What do you think of GAS?

The Lounge General Discussion
#1

Sorry if you don’t like it, just to be interested if there is anyone else who thinks like this…
First of all, I really like this forum. I learn a lot, it is usually very positive and nice. Even when I didn’t understand anything about my boxes there were people around that helped me correctly sync the 2 boxes I bought and start with it.

I have been searching for more information on Facebook and found 90% gas. Slowly I start to think that this GAS is necessary one one hand, I needed to buy some equipment to find what I love (first ableton with controllers, then maschine, then push, then maschine studio and then elektron)…

but on the other hand, for me, it feels like very silly. Just another consumption bullshit. In holland (where I live), we have these awful blogs of girls telling what they bought at Primark. For me it feels like very similar.

Or do I miss somethign?

8 Likes
#2

Very easy for the gear to become the the focus as much / more so than making music. To be honest, in a lot of ways I was more productive musically when it was just me, my laptop, some cracked software and a cheap midi controller. Now I seem to spend as much time researching, buying and learning gear as I do getting down to making music. Not really complaining too much though.

14 Likes
#3

New synths and toys are like crack for a lot of producers/musicians . It’s like we’re in search for the one piece of gear that’s going to turn us into a better musician. Who knows maybe it will? There’s nothing like the feeling of opening up that box of a new synth or drum machine and realizing, I’m about to go on a journey with the piece. At least that’s my take on why I have such bad GAS. :joy:

3 Likes
#4

GAS to me is like the people who do Kung Fu but then start weight training.
Stick with the Kung Fu (what you have) as the weights will slow you down and you don’t have to be big to deal damage (have lots of gear to make tunes).

I get gas awful though!
But I never work the bicep!

5 Likes
#5

We all here have lot of GAS from time to time.
The good thing is: Normaly it goes away with the time.
I had so much GAS for so many gear. Most of the time I didn’t buy it, and now i realy don’t miss anything.
All that gear keeps you away from the realy necessary thing:
Making musik !!

1 Like
#6

Absolutely! Too much gear will slow you down if you are still trying to learn the gear you already have. Great Kung Fu analogy.

2 Likes
#7

GAS is simply another form of procrastination.

24 Likes
#8

We are only living a short time of the evolution of our genes. Our genes slowly develop. A few hundred or thousand years ago, it was good for us to eat as much fat and suger as we could find. If there was some, then take as much as you want. Since a very very very short time (seen from the perspective of gene development), we have a lot of sugar and fat… but our brain still thinks ‘take as much as we can’.

I think this theory fits to collecting things, like the Primark babe.

Or like gas.

Our genes might change when there is a downside on this behavior. When people eat too much sugar and fat, they have a bigger chance to die early in live, that’s not good for raising our children, so we prefer slim women (explained way too short). Maybe the downside of this GAS is that we don’t make music, we only check instruments… Although… when I bought the Rytm, I kept on playing with it for a very long time… although… I bought an A4 and now, 1,5 year later, I find out the Rytm is much deeper I ever expected to be…

PS. I already have everything I need, only a good sampler and a good new thing electron will show next friday :wink:

3 Likes
#9

In my case, I’m usually trapped at work and as soon as I launch something that takes minutes, I’m back on the Forum or the Internet and end discovering some new sounds, way to do some new sounds and brand new gear that promises to bring more :smiley:

If I’m weak, I might not resist and decide I need something, which I don’t.

If I were home I’d just be playing music, not GASing on the next machine…

7 Likes
#10

There is a kind of evolution that doesnt wait on the rest of the species, and therefore its not automatically provided by mother nature - you have to do it yourself.

Human civilization is only able to restrain our animal “evolution” to a certain degree, thats why we have laws and police and prisons and wars and all that.

For example, nobody is going to argue a case after being charged with rape by claiming “My genes made me do it! I have to fuck everything I see! I have no control over those impulses!” - no matter how “true” or “untrue” that may be.

The first civilizing influence was religion, and people are still all over that - its still a big deal. And its thousands and thousands of years old. I wouldnt expect something like “greed” or “hoarding” to go away anytime soon. Especially when you can leverage it to control other people so easily.

4 Likes
#11

On one hand, I agree wholeheartedly; my GAS has kept me from making music so many times I no longer can keep a reliable count.
“I shouldn’t make that song because I’ll have X soon and I’ll want to use it as well.”

On the other; sometimes your musical tastes change and the gear you have can no longer assist in the creation of the type of music you want to make.
Right now I have a huge studio set up for when I mix and master or compose and right next to it I have a little Portastudio for tape loops, an Octatrack and it goes into a 2-track cassette recorder that dumps out to a Roland 2-track digital recorder.
I call it the “high school ambient grunge generator”.

When I tire of one style of composition I can switch perspectives to another.
I think if you look at this article (Surgeon Interview), which you’ve probably already seen floating around, you’ll see how GAS actually makes a case to be somewhat helpful as good gear never really gets old.
What may seem like an impulse purchase can change your style of creating.

