What an interesting journey you’re on. Something must have dramatically changed inside you to get you to pull the trigger on selling everything. A leap of faith.
I have just moved house also, I am in the process of filtering through my gear to reduce the ridiculous amount of cables, adaptors, and keyboards etc I have. You may need a gear demo corner somewhere but keep it away from your creative space.
You're One of many who have inspired me to start attending production school. I been wondering where you went for the past year and I am personally really excited to see you back on the internet! Congratulations on the life upgrades like the new Home, I hope this means the internet world will see more of you soon?
I don't like having too much gear either. I once sold all I had, but after awhile I realised why I got hardware in the first place. I don't enjoy clicking around with the mouse while using software, and I often end up being lazy and just use the same automations for changes throughout the same project instead of grabbing a controller and record it in. With gear I find it more enjoyable and organic sounding recording while turning the knobs. Using fx like pedals are also very important to me. Especially for delays. I actually wanted to dubmix while recording a whole track, but I've realised that's just too much for me with a 16 to 24 channel analogue mixer. I have ADHD, so putting my attention to several things at once is not my strong suit. That also means visually. So if there's to many visual distractions I'll feel less motivated to use the gear. Also my ADHD gives me OCD like traits, so in case of gear, it also has to be visually pleasing. I can try to ignore it and get used to it, but over time it'll still annoy me, if it's not. And it has to be said that I make music in my 1 room apartment, so I have to look at it every single day. Under- or overstimulation is not what I want. But yeah I'm in the middle of buying stuff again. I realised that recording one thing or a few things at a time may work better for me. And then process further and edit in Ableton. The new combing feature should be great for this. Being only daw or only hardware becomes too limiting for me.
I think it’s great and very healthy to evaluate one’s creative process and determine what is working and what isn’t. Although I went the other way and I have left “The box” and have more of hardware now, I am more creative then I ever was with instrument plugins. Good for you 👌
Man, I did the same thing. I've been DJing since middle school in the '80s and the pandemic completely upended my life. I stopped doing gigs, started a family, and transitioned to grinding out as many mixtapes as time allowed as my primary musical output. Quickly, I realized that I could make great mixtapes in a box using MixMeister. After a year of that, I sold nearly all my DJ gear. I kept one controller in case a gig ever pops up and one of my Technics 1200's for vinyl ripping and flipped everything else to eBay. The only small upside is that my gear was mostly pretty new so I got good resale prices because of pandemic-related electronics shortages. Cheers.
Honestly, both are necessary. Yes digital is immediate but analog brings a "lightning in the bottle" value that is unmatched. What has worked for me is making sure all my analog gear has a purpose, so I don't have a crap tone of analog gear. Also, setting up this gear to be able to be recorded to capture those special moments without delay. Personally, I think you may have just had too much gear. If you kept a 3rd of the gear I think you'd kind value from the limitations.
This is why I've shifted to gear like Virus TI and Elektron Overbridge. Lets me play the physical gear seperately, but it gets used often in my DAW as it's as easy to connect with VST. Gear is best for live perf tho
If you wanted to work in a 'new' way, you could have done that by using any piece of gear you didn't or weren't used to using, and constrain yourself to using ONLY that for a period of time. I notice that most studio gear that goes unused is simply because we don't know what its actually good for and its not until we spend an extended period of time with it before we actually get a feel for its use.
Dude, that old school English cottage got me jealous. Maybe triggers an ancestral memory for me. I've bought and sold a bunch of gear myself. I like simple setups myself, save the out of the box stuff for a bit of character. You don't need lots of stuff.
Glad to see you again. I’ve always been against hardware. I think hardware is pretentious. 99% of the time it’s just about telling people you have the gear.
I really recognize myself in the problem you describe, as an old trotter from the 80s and 90s, where I at the most had 12-14 hardware synths and samplers. It all ended up with writing block, where I also realized that I became less creative with more equipment. So I took drastic actions, and sold all of my equipment, except from a dictaphone and a cassette player. The point was I had to get my creativity back, which took me over a year, before I finally started writing music again. The purchases I made then, were much more carefully thought out and ended up with one synth and rather some extra effect devices and recording equipment, than several instruments.
