So, I have owned a fair amount of gear over the years and I have been looking back on what instruments have made me the most productive. Productive is sort of nebulous here. It really depends on how I’m looking at it. Does it mean which instrument was the catalyst for songs that I am still proud of? Pure hours of jamming/experimenting? Or just how efficient I am when it comes to completing what I start? Besides guitar (which will probably always hold all those titles, as it was the first love instrument-wise), I feel like the OG Digitakt gave me the most jamming/experimenting/learning hours. Unfortunately, when I listen back to stuff I did with it I typically don’t think much of it.
The A4 mk1 was a lot of fun and produced a few songs that are straight up some of my all time favorites but ultimately it was mostly a doodle machine.
The Prophet 5 is an instrument I have a lot of love for and have written a lot on, but mostly serves in a complimentary role in songs I work on.
Strangely, I feel like the Yamaha Motif XS6 I had was the overall winner in terms of being able to crank stuff out start to finish. Some of it holds up years later and it was just so easy to write and finish an idea with. Maybe I’m saying romplers are the ultimate instrument. IDK.
So what are the instruments you have been the most productive on? Define that however you want. It has been an interesting thought for me because the XS6 is definitely the least “cool” thing I’ve owned but damn if it wasn’t a workhorse.
Not including guitar throughout my life, OP1 followed by the Push 3
OP1 is the only thing that I’ve actually finished pieces on outside of one random stroke of luck with the DN1 paired with Circuit Rythm, but I’m getting there slowly with the Push, as it has been very very inspiring.
Everything else has been the loop trenches for me, but hey that can come with a lot of fun.
guitar as it taught me a lot about scales and phrasing but originally trombone in high achool band taught me music theory as well as how to read and write music and play with others.
all kinds of drums/percussion.
i even started composing melodic lines like «ok, let’s take this beat and imagine drums are tuned to certain scale» — and still using this approach for 80% of parts because it works extremely well for me.
(that’s the root of my mono synths obsession)
and if we want to talk about synths – the holy trinity is: 303, 101 & OG Bass Station. minimum of controls & huge sweet spot.
Same as everyone, a guitar, but the groovebox/synth that has most directly led to finished songs more than any other I’ve owned is probably a toss-up between the sonicware 12xt and the elektron syntakt. The 12XT isn’t my favorite for sound design stuff but it’s very focused and fun and the mixtape mode makes it very easy to just get a recording of what you’re working on without breaking flow at all, and the syntakt manages to be the lowest friction path I have to good sounding drums and basses and decent enough other voices so it’s really easy to build a track around. Both have similarly good sequencers. Both can be fast and immediate or let you spend more time on sounds if you want but neither really rewards spending too much time sound designing so it’s easier to get to a point of “OK this will work, let’s record the part now” and you don’t have that urge to keep trying to figure out how much more you can get out of the patch design which is what usually happens to me on my deeper synths and digitone ii.
I’m only a couple of weeks into Peak ownership but it is seeming like it and Syntakt are really going to make up the bulk of my sound for awhile because it has that same quality. There’s a lot to be said for gear that just sounds good without making you work too hard.
DN and ST. They’re at the center of most of my released and unreleased songs. All the other gear is just do build around the ideas I come up on either of these two.
Not one instrument, but simply getting a big mixer and having everything connected permanently. And a midi thru box so I can have everything midi synced up.
My heart. Stronger than a mf. It’s always beating (60-100 bpm) rhythms, ordering my steps. I be swinging. Dilla shit. Ain’t nobody got swagger like a mf stepping to the beat of their own heartbeat drums.
As a converted guitar player myself, very much here for this thread.
The way guitar worked for me wasn’t necessarily about being productive, it was just a tool to do multiple things. It could be the foundation of writing a track (multiple parts), then it could be part of a live performance, then it could be part of a polished recording. Importantly you might spend time wanting a guitar, but not comparing it on features.
In electronic music adding many elements can tend to add complexity, at which point we go one step removed from the simplicity needed to focus on the writing/performing, but we gain the ability to do more and probably to think more about what we’re doing - which can be a good thing. Ideally though, electronic gear that fills this role should be quick and easy like picking up a guitar.
In my head it’s actually simpler, often budget gear that tends to get closer to where the guitar sits. I’m thinking mostly of highly jammable boxes with basically no return barrier once learned. I’d also prioritise low cost because if anything, we’ve seen that many great songs are written and performed on cheap battered guitars.
I don’t own all these, but the gear that always stood out to me as being in this category are
Model Samples/Cycles
Novation Circuits
Ableton Move
KO2
TR8/6S?
Any knob per function synths, maybe Roland S1 if we’re talking cheap…
There may be others, but these all promote immediate jamability, and they have a limited subset of features that promote a pick up and play approach. And they’re accessible price wise too.
productive as in time spent: piano and drums
productive as in finished tracks: digitakt (I & II)
productive as in 100000 unfinished projects created: ableton
(edit: oops pidgeo that wasn’t meant as a reply to you)