What do you think of GAS?

Dont underestimate the deepness of your mnm…

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Less money for more time is an equation I’m seriously considering these days…
:smiley:

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I got crazy lucky getting a brand new Monomachine. And my GAS is waning. I’m not going to be buying anything else for awhile, even though I still see neat things I want to play with.

Let’s face it. It’s easy to sit here and say GAS is bad when you already own a Elektron box. Elektron changed the game for a lot of musicians. Prior to Elektron I was producing with Electribes and Roland MC X0X always feeling like the sound quality was not quite there. In the late 90s there was a lot of subpar fake analog gear in the market that caused me to go through a lot of gear before I settled on what I liked. Nowadays I don’t have that issue. Elektron really set a high bar for others to follow.

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That’s absolutely the right way, until reach the good equation. Décroissance (less work, less money, less consumerism, more time) is one of the practice, so it will fit with the fight against GAS.
“Quit da city” is also another key.

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I wouldn’t say that’s it’s easy, but I would prefer that’s there, when you possess Elektron gear, that GAS become a problem. Because that means your not exploiting it plainly and the sirens of new gear appeal you. It’s a non ended behaviour.

Just turned on my DAW (been a while since the last time!) and mixed an old multitrack jam with my “old” UAD plugins. Lots of GAS evaporated instantly.

At the end of the day I’d say that whenever GAS hits you, check your closets and look for the stuff you haven’t used in a while. Old forgotten things can become “shiny” again!

For me personally, GAS is not always about “I need this X to get shit done”. Man, the music never was about that. Back in the day we used what was available, and still managed to feel productive. I never even dreamed owning the stuff I got these days! But in my older days I have started to develop feelings towards certain hardware for the sake of the machine itself, towards the design and engineering itself. Like vintage Rupert Neve designs or old Bill Putnam stuff. Don’t know if they’d improve the quality of my life (or my music) but I could venerate the elegance of their being, and the vast effort that went into designing them.

Love for Omnissiah manifests itself in strange ways sometimes.

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so nice idea <3

btw its a gear forum its like meet people in the hallway at the rehab clinic

im so affraid for the last few months, who will sell me a monomachine at the time ill have the cash for it

luckyly i got today a used quneo its time to make my axoloti sing and have great interface for my a4

and finaly found a porta studio, excited to tapesync and go out with batteries - back to the quote :wink:

i think gas is great. it gets you really engaged in the tools and starts you fantasizing about all the great music you’ll make. it starts to get dangerous if you are buying more items than tracks you are making. some really poor kids out there are making unbelievable tracks with humble gear. on the other hand, it’s really time and money consuming, and your music will only be as good as the effort you put into it no matter how much gear you have. once the unboxing is over it will still be you just sitting there with the same skill, but you’ll have new gear learning curve and possibly a new gas attack to prevent you from increasing that skill.

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first ableton with controllers, then maschine, then push, then maschine studio and then elektron

sounds like my journey mate, except throw in a few more push’s, maschines, and elektrons in between. back in the black boxes, hopefully for good, but being pulled in all directions creatively ie what direction I want to take has had me in than out of the box so many times. what a trip.

Love the idea of the studio journal. will implement that for sure!

I have also implemented a secondary GAS list. GAS list A, for music equipment, and GAS list B for other equipment in general.

Now, before pulling the trigger on an electronic music GAS purchase, said purchase must stand to reason against a) a specific list of musical equipment that i may need more than said synth/FX/module etc. (elektron-box bag with plastic protector anyone? it’s awesome!!!) and b) a secondary list of equipment in a more general GAS sense (i.e., i am a runner and winter is coming in the US, do i need any running apparel to not freeze my ass to death in the freezing winter months? and etc.).

As someone said, will power is a muscle, and that will power muscle must be flexed and exercised as one would do sit ups and crunches. Sometimes it is good to practice just saying NO to your self and sticking to that NO.

NO!!!

