I use Savihost and I love it. I have switched to using an almost completely OTB setup, which DT greatly facilitates. It was like an epiphany when I switched to using dedicated hardware after sequencing on Ableton for 20 years. Don’t get me wrong, I love Ableton and I def don’t want to debate ITB vs OTB. They both have their advantages/disadvantages. But when I started on my hardware focused journey I felt some love loss about leaving all my software “behind”. I started looking for ways to run my VSTs as standalone “machines”. That lead me to Savihost, which allows you to run your VSTs in standalone mode and even offers simple audio/midi settings so you can use low latency sound cards and assign midi channels. It rocks! Now instead of focusing on a million different options and effects, I can use DT to sequence my hardware and software, and still use my favorite VSTs. And I find myself exploring the soft synths themselves in much greater detail, like I do with dedicated hardware, instead of focusing on the unlimited options of DAW. This has totally changed my workflow, and my music and creativity have improved drastically. Which is wild to think about, after playing music for most of my life and thinking I had reached the limit of my abilities. I wanted to share this with my fellow musicians, newcomers, or anyone who may want to use software instruments in their setups. Here is the link for Savihost: http://www.hermannseib.com/english/savihost.htm
What is an idea, piece of gear, or realization that has changed your way of making music? Thank you all for the awesome community here on elektronauts!
The music of U.S Maple turned my world around. They kinda shattered the norm for guitar bass drums vocals… no bass player! just a guitar strung with two bass strings. No effects pedals save maybe an overdrive and ten fingers… shifting rhythms all over that drum set.
Weird
Sexy
arhythmic
extremely rhythmic
Things that have changed my music creation processes over the years. Sorry for bit of a long answer 
Octamed on the Amiga - my first step into music beyond a basic sampler. I made chopped up breaks and hard techno
Yamaha qy10 - move into hardware and midi sequencing. Was making house and 4/4 dance music
Music on PlayStation - the ability to sample from cd to memory card and sequence music on same machine I played games on made me really productive as it was always being used. Made everything from trip hop to gabba.
Yamaha qy100, Roland 101, novation drum station and korg poly 800. My first full hardware setup and started making music live. Loved this setup but I wasn’t totally understanding of its capabilities at the time and mostly made jam sessions. Great fun though.
My first computer with acid and then ableton 5 and cubase. Game changer as I started producing and mixing full songs rediscovering my love of sampling mixed with electronic synths and drums. Super fun and productive.
Added various bits of hardware over the years and mixed live performing with production and turntables though mostly making music to then DJ with out.
Present day and using digitakt to build a live set with visuals.
Every stage completely different and enjoyable for different reasons
-When small computers became fast enough around the time that Apple joined with Intel and the aluminum MacBook Pros came out with enough power and speed to process audio in high quality and in near realtime without too much latency making live guitar processing a reality and thus having a warehouse full of gear inside a notebook that can be rearranged and rewired anyway imaginable at the press of a button for preset recall. -Native Instruments Guitar Rig-
-Octatrack-
I suffered a concussion as a result of a cycling accident 1,5 years ago. I’m still recovering and the biggest handicap I experience is that I get disproportionally fatigued from visually intensive activities, computer screen work being the worst. I have to limit myself to minutes at a time or my brain gets so strained I won’t be able to do much at all for the next few days. I can highly recommend it as a cure for social media addiction 
I’ve been split between hardware and software music making for a very long time. More software in the past years. This event made me gravitate entirely to hardware, which also strains me but a lot slower than computers.
It made me think about and grow my hardware set to something I’m very at ease with. It’s all patched up and ready to go at the flick of the power switch. I really got to enjoy this immediacy. Less possibilities than a zillion softsynths but way more focused and inspiring to me. With this I’m really starting to find a personal sound and style that I’m happy with.
I’m an optimist. This shitty health situation has upsides and this is one of them.
Oh and encountering the Machinedrum around 2005 was certainly a formative event
Definitely the purchase of my first Elektron device made a difference … 
I have been educated to play instruments live as a kid and have done this for decades. Even when I used a DAW or a workstation, I recorded my midi-performance live. It was an extension to my workflow, when I started to learn and enjoy the “programming of a groove-box”
snap - my first machinedrum 
Same for me, especially if you want to explore the possibilities of one dedicated VSTi, Savihost helps a lot to stay focused on that one VSTi. I also try to work as much OTB as i can, but as much as i would like to have the synths in hardware there is no way to afford them.
Octatrack for sure, I love this machine!
i’m a Linux user, but i understand you so well.
always preferred standalone synths when used to use laptop-based setup.
- moving to Linux (2000)
- discovering Csound (2000) / SuperCollider (2007)
- disappointment in Csound/SuperCollider/etc (2015)
- going DAWless & getting rid of laptop on stage (2018). if you’re asking about idea, the idea was simple: class-compliant USB MIDI implementation just sucks due to jitter issues, and a lot of effort needed to optimize OS performance to reduce jitter, so let’s just eliminate the generic OS.
Bump. Tell us your deepest darkest secret or my music will haunt your dreams. Dubstep hell…
Nothing special or sudden for me - it’s been the gradual process of getting to grips with how to sculpt sound and music theory that’ve allowed me to get closer to the music I imagine in my head.
Discovering the Beatles + my first guitar
Discovering Radiohead + my first guitar pedals
Rediscovering Four Tet, Bonobo, Amon Tobin and the like + my first sampler
Discovering Afx + Ae + my first elektron box
What? Time and practice? Your crazy… This is a gear forum… 
I’m flagging your post as inappropriate. 
Yes! I am teaching my 6 yo boys about the music of the Beatles. They were so versatile. They reinvented themselves on every album with a seemingly unending amount of creative energy and experimentation. Even their “simpler” songs like “Can’t buy me love” seem timeless. Because, as it turns out, love cannot be bought, for any sum of money. Not to mention their more eclectic tunes (“A day in the life”, “Strawberry fields”) The Beatles are def the single biggest influence on my musical career. And I was born in ‘79.
Max 4 Live
Oh and… L…S…D. The Beatles song
For me. Simply the Octatrack. Was my first elektron box. Changed everything. Perspectives, Possibilities, Workflow.
The World was not the same after that…
That you Dr. Robert…
(If you’re down, he’ll pick you up, Doctor Robert… Take a drink from his special cup, Doctor Robert…)
It’s almost Bicycle Day!
the band Propaganda.
when I heard them…I knew I had to get into electronic music.