient music (Ć la Rene Hell). This is completly different. I canāt perform it live (or very hardly to make it interesting). For this approach, I use the midi sequencer of the OT, a Medusa, a Digitone, sometimes an Axoloti and a Faderfox SC4. In this case, the concept of core gear is more complicated I think. But I saw that when I focused on a small amount of gear (one synth + one seq for example), I become far more productive. Someone already told this in this topic but the question to ask is also to know if we are more interested by the process to achieve sounds or the fact of making actual finalized productions. I love both of these aspects but sometimes when I want to actually make music, I have to stop thinking to the next thing I want to buy and I try to just do music.
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I really feel this, I love love love the M:C, but I want to start using it as my main hub for synthesis and treating the M:S as a true drum machine with a couple extra tracks for vocal chops or whatever else I want, and using them together with the M:C leading the M:S. I think having 12 tracks with the M:S will let me fill in some percussive weak spots (personal taste) on the M:C while also freeing it up to do more wild synthesis stuff. I really like the M:S as a drum machine and sample player so Iām excited to get it working and start composing with the two together
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I hum and sing to myself, snap my fingers, whistle, finger drum on my stomach. Iām not going to release an album of it but for me music is always with me.
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Thatās great, Iām thinking this way too, having played only an AK for a few years, itās become so much itās own thing to me. Nothing else seems to want to fit with it, so Iām going to do something in the way of another island, maybe modular, since itās going out of style now 
And that way you can move between them and keep it fresh
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After NoGear New Year, this is probably the most helpful thread for me this year (also good are OT tips/tricks, and the improvised techno thread).
I wonāt say Iāve got far in making music, but Iāve stopped buying and GASsing for stuff, stopped changing around setup and routings (by taking 75% of kit off my desk, and deciding on core gear), and started writing techno and DnB patterns.
Sometimes I get frustrated that I havenāt done more, but I have very limited time and to be honest the above isnāt bad progress at all compared to the last few years!
Thanks to you all 
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ā¦not always start from scratch, out of nowhere into nowhere, is essentialā¦
and so is knowing ur gear inside outā¦and in best case, a small selection of such thingsā¦
no daw document, no electronic hardware instrument that does not have itās dedicated purpose and itās own blank project predefined for startersā¦
otherwise ur always missing out on THAT moment u need to catch and captureā¦
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Not me but I think mastering an overall approach to a workflow that can consistently achieve what one sets out to do is more important. Mastering a gear (or a bunch) speeds things up, like familiarity and ease of use, etc. Isnāt gear that possess greater sonic capabilities, userās perseverance (as a trait) and other considerations important too. What if your core gear receives a MK2 with new or a substantial change? The point being that ācore gearā can change over time but the user and the principles behind his/her approach can remain the same.
I donāt want to sound as a fanboy but regarding technical topics sometimes I ask myself āwhat would Autechre do?ā heheā¦ luckily they have been very explicit about this on interviews and show a very sensible approach to music gear.
For a start, theyāre very clear they have always worked with very limited sets of gear for long periods of time. Any YouTubers rigs look is an absolute luxury (and a waste) by comparison to what they have usually used live or on record. One of their highlights for me was the 2008 tour and as most of you know they used only 1 monomachine 1 Machinedrum, 1 Nord rack (not sure what model) and 1 MPC for secondary samples*
Also key to their approach is not including anything new to the current set of āactiveā gear until theyāve mastered a device. By mastering the gear they refer I think to spending several months only using this new gear, learning it inside out by creating entire tracks in just that device and thus finding out whatās really unique in that device that maybe nobody else has stumbled upon.
Whenever I got GAS I remind myself of this approach and the importance of getting the best of that you already have and keep it long enough for it to be second nature. This is the only way to build your core gear I think. I have learnt by experience that there is almost always a new way to approach these devices even when they seem already fully explored. Which leads me into my second point: your skills, taste and creativity are usually far more limiting to your current music than the gear youāre using.
- this restraint is also visible when exploring the MNM and MD patterns they made available from this tour. Thereās nothing too fancy on them, no magic tricks, no 10 LFOs assigned to a single soundā¦ just the attention to detail and structure only well honed craft can bring to the table.
- thereās no soundboards recording from that tour but some good people put a lot of meticulous work and recreated one of the shows by using the patches and samples Autechre published. Itās one of my favorite pieces of music: Autechre - Live at Echoplex 2008/04/04 [replication by ios & digit] - YouTube
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This thread has been a great read, particularly as it resonates with my own quest to minimise to my core/important gear.
I liked Ricki Tinezās recent video on 1 synth, 1 sampler and 1 drum machine being all you really needā¦ and Iāve kind of followed that logic, only with 3 synths, a sampler and a DAW. Oh, and a couple of mixers and some controllers. But, feel good about getting there.
Question is- what do you do with your excess gear when you get to your core setup??
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Selling it feels good. And you get money for it, too 
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