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GAS is crazy :slight_smile: I change my opinion almost every week. I need this I need that. I want to sell it, oh wait it’s the best gear I have. And it changes depending on the music I listen to at this moment or the youtube gear videos I’m watching. Listening to Aphex twin, I think I have to buy analog synths, listening to Autechre I neeed to learn Max/Msp as fast as possible, or buy a machinedrum and a monomachine. Oh wait, best thing would be buying a modular…
Of course I need nothing of it at all. As many of you also told, I was most productive just with my laptop and cracked software. Maybe my stuff sounds better now, but not because of the gear, but experience.
But anyway, at least most of it all makes fun, watching reviews, planning what to buy or sell, and especially the stuff itself. Love the A4 and Octatrack, the other I stuff I should sell I guess.

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I thought that topic was for G.A.S. when saw the title… :joy: One single unit = one massive passion and in-depth exposure to the instrument; furthermore creative potential is much more efficiently driven when energy focused in one narrow area. Never doubted about buying this and that - just stable creative development over time - not so gear-oriented to spoil my passion for music.

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I think so too, but i have a problem with song transition in my rytm. Unfortunately i already broke down 2 kaoss pad 3 revices, so i feel i go to the OT again. Again spending money, again new and more gear, at the same time i feel i love less gear. Congitive collision is in my brain :frowning: what to do?

You would think going bankrupt, owing around £50,000 spent on gear would squash that GAS. it did for a while but 8 years done the line i get those voices back in my head.

My oldest friend is the artist G.R.I.T. I once heard this bloke going through a list of Analogue gear that he was convinced G.R.I.T. used in his production. This bloke was contemplating spending silly sums of money to get that sound. I didn’t say anything but I can tell you that G.R.I.T. produces all his music on Reason. He finds it hilarious, all that desire/speculation about gear.

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I like that “focused on one narrow area” concept you mention.

I have broken up my studio into different pieces and into different rooms (small modular with AK, OT with AR, Push with computer, voyager on its own, etc.). That way i can work thinking about a single piece or two instead of getting distracted with how to connect this cable to that input. in that way i can concentrate on a isolated, single piece of equipment at a time and work just with that. It´s also a lot of fun to think of my “studio” as many studios, the possibilities are endless!!

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At the moment i can’t play music, cause big works at home and my studio is in box for protection and I have no place nor time to instal gear.
This situation lead me to big gas crisis. I discover gear that i didn’t know they was indispensable to m’y life :wink:
How could have been living and playing without them ?
I try to resist, but it’s a continuous struggle.
Will i resist ? Suspens…
I ask to all elektronauts stop talking about gear i don’t have and stop trying to corrupt my will by writing posts on this forum.
Thanks a lot :wink:

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Hey, keep on resisting! We don’t post about all this gear because we wanna push it on you, we is just excited and enthusiastic about it and feel like sharing that excitement with like minded people… I mean, at least I do. Most of my friends and my entire family just couldn’t care less… you know what I mean :nyan:

Sorry to hear about your renovation. Do you have any chance of getting a temporary ”garageband practice place” from somewhere? That might be a viable temp. alternative to get back to musics…

Thanks for taking care of my musical health.
Don’t worry, i’m better now, it was just a shout, a kind of samouraï way to reinforce my will :wink:
Your idea to export my set is a good one, I send few mails to my electrofriends and prepare a night of machines next week.
It gonna help me

If only people had just those kind of problems, earth would be a kind of paradise.

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I think it’s true (for me at least) that this obsessing over gear happens when inspiration is low. It’s a kind of depressive behaviour I think, a way of procrastinating and avoiding the real problem, whether that’s unemployment or loneliness or a lack of creative energy.

You do sometimes just happen to see an amazing new instrument and start looking into it – but that’s a different feeling.

Speaking for myself: when I’m feeling strong and creatively confident I need very little to work with, and I’m more productive. My longest experience is as a vocalist – when I’m in the zone, I can go for a walk and write a few songs as I stroll, and that half-hour will be be more musically productive than (for example) the whole year I spent with Bitwig before realising it wasn’t working for me. If I sit down with a friend to write songs, we can write an album in a week, because he’s pushing me; or I can spend two months on forum learning all about tech I’ll never buy.

These are all things I have to keep reminding myself. I was jamming til late last night, and feeling somewhat blissful realising how much mileage, years and years of music, is still in my Digitakt/Blofeld combo. That’s the opposite of GAS!

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