When I was learning how to produce music I didn't want to purchase too many gears. I have 47 virtual synthesizers including the ones that came with other daws that I purchased. Those daws also have many usable sound samples as well. I have flash drives filled with over 50,000 samples and sounds. Lets say that I didn't have to purchase anymore gears. I'm happy with everything that I have.
Trust me or not, but over the course of the last 35+ years I went through some similar phases. For instance, when I started, as a young intern in the local recording studio, I was only using hardware. It was not by choice, it’s because we had nothing else. If you wanted to record, it was on a 2” tape machine. Then one day we got the first MIDI sequencer on Atari (like Pro24, that became Cubase V1.0), and then I accumulated a lot of Synth, Romplers and other workstation keyboards, racks etc… it was just to get more sounds. And then came the digital era in the late ‘80s, early ‘90s, so I started to move to more virtual instruments and effects, and even thought I could fully move ITB. I sold all my gear and bought a lot of software, unfortunately it was not perfect at this time, but again we didn’t had much choices. Then later on in the late ‘00s, I was working in a full commercial studio, with plenty of gear, high stuff, and then I got a taste to the high quality we can achieve with proper gear, so I started to buy back some hardware to compensate the lack we had at the time in software, to emulate what I could do in pro studio. But slowly things got better, software got better accuracy, reproducing more accurately analog gear to the point we couldn’t make much difference anymore, and we got plenty of modern controller such Maschine, Ableton Push, MPC Studio, etc… So plenty of new solutions to work fully ITB with an adequate controller that provide the same user experience we can have with analog hardware gear, but yet have now the virtual unlimited sounds from the digital world. And I’m not working in commercial studio, nor I have nothing to prove to anyone anymore. It doesn’t have to “look good for the client”. Therefore now I’m focusing on getting a great workflow that works for me and allow me to get creative. And the solution that works for me (YMMV) is to get back to full ITB with a powerful MacBook and a couple of nice controller such Maschine mk3 and a keyboard. That’s pretty much all I really need now and it works for me. Of course, everyone is different and I don’t claim it’s THE ultimate solution for everyone. It’s just a solution that is proven to work for me and that I like… and in the end, it’s what matters. To pretty much forget about gear and just focus on the music.
yeah its different from person to person. my friend cant stand working ITB, but the thing is, friend is heavily into DIY... handmade sequencers and stuff... very creative. even using tape loops nowodays lol. and weirdly, friend makes good music instead of weird noises or smth. guess its just.. talent. personally i find itb way easier.
Hybrid is the way to but to each his own ... analog synths ... digital synths and apps .. acoustic instruments is where I flow the best... have no issues using amp simulations drum loops etc
Im totally with you, it is just a nice to have - but usually creative is created in the brain and not what kind of expensive gear you own imho - often people comfort themselve with big studios - but ofthen there is too much focus lost through out - so for me: Desktop PC - Midi Keyboard - Empty Desk - Headphones - Scarlett 4i4 - Ableton 11 and many vsts
My new challenge has been to make music in the box VS. using a bunch of expensive analog outboard gear. I figure if the music I make sounds better than those who need a ton of expense analog out board gear to achieve the same result then I truly evolved as a producer. I do use a lot of controllers to still have that turn the knobs and fader feel I like, but I never going back to analog...ever!
I honestly just use a keyboard and guitar. I hate having a room full of clutter and junk. After I started living alone, i just tried to keep everything minimalistic It's really good to see you back on TH-cam!
I love this honesty. Everyone's just stripping down... getting back to basics. I'm not there, yet. But... I get it. I've bought and sold countless things for the past 20 years. I'd love to have a simple desk with a laptop and a pair of headphones. Not the way I work, though. I think a lot of multi-instrumentalists (guitarist / drummer / bassist / keyboardist / singer / producer) have a lot of trouble slimming down to a minimalist studio. I wish I could, but can't. Not yet.... anyone else in the same boat?
Sometimes my midi gives me inspirations in moments I didnt know I needed it. And then I go straight to the computer. 😂 Minimalism is tricky in the producer world.
