It depends what you’re trying to do. Personally, the deeper something is, the less I tend to use it, mostly because I hate the process. If someone could sell me a device with one button on it, so that when I pressed the button it would spit out the finished song I’ve got stuck in my head, I’d be the happiest performer on the planet. 95% of the music production process is hard, unrewarding work. e.g. I’ve had my AK for two weeks now and I still don’t know how the hell I am going to use it in my set-up, despite having read the manuals from cover to cover and spending countless hours with the thing itself. All of that feels like wasted time to me, time I could have been working on actual songs. Hopefully there will be a payoff but right now I don’t feel like getting the AK was quite as good an idea as I first thought. OTOH, I bought Korg’s ARP Odyssey VST a few weeks ago and I had it working in our newest song the same day I downloaded it. That feels like the best $69 I’ve spent in a log time.
The digitakt has really helped me conquer this. As soon as i start lusting after something my mind reminds me that its going to mean less time on the dt and i then start to weigh it up logically. also when i see something new and exciting i find myself looking for solutions in my own set up and this inevitably means i get inspired by kit i’ve had sitting and gathering dust… just programmed a 303 patch on the BS2 rather than buy a new box…
in spite of the above i’m still in love with gear. i’m presently wrestling with octatrack lust, but not because i see it as the “answer” this time, i’m just fascinated. not sure im even that fussed about being productive with it… i just want to get lost…
It sucks. I was most productive back when all I had was a crappy electric guitar and an ancient pc and I would play and record. Then I got into gear, mixers, rack units, too many guitar pedals, drum kits, drum machines, synths, vst plug-ins, different daws and software, microphones, learning about eq, compression, mixing, reconfiguring my studio, buying/selling countless gear, gear reviews and keeping up on what is new, countless trips to music stores, reading reddit and gearslutz, buying cables, reconfiguring and buying more cables, complicated midi setups, troubleshooting gear and connections, thinking about routing all this crap. It goes on and on but my basic point here is each additional thing you try to integrate into a setup compounds complexity and point of failure and need to learn to use it. I’ve spent 20 years learning all this crap instead of making music. I hope to rectify it but who knows. I might be more of a technician than a musician.
I limited myself to only watching video of gear I already own.
If I stray and see a great demo of a cool new box (hey nobody’s perfect), go to work trying to make that sound with what you already own:
Paralysis by Gasitis 
Good video this.
I started No Gear New Year and have been ‘clean’ since January.
I packed up nearly everything, sold things I obviously didn’t need, and put the rest away. Now just 3 boxes on the desk, OT & Rytm plus whatever synth/s I fancy at the time - Virus Ti just now. Only what I can fit through the OT though.
No more MIDI hassle, cabling nightmares, routing decisions, fx pedals, decision anxiety etc. Not a whole lot more musical progress either, but I’m not putting pressure on myself there.
I think the net, like high fructose corn syrup or heroin is an over exaggeration of a natural desire for someone to acquire what’s right and best for them in a very deep world of selection, and being creatures of habit we can become affixed on the wrong concept of a good thing.
I surfed through a number of synths after I first acquired an analog mono synth not wanting to really rely on a computer and wanting a dedicated switch it on and do it instrument.
But I got stuck in a circle for a few years, though I was dreaming of an ultimate instrument/set up and when I came to the use of a sampler as a source of making songs and knew I really just wanted an analog poly from the start I got to the octatrack after going through a few samplers and got for me a great 80’s-ish vibe analog poly in the minilogue xd, and I couldn’t be more set with a tube based pre-amp my pop’s lended me and a mic, and a tape deck to put it all on, and it’s more than what I was dreaming of.
So it does take people their time to get there, and some are pro’s and use all they have, but I just love messing with sound and making my expression of music and so GAS can become that fiending consumption, but I didn’t have money to blow all the time, so I had a goal, and it’s tricky.
While enjoying the benefits of NYNG22, a violent burst of GAS took me by surprise lately.
After the few days of nonsense, I rationalized it enough to keep the whole lot, and actually have fun with it…
Now my problem is that I can’t easily let go.
What I don’t use, no problem, but the gear I worked hard to learn and still enjoy each time I put my fingers on, even if it’s not often, I am too attached to let it go (thinking of you, my MM, or my SGV300).
So if I can’t let something out, I’m back to not letting anything in.
what i think of GAS? GAS is cool for two reasons:
- dopamine (individual)
- good for economy (global)
I just read through all 128 replies and I must say I needed to hear a lot of what has been said. I’ve spent the last 3 years caught up in a debilitating GAS cycle without really realizing it until now. I rationalized it as “I’m trying many new tools to see what will be my ultimate live set up” instead I truly have confused myself even more and drastically slowed down my progress. Ultimately I did learn a lot in the last few years and was able to test 3 different set ups at live shows. However it’s time to stop this cycle. The big issue for me was bouncing between set ups and not really getting anywhere with my goals because of indecision. Lately it’s been to the point of anxiety over it. Ultimately I need to make a choice and own that choice. I believe I have made that choice now and am in the process of selling what I’m not going to use. I look forward to redirectng all that GAS energy into songwriting, building my live set, video work, booking shows, releasing content and playing gigs. I put this here as a note to self. Thanks to this group for all the wonderful discourse
Yes, GAS is symptomatic for other frustrations in our lives and is a stand-in for things more difficult to work out than buying another gizmo/instrument.