I honestly say this because at the beginning of the year I spent $6000 on a modular rig and then turned around and spent $6000 on monitors so I’m trying to justify my desire for expensive things that have absolutely no ROI.

#12

Nice. I also keep my MPC1k down beside my turntables in a different room from my main rig for when I want to go and jam, I have a lot of desktop synths as well as my A4/Rtm that drop in to develop ideas before coming back to the mothership, really enjoy it.

To be honest, though, I think a lot of what’s holding me up is just learning my new and newish gear - spend a lot of time just making sounds and aimlessly experimenting rather than actually focussed on getting tracks down. I need a few months with each piece before I really start to understand them fully I think - and of course with deep gear like the Elektrons the potential is endless, there’s always something new.

My new rule is that for every piece that comes in, one has to go, which is good for maintaining discipline. Kinda feel like my setup has most of the bases covered at this point, can’t really justify buying more gear just for the sake of it. (Well, it’s at least partially my wife’s new rule, but I’m running with it … for the moment)

Really want to get into modular, but at the same time it kinda scares me - a whole universe of GAS, so I’m gonna limit myself to a 0-Coast as soon as I get my Slim Phatty sold off.

And I might get the Boutique 909 and 303 if they’re good, but they’re only small and cheap, right? And maybe the Deepmind if it actually ends up being as good as it seems to replace my JU-06. And maybe a desktop Odyssey for leads.

As for plugins … :wink:

2 Likes
#13

For me, the big difference between greed and raping someone, is that one is stimulated and the other is not. If you look around in a super market and try to find products without added sugar, you can find out it is really difficult. if you look around in the city center, you are stimulated to collect. If you are motivated to have unhealthy behavior 1000+ times a day, then it is difficult to resist. Especially when it is directly connected to a good and happy life. Maybe not for some individuals, but for the mass it is.

2 Likes
#14

Gas, what a topic, man.

It all began with reason. In the early 2000’s reason was the gateway drug. Then it moved on to protools (the industry standard the slogan read) with LE box. Then it was the Ableton phase (right after I saw B. Fleischmann perform a set with his laptop and Roland MC505 at the Knitting factory in LA in 2003… So cool!). Then Ableton needed a controller, so I got into cheap Novation boxes. Then it was time to buy my first hardware synth, a voyager. And at the same time, monome seemed so cool so I got one. And then I found elektron and I became a total synth slut. In a violent turn of events, the addiction moved next into the heroin phase of GAS, modular. I started building a 9 U.

Until one day I stopped. It was at the beginning of this year. I realized that I was craving and saving to buy more modular and boxes, and synths, but that I hadn’t taken the time to properly learn the old modules, and yet the yearning was so strong.

And that is how I reached a sort of equilibrium. Not an equilibrium of wisdom, but of internal forces. The GAS impulse inside of me is at this point as strong as the embarrassment of keeping buying more stuff I don’t need/realizing I haven’t learned all the other synths/realizing don’t have time to deal with all that equipment.

Also, I now keep a list of the things I want, and if I want something, I go through the list: I buy what I need most, not what I want most.

I have been clean since January… And I am planning on waiting at least a year before buying the new elektron box… Anybody wants to join me?

5 Likes
#15

i keep a studio journal. every so often i get an idea for a new way to work with my setup, often when i’m far away from it. i scrawl down as many notes as i can while the inspiration lasts.

sometimes when i get a bad GAS attack, i flip through my journal, hit the studio and make one of these ideas a reality. i end up with some combination of new music, new skills and fewer bills.

10 Likes
#16

Lets get one thing straight. GAS is a negative and fucking with your art.

Now, browsing synth sites and being a nerd is fine. Kind of a guy thing. Cars, cameras, TVs, Computer parts… People love tools and nerdy people love talking shop.

GAS is different though. It’s an escapist’s trap when the joy of music making needs to share some space with the hard task of crafting art. GAS is not knowing how to delay your gratification long enough to just churn it out.

Magic Mushrooms and a keyboard with batteries can cure GAS

There is a William Blake line from Proverbs of Hell that speaks to the man with a hundred synths who finally just hit record on a Boss Dr Rhythm and a Microkorg: “The road to excess leads to the palace of wisdom”

7 Likes
#17

@juanbeth @dubathonic I really like your idea about the list of gear… It seems to be a powerful shield !
I’ll use this trick, thx.
Last synth I bought was Slim Phatty, at the end of May… I’ve been very happy with it, a keeper. Got amazing sounds on one track, both in bass and lead…

Despite this, I can feel the GAS building up slowly…

#18

Create great karma and just give an old synth/instrument away to another cultural creative and start a trend. I just gave an Alesis Micron away this week and that person could not be more happy.:smile_cat:

4 Likes
#19

I get gas because of gear like this.


Smh

4 Likes
#20

want