I am limiting myself to a digital workstaion, an analog synth, and midi controller. So I chose things I can get the most out of. I limit the studio gear to just one corner of my studio apartment. But I have a Yamaha MODX6+ with it's AWM3 and FM-X engines, and a DSI Pro 3 SE, which actually scratches that itch I have to go modular, it's mod matrix I can route almost everything to almost everywhere. I also have a Keylab essential 88. I'm a classivally trained pianist, but frankly, I haven't even touched a piano in like 3 decades, so the piano weighted keys really don't mean a whole lot to me anymore. BTW, I do still own a piano, but it's sits at my parents house, the whole, "I'm leaving and taking all my stuff" bit doesn't work when something weighs a half a ton. But I also left another piano behind after that, but a different story there.
Interesting to see, but I use my hardware devices all the time - so I'll keep it. I actually went the other way compared to what you just did :-) --- I find the idea of sitting in front of a computer screen in order to make music frightening to be honest. But... I guess since I am an amateur, as in "doing it for the love" as opposed to professionals as in "doing it for the money", I have no interest in being economic. So I do not need instant and total recall, portability and gazillions of features. I work a fulltime job, mostly in front of a computer, so I want to use instruments for making music. The only computers in my setup are the "computer controlled" TB-303 and TR-808. I don't even like MIDI that much as I found DIN sync to be more solid and reliable. I love that these machines just need to be turned on. No long boot-sequence, no updates needed, no internet connection and what-not. That being said, I am not interested in having a room full of gear, even if it would be all the classics like JP-8s, Memorymoog or huge modular systems. My setup is like 1 meter wide, three tiers within a Jaspers rack, me standing/dancing in front of it. I got all the basics right for enabling myself to make the music I like. Acid techno / house / techno. I do have a macbook, I am an Ableton Live user since the first beta versions pre v1. I know that programm pretty well. I sketch out stuff with it sometimes, but I always get tired after like 30 minutes, whereas creating music with hardware makes me excited and awake. What I don't understand to this very day is why people in electronic music judge the tools so hard in financial regards. I mean, do piano players go crazy like that? Those are instruments, for most of us here, we're using them as toys in our spare time. Why is the money/features-ratio so important? Anyways, have fun guys and girls 😎
In other words, it's time for you to go modular. Like proper modular. With the hardware you've bought, the main upside you get is that it goes through a preamp - downside to those particular devices is they won't offer you anything your DAW won't. Modular on the other hand.....That's why it became obsolete to you.
i just recently sold all of my gear also. I found the Dirtywave M8. this little box is insane with features. check it out. you'll see why this is such an exciting unit. nuff said.
I’m totally in the same place. As much as I love my hoards of equipment lovingly amassed over the decades I had the realisation that it’s gotten to the point where it needs a whole room of its own like it’s a person. Ultimately the goal is that everything I create gets recorded down but another realisation was that (ironically) the more equipment I have, the less productive I’ve become! I’m now looking forward to a massive clearance & put the leftover money towards a new simpler but higher quality setup than I’ve ever had. The appeal of a tolerable & not crazy workspace just grows by the day!
Honestly that’s so cool that u don’t need so much analog stuff that means that digital is our future and that’s amazing because it will be cheeper, saving physical space and knows what else, I love it!!!!!