The general world around us, difficulty finding collaborators/finding ways to share art with others in a smaller pandemic-affected world and within the lens of the “attention economy”.
Best wishes for everyone to find their way in their individual situations, to make the best they can make independent of audience and external hurdles to find clarity and purpose.
I’ve experienced & witnessed GAS across a couple of genres and the differences between the way synths and other string based instruments work is quite interesting to compare. My general feeling is that when people ponder or worry about their gear situation; these folks are one step ahead of those who literally never consider things at all.
Spending money you don’t have (or even worse prioritising spending money you don’t have) over real life stuff is probably not a good idea. Selling stuff without really using it is also somewhat questionable, unless you literally hate the thing you bought. Both of these things are rabbit holes that can be damaging financially and artistically.
But a bit of context is very much a good thing. A lot of GAS is driven by the fact that no external gear is technically needed to make most kinds of electronic music, unlike say playing in a band. But to be fair, VSTas is very much a thing too, but that one is less visible. If gear (of any kind) is a rabbit hole you want to try, spending within a sensible budget is absolutely fine if it’s towards a hobby you enjoy, even if that means a few (or a lot of) mis-steps along the way. We’re not robots and the idea that you’ll buy the perfect setup out of the gate seems unlikely.
It’s OK to think “yeah but just that one swap would make it perfect.” We all know that this is rarely true, but thinking it might happen is just human. If you want to swap something, as long as you’ve spent time with your gear, and you’re sure you can’t get what you want out of what already have, don’t sweat it. That said, it’s not happening after multiple changes, then stopping for a while to re-asess the bigger picture is sensible, as more or different gear is unlikely to be the problem.
Within certain paramaters and with moderation, I don’t see anything wrong with folks having a bunch of devices or none at all. Music isn’t a mechanical process of optimisation, where each piece of gear has to be used to it’s full extent to make polished, finished music. So don’t kill yourself for swapping machines that you can afford. But do be wary if it’s becoming a habit, costing you too much money or (most importantly) if it’s taking you away to the extent that you’re far removed from noodling/jamming/writing/recording.
Gas is the spice of life.
You eventually become more discerning and are a better person for it.
Don’t fight it or it will last forever; allow yourself to be seduced, hit that [BUY] button, wait until it naturally cures itself.
Overindulgence is truly the only permanent cure.
Spot on. I feal like the concept of “wrong” drives most conversations about GAS specifically, and what to buy in general (that I’ve come across online); when in music there is no right or wrong at all.
In the spirit of not fighting it, there’s always a judgement call to be made about how much time you might spend agonising over a purchase decision and whether it’s the right thing to do, vs the value of the purchase itself.
Occasionally I’ll hit buy just so I can get on with normal life, but this is rarely on bigger ticket items.
Sometimes giving myself permission to buy something after reaching a certain milestone helps, like finishing a work project. Gives that heck yes I’m gonna do it feeling ahead of doing it, and mostly when the time rolls around I’m like, eh could take it or leave it.
GAS is not for me, but I understand if someone has more of a collector mentality, or they feel like new gear often inspires musically in new directions or just because new gear is fun.
Where I think GAS is a negative thing is when someone is in a cycle where it’s always the NEXT musical device thing that will FINALLY fulfill some need in order to finish that track or start on that EP or whatever.
If you find yourself in a revolving door of gear acquisition and your goal is to make music, but you’re still not making music, guess what? It isn’t the gear.
Just my opinion.
I think there’s a link between GAS and [artistic] procrastination & [buying] impulsivity.
Fast buyers, slow creaters…
“The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.”
I think the heart of this discussion is precisely that the addiction called GAS is consumerism more than musicianship.
And I definitely identified an addiction in my own behavior (and others’) these last years.
I even identified the conditions for it to get triggered: I found I “only” have to keep resisting during such periods and I’m good.
I had to mute a high number of threads here, though, in order to lower the times GAS was trigged.
I learned about myself, as one learns from their mistakes and others’. This place helped, as much as it got things worse at some point.
#NGNY thread in particular was really supportive.
I’m still awkwardly irrational with Elektron gear, I feel. The day I can sell one without buying another is not near yet.
i don’t think of GAS. i study a piece if gear — watch reviews, read forums, manuals and MIDI specs – and either follow my GAS if it’s worth it, or not if not.
once my gear still fits one closet – it’s not too many yet.