Computer mouse.
I used to actually play notes like a sucker.
A new laptop with a super fast hard drive
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Thereās actually nothing to really suggest that, apart from everyone piling in to desperately name one of their favourite items, with fairly predictable results.
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I guess that might happenā¦ But the point was actually quite simple. Just anything that you have been using that has really been good for you and your music in general but more specifically about not focusing on the gear for gears sake but rather see that as a tool to manifest something. And to make that happen!
seems simple enough to me but open to interpretation i guess. ymmv of course.
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a calendar.
literally, blocking out time on it to āFuck around, and find outā
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My original hardware setup was just an Electribe SX (ESX) and a Mopho Desktop. I learned a lot from those two both practically and creatively. Every other piece of gear has a had a lesson of some sort.
Owning that first Electribe let me know Iām a groovebox guy <3 The Mopho Desktop taught me I frigginā hate menu diving! (although the Mopho is still one of my fav analog synth flavorsā¦dat brass-y analog!)
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I was most creative and musical when I owned a Korg Oasys.
Iām considering getting a Kronos or the latest Roland Fantom to try and get back into that headspace.
any sampler I could get my hands on
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Itās not gear, itās putting music first in your free time blocks most days, most weeks. And I guess having whatever gear makes you want to put music first which is completely subjective
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Gear as in equipment or drugs? 
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Kneejerk response is my DT, but then I remembered the months and months of intensive programming that I used to spend with my Alesis SR-16 25 years ago. It was the first piece of electronic gear that I ever purchased and my mind was rocked with the possibilities of what I could do with it.
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Digitone, as it was exciting to touch something completely new in terms of sound, but familiar in terms of elektron workflow (had rytm for 3 years) and general sound design (Prophet Rev2 for a year)
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Dynamo, Reaktor and Haze.
I feel like both Model:Cycles and A4 indirectly made me much better at the Digitakt, kind of odd but taking a break from DT and really diving into those devices really forced me to learn new elektron based skills. Now I use both for random fun but they maybe sadly are more sample fodder than live instrument for me now. Realistically the DT has enabled me the most creatively, but having other boxes to break up the norm and let you relearn and reimagine stuff is hugely important. Right now it is sending things through the make noise strega for sampling, reinventing so many old sounds.
I would say to any elektron user, play with the models line, you will likely be surprised with some of the cool tricks they force you to learn.
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Iāve owned a fair few Elektrons and I have to say its a journey that has only gotten better. What Iām doing with the DT and M:S these days has everything to do with how the Elektron workflow has carried over from box to box.
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Octatrack
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Lately itās been Zoom.
One of my music projects is with a few friends. We recorded a lot of stuff together before pandemic restrictions kicked in but none of it was finished. Since then weāve gotten together regularly over Zoom to review, arrange, and add things to the recordings. Itās very challenging because you canāt really do anything in real time, but weāre able to sit with what weāve worked on and talk/think about it from a little more of a distance. It definitely comes with its headaches, but also an approach to the music making process that we normally wouldnāt take.
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Acoustic guitar, notebook, and pencil if allowed more then one item. If not, the guitar and my awful memory.
Great way to describe it, awesome, so true.
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My Digitakt, and Blackbox have been great tools for those sporadic moments of inspiration. The DT is one of my all-time favorites pieces of hardware. Itās just insanly quick and fun to program entire grooves on. I love routing the LFOs to all the different sample parameters and using the trig locks to get extra crazy. My only complaint is that I wish it had more LFOs, alas itās still very capable of rocking the Casbah. When Stimming said in an interview that it was his favorite drum machine, I immediately understood where he was coming from, and after thinking about it, I think I have to agree.
At first I didnāt like the BB. Itās sequencer is more or less really simplistic in design, and at first I grew to loathe it. However as time carried on, I came to realize that it has afforded me the ability to stay on the rails more and not get sucked into overly complicated programming, although I would welcome some added modulation options with open arms. At the end of the day, the BB is a good reminder to KISS (keep it simple stupid).
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