Yeah man we all need to change shit up for creativity sake from time to time, musicians have been doing it for centuries. I enjoy seeing you comes to grips with this concept/need of musical creativity being fostered by change. We are beings that have evolved and are evolving and one of the windows into the evolutionary process is reflected quite vividly in music and music gear. I have many sides to my musical tastes and I create music in different genres. One if the things I did as a guitarist to break myself out of a box was to experiment with an altered tuning and I made that unusual tuning my own, got to know it's ins and outs and it gave me a completely different musical voice to express myself with. Then there side of it too where having a room full of gear makes a music video look cool but I've been doing this long enough that seeing rooms like that make me almost nauseous because of the choice paralysis it gives me having so much gear...it leads to this jack of all gear master of none thing. I mean how many pieces of gear have been made that have so many functions and no one except maybe the gear company's reps even know or use all the possibly functions. It's like having 500 cable channels...why? You can never watch all the shows and you have to weed through millions of choices...oh it so fucking exhausting to think about. I guess if I can be proud of anything when I hear my music, no matter the genre I've played in, it's distinctly mine, I have very defined imprint and to that point I'd add that, not learning to play other people's songs helped me forge my own identity. I didn't want to waste time learning other people's stuff in order to learn the instrument I was learning at the time, I'm currently able to play five instruments, but I was just wanting to make sounds and I had a drive to figure them out on my own and so I never took lessons either. All of that happened because of exact what you've discovered and made a video about, change is necessary for growth which naturally has the effect of creating something new, if not in the world, then new to who you are at this precise musical juncture and it's that change that keeps music as a whole evolving and that can and does have a large impact on those in the world who love music, from fans to musicians themselves. Great video...welcome to the evolution man!!🤘😎🤘
I completely resonate with what’s being said in this video. You can definitely hear that he has matured and evolved in a way where he’s questioning his way of operating. This is real! There is often the pressure to buy gear purely for the aesthetic, as many other content creatures in the space appear to be more “credible” as a result. Great vid.
I believe in a hybrid setup. Too much gear is also not much different than having too many plugins. The key to all is to keep it minimal, and focused. Focused gear and focused software/plugins.
I can feel you and my conclusion on beeing into gear and the dawless and analogue hype is quite the same. It may be cool for others but not for me and my workflow. I ended up with a MPC One which is more or less a daw but I still miss a mouse xD
Just came across your channel and I see that probably more than half of the hardware you owned I found to be very excited about myself:) Support the step you took for sure.
For me I went through a habit of buying tons of hardware but then reclused all the way back to a midi keyboard and laptop. In all honesty, I do tons with the keyboard but ALWAYS end up editing when mastering ( as well as changing what I just played on the keyboard to create the sound I really want after going through the track ). New gear is addictive, but sometimes it's best to not think about it and be happy to go minimal if it helps you work faster
I forgot: My meanwhile go-to keyboard is a Korg Nanokey2, a simple 2 octave microkeyboard sized 3 cigarette cases. Makes fun, is portable, never missed the big ones .... ;-)
I'm starting out and this really helps drop a lot of anxiety off of the expression that is music. All that gear looks like an immense stressor haha, like an ADHD mind unboxed - I love it also though.
You are absolutely right. The most creative way to make music is to sing. No switches, no settings, simply singing!! :-) To put it on a more versatile level you can add instruments: 6 string guitar, 4 string bass, a keyboard. Optionally: an electric violin, an electric cello, some flutes. These means are sufficient in the digital world to create even orchestral music. I am collecting instruments and amplifiers but do not use most of them. Same background as yours .... 😃 We simply followed the advertising industry, they made us believe we had a need on more and more devices. nOpE!!! :.-) Some digital devices are sufficient, the simpler the better (creativity-wise). My personal list is (but meanwhile I transformed hardware to digital VSTs which is bad as in the hardware world): Kuassa Caliburn (Marshall), Lancaster (Vox), Matchlock (Fender) for guitar Klanghelm MJUC, DC8C and TDR Kotelnikov as compressors Loudmax as limiter Twin2 by Fabfilter, OP-X_Pro_II by sonicprojects, Vital, Synth1 as synthesizers Ampeg SVT Suite for bass Celemony Melodyne Editor for vocals Fabfilter Pro DS for de-essing vocals Fabfilter Timeless3 for delay Sanford Reverb for Reverb Sitala and MT PowerDrumKit for drums Fabfilter Pro-Q3 for equalizing Voxengo SPAN and Voxengo Correlometer for analyzing/phase detection FreeG for gain staging and mixing Klanghelm SDRR, IVGI and Fabfilter Saturn2 for saturation My favourite personal microphone is the MXL CR89 and a pair of MXL CR21
Good call dude. Been selling off a lot of my old studio gear thats been sitting around doing nothing. Didnt get much for it but definitely nicer to have more space. I'm now very picky with what I want/need. But I still love guitars and amps 😆
Minimalism is great, and there is so much you can do in the box these days. Between some wonderful plugins, like Slate VMR, Arturia FX Bundle, Liquidsonics Seventh Heaven Professional, and some of my favorite VSTIs (Omnisphere 2, Trilian, a few Kontakt libraries), I don't feel like I will ever need any hardware other than my midi controller, good mics, and my interface.
