It struck me when reading the “Dawless envy” thread that some people describe being fine with just making music years ago with the sounds they had in the hardware or software like fruity loops.
I find GAS surfaces in my search for the perfect sound. I find it hard to let my music be limited by the available sound pallete. But I find that the real flowing music making happens when I do just that… forget about what sound I had in my head and just work with the tools I have in front of me.
…sure, with new equipment always comes also a new spike of inspiration along…
but the real deal in UR SONIC SHIT, real new sounddesign, UR sonic imprint, ur realness in musical expression can only be found for real, once u know ur gear inside out and digged deep without ever bothering…
some dig shiny gear…some dig preset lists and prefab loops…
and some dig sonic originality and art…
which can’t be found in any certain special equipment…only in a certain state of mind…
There is a relationship. Sound design has a rabbit-hole quality to it, it encourages a mindset where you always want more options, more FX, more timbres, more modulation options… it’s limitless. Very GAS-friendly.
This is the value of having, say, a piano for writing music. There is no sound design possible, so it forces you to concentrate on the notes. Of course you might not be interested in writing the kind of music that benefits from carefully composed melodic and harmonic content (‘songs’), but if you are it’s valuable.
There’s nothing wrong with producing ambient music based on your experiments with Eurorack and million boutique pedals, but none of it will help with songs.