I feel you 100% I sold everything during the pandemic and I’m starting fresh this fall. Might be switching to Mac and buying a new camera, keyboards, mics, monitors etc... Only things I kept were my Apollo X4, Beyerdynamic DT 770’s, and Sennheiser HD 650’s.
That’s exactly what I think. All these devices eat time and like you said almost bring you nowhere. I have a Fantom 8 now and a new Alienware x17 now. That’s all I need to make awesome stuff. Hope you will keep going the ZEN way and which you well!
I hear this so loud. Stopped buying stuff a couple of years ago. I just don't have the time creatively to constantly get my head around new kit. The end result is underwhelming. The one constant is the laptop and I'm cool with that.
I’ve had more synths and gear then I can recall. Ultimately what I ended up with is 1 poly and 1 mono synth, a Peak and a Pro 3. I wanted very versatile hardware synths since I was only going to have 2. Of course I do have a ton of synth plugins. The limited hardware gear and workflow because of it have been liberating!
The only real surprise for me is your decision to get rid of the Push, but I agree that ‘Influencer’ is a worrying but honest term in that has somewhat contributed to GAS and gear credibility, I do think that a ‘New’ way of working can be to focus on selecting 1 or 2 bits of gear and see what comes from that gear alone, but In the end, you have to be honest about your current musical direction, clearly there’s not much point in buying and TR8’s if you are really inspired by orchestral percussion. I think you are brave and that regard. There is also the saying, better to have something and not need it, than need something and not have it, perhaps a more honest look at that before purchase could be a good thing for all of us. 👍
I did the same thing and sold nearly my whole studio, altho I'm still hardware. Just an MPC60, Novation Bass Station Rack & Roland VS880EX now and have never been more productive. PS - it really irritates me when modern bods refer to anything hardware as "analogue", when, obviously, hardly any of it is.
@@kenzieprice6745 I was using reel to reel and cassette before I got it a few months ago for £50. I had the bigger VS1880 briefly about 10 years ago but when I found myself looking for digital effects to make it sound more analogue, that's when I realised that I should probably just stick with tape, ha ha. But recently I just wanted things as simple as poss so flogged my tape recorders, mixer, outboard, keys and other samplers and got the smaller VS. I have never and would never use a computer/software for my tunes, mostly just coz I'm one of those people that needs the "limitations" of hardware to find inspiration.
Also, like the man says, I just got sick of constantly thinking about and chasing and swapping around my set-up, wasting hundreds of hours and thousands of pounds. Now all I want is my SP1200 back and I'm set for life.
@@RunOfTheHind Thanks! I guess I asked because I bought a couple of the older hardware multitrackers with the idea of more simplicity and live playing work flow but the workflow seems slow on the units I have and I feel too much time dinkering with them. I wanted to see your attraction and experience. I think my problem too (and probably mostly everyone else's) is not spending enough time with gear and writing it off before it clicks especially because of the plethora of gear available. ....looked at the isla 2400?
@@kenzieprice6745 Yep...and that's a no for S2400. Ain't no thing like the real thing. It was when I got the 1200 that the 'simplicity unlocks creativity' thing really kicked in for me. Gutted I sold it...and not just coz it'll cost me 2 or 3 grand more than I sold it for to get another, roflz. Re: the multi-tracks, I guess it depends on what you've come from. If you're used to pooters, it probs does seem clunky. But I'm coming from cassette multi-tracks etc so the only difference is that it's less easy to fuck up your recording, ha ha, and everything sounds a lot tidier (albeit with less character too).
I agree. Though I still get inspired by jamming with my synths and create melodies and chord progressions that way, I find myself most times deleting the audio and using Diva, Hive, or an emulation of the very same synths. When I hear someone say that they need to buy this or that in order to "make it", I remind them that Skrillex blew everyone away with a laptop and a skateboard cruising Huntington Beach. Boris Brejcha does everything in the box. Finneas O'Connell & Billie Eilish won Grammys using Logic Pro and stock plugins. We don't need any of that extra stuff
This past year, I've bought so many things and then sold them back because I didn't like them. I bought an MPC X, hated it... too many things to do that I could do in the DAW without all of the steps involved. I bought a Behringer Deepmind. Hated it. Sold it back. Had a Behringer ARP 2600 on order, they couldn't get it off the line before I changed my mind. I have a few Moogs I'm keeping. Sold the Subharmonicon though. Hated it. Didn't use it. I have some desk modules. I don't use them. I do use my synths though. Most of them anyway. Ok, I'm going to rearrange things around for better use.
@@elyot4010 yeah well. idk. for me, its harder to COMPOSE inside daw/pianoroll/etc. Usually its my fingers who find melodies - on guitar, keyboard etc. So controller helps i think. Then you go and put notes into your digital studio and work further. But moment of inspiration often comes during "live playing" process. Especially when you like things such as finger drumming.
@@kurisuchiinathecrocodile333 I agree 100% If I find a great melody or progression while jamming with what I already have, be it a drone or a beat, I will record the midi. I see my post was done 9 months ago. I must have been in a very bad mood lol
For me it went the entirely other way around. I like "Live playing" and DAW just don't do it for me, too much fiddling, delays, dependencies etc. So I went all Dawless. But there's a difference, because a lot of people out there seem to think that these 1 monoponic synths are all the rage with their displays and twistyknobs, and I'm thinking - how would you even make music with that? So when I purchase synths, they are always hefty ones with TONS and TONS of Polyphony, and preferably "insta recording" or "step recording" where I can do stuff and make changes on the fly, I find that easier, more inspirational and more interactive with the music. But hey - we're different, and that's not a bad thing.
what genres you do? as for monosynths, id say those make more sense with DAW track-by-track "studio" work, haha. personally i always liked grooveboxes like electribe esx instead
Often, evolution of music - especially in the area of electronic music - is a process of simplification. Yamaha DX100 Casio CZ1000 5000 and CZ1 Korg poly 800 Roland 626 Yamaha RY30 EMU E5000 Ultra sampler. DD12 DD10 DD65 Korg Monotron (s) Korg Volca keys Alesis Nannoverb Alesis Reverb Zoom RFX 2000 If I added all the outboard and the mixing desks and the computers I've had over the years - that list would be huge. All are things I've had - I've kept only 5 of the above list. The rest has been sold.... Often to simplify and streamline the work process. One of the main changes I've made in the 20 plus years I've been doing music is going portable. A laptop and good batteries can give you the freedom to use a pair of phones and create a track in totally different environments. This, to me has more effective modulation on the journey and process than having lots of little boxes with LEDs on them. The end results are often very different than having "a room" to work in.
i consider laptop being a bit fragile for portability though, but well, ipad+controller is okay replacement (just dont fall into trap of apples "always update" that kills software on yearly basis)
Interesting. I've gone the other way, stopped using a DAW not because one system is better than the other, I just can't stand using a music word processor any more - I find it soul destroying, scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, presets, plugins, more presets, aaarrrggghhh! I find a small amount of focused hardware and really knowing how to use it great for my personal workflow, though may not suit everyone. One aspect I don't like is cables - so cable management is crucial to making the experience more pleasurable.
Okay bro - you should repack this as general life advice - with a title like Should YOU dump the elephant on your back - (just a suggest) Key is at 3:30m. I just happened to be interested enough in music 'gear' and production evolution to want to give a hear to your 'personal issues' about it - but it turns out to be a major issue - I have an elephant on my back - course could also flip him around and give him a ride - but your key question there is the solvent to loosen the old bowels .. LOL.
Just done the same thing with my acres of guitar gear…. The Most liberating experience. I play more with less effects. I get much more our of less gear . Certainly in terms of raw musical satisfaction… contemplating going for a phase 2 clear out… with the stuff I just couldn’t give up first time… Once I got brave… it was great, I miss nothing I thought I would . It’s given me money to look at the raw instruments I make music with and make clear decisions about the musician I am.. or would truly like to be…Great video … like watching the inside of my own head.👊
which ones you decided to keep? for me, its usually overdrive (or fuzz) + delay = thats enough for guitar. maybe ringmod or good reverb for special cases.
What I don't understand is what is your current set-up now ? You did not keep a big screen, monitors, one mini controller and a sound card at least ? Even if you just work with a laptop now, you need basic equipment don't you think ?
those things allow you to make the whole songs just in them, yes. so its daw indeed. guess you prefer having separate instruments instead of "jack of all trades"?
@@kurisuchiinathecrocodile333 I think the biggest challenge is to plan and compose the song by hand and by intuition, thus making the process of creating the music more like a performance instead of just listening back your creation played by the machine. Or at least as much as possible. But it's a personal preference ofcourse. And a different means to an end, it's a very different experience.
I cleared out all my outboard synths….worst decision of my life. Using Cubase, using I think it was media bay, it combined all the patches from all my software synths. I found they all sounded the same. I lost the individual voices of the hardware synths. Recording in the box almost destroyed my musical life. I see your point of view. The box killed creativity. For me synths reside in the eurosynth. Life resides in voltage. Real voltage.
you went modular? so, hows your journey so far? often i hear the opposite problem. that people get too much into sound design with them, so they stop producing "music" (e.g. full made tracks/compositions). some deal with it via having hybrid setup (e.g. pc/daw or something like octatrack+portastudio). some deal with..eh.. finding a way to play the whole track "on the fly", but depending on genre and/or music complexity, you may need pretty complex setup. its all interesting though. on the other hand, some people able to do amazing music just in freaking FL. or, well, DefleMask or Renoise.
![all the music gear I am selling in 2023 [GAS therapy]. Least Used Gear End of Year Review.](/img/n.gif)
Same thing, bro! I’ve sold everything except upright piano and stage piano. Cause ton of gear is not about music. It’s about collecting.
I'll give it another year and his rooms will be filled with gear again 🤓
The GAS is always too strong.
Agreed. Lol!!!!
Nah. He’s completely right. If you enjoy playing with bits of gear fine, but it’s basically superfluous.
You bet. I experienced it myself already.
We‘re doomed. Total victims.
I always feel like my workflow/creativity suffers when I don't have my midi keyboard/headphones.
This video felt somewhat nostalgic to me! Glad to see you’re doing fine Multi! Keep the good work and stay safe.
used2doBeatAroofenNezelf!!
My Favourite part "If you sell all your stuff, YOU GET TO BUY NEW STUFF!!!"
What an interesting journey you’re on. Something must have dramatically changed inside you to get you to pull the trigger on selling everything. A leap of faith.
intelInsideEeteezNutEnsayenedDohMooSicMainMameManMoonyzNuh!!
Probably because everything he had was Guitar Center-tier crap. He even pointed out 6 pieces that were broken
can affirm that empty table experience, often just keep one or two boxes there - and enjoy having space again.
I sold 90% of my gear too when I realized my best music was made entirely in the computer.
I feel plugins are similar. Too many plugins to master but they all do the same thing. Just master what you got, don't let marketing fool you.
I have just moved house also, I am in the process of filtering through my gear to reduce the ridiculous
amount of cables, adaptors, and keyboards etc I have. You may need a gear demo corner somewhere
but keep it away from your creative space.
You're One of many who have inspired me to start attending production school.
I been wondering where you went for the past year and I am personally really excited to see you back on the internet!
Congratulations on the life upgrades like the new Home, I hope this means the internet world will see more of you soon?
I did the same thing with my setup and never looked back. Keep up the good work 🔥
I don't like having too much gear either.
I once sold all I had, but after awhile I realised why I got hardware in the first place. I don't enjoy clicking around with the mouse while using software, and I often end up being lazy and just use the same automations for changes throughout the same project instead of grabbing a controller and record it in.
With gear I find it more enjoyable and organic sounding recording while turning the knobs. Using fx like pedals are also very important to me. Especially for delays.
I actually wanted to dubmix while recording a whole track, but I've realised that's just too much for me with a 16 to 24 channel analogue mixer. I have ADHD, so putting my attention to several things at once is not my strong suit. That also means visually. So if there's to many visual distractions I'll feel less motivated to use the gear.
Also my ADHD gives me OCD like traits, so in case of gear, it also has to be visually pleasing. I can try to ignore it and get used to it, but over time it'll still annoy me, if it's not. And it has to be said that I make music in my 1 room apartment, so I have to look at it every single day. Under- or overstimulation is not what I want.
But yeah I'm in the middle of buying stuff again. I realised that recording one thing or a few things at a time may work better for me. And then process further and edit in Ableton. The new combing feature should be great for this.
Being only daw or only hardware becomes too limiting for me.
I think it’s great and very healthy to evaluate one’s creative process and determine what is working and what isn’t.
Although I went the other way and I have left “The box” and have more of hardware now, I am more creative then I ever was with instrument plugins.
Good for you 👌
Man, I did the same thing. I've been DJing since middle school in the '80s and the pandemic completely upended my life. I stopped doing gigs, started a family, and transitioned to grinding out as many mixtapes as time allowed as my primary musical output. Quickly, I realized that I could make great mixtapes in a box using MixMeister. After a year of that, I sold nearly all my DJ gear. I kept one controller in case a gig ever pops up and one of my Technics 1200's for vinyl ripping and flipped everything else to eBay. The only small upside is that my gear was mostly pretty new so I got good resale prices because of pandemic-related electronics shortages. Cheers.
Honestly, both are necessary. Yes digital is immediate but analog brings a "lightning in the bottle" value that is unmatched. What has worked for me is making sure all my analog gear has a purpose, so I don't have a crap tone of analog gear. Also, setting up this gear to be able to be recorded to capture those special moments without delay. Personally, I think you may have just had too much gear. If you kept a 3rd of the gear I think you'd kind value from the limitations.
This is why I've shifted to gear like Virus TI and Elektron Overbridge. Lets me play the physical gear seperately, but it gets used often in my DAW as it's as easy to connect with VST. Gear is best for live perf tho
dude, you're fucking adorable and i'll always check out whatever you have to say. i've learned so much from you. thanks.
If you wanted to work in a 'new' way, you could have done that by using any piece of gear you didn't or weren't used to using, and constrain yourself to using ONLY that for a period of time. I notice that most studio gear that goes unused is simply because we don't know what its actually good for and its not until we spend an extended period of time with it before we actually get a feel for its use.
Dude, that old school English cottage got me jealous. Maybe triggers an ancestral memory for me. I've bought and sold a bunch of gear myself. I like simple setups myself, save the out of the box stuff for a bit of character. You don't need lots of stuff.
And you beat me to it. Was thinking of making a video on this topic.
Right, seems a shame to get rid of everything and sort of wear off gear when there’s some truly brilliant pieces out there.
Glad to see you again.
I’ve always been against hardware. I think hardware is pretentious. 99% of the time it’s just about telling people you have the gear.
Pretentious guy over here 👋
Unless they're making *all* their music on hardware like me 🙄🌌
I really recognize myself in the problem you describe, as an old trotter from the 80s and 90s, where I at the most had 12-14 hardware synths and samplers. It all ended up with writing block, where I also realized that I became less creative with more equipment. So I took drastic actions, and sold all of my equipment, except from a dictaphone and a cassette player. The point was I had to get my creativity back, which took me over a year, before I finally started writing music again. The purchases I made then, were much more carefully thought out and ended up with one synth and rather some extra effect devices and recording equipment, than several instruments.
whats minimal setup "enough to make tracks" for you? if want, may answer with general description, without brand names
I agree with you. I’m partly on your vibe I keep some gear but I sell it when I’ve exhausted it. It’s a rotating door 👍
When I was learning how to produce music I didn't want to purchase too many gears. I have 47 virtual synthesizers including the ones that came with other daws that I purchased. Those daws also have many usable sound samples as well. I have flash drives filled with over 50,000 samples and sounds. Lets say that I didn't have to purchase anymore gears. I'm happy with everything that I have.
Trust me or not, but over the course of the last 35+ years I went through some similar phases. For instance, when I started, as a young intern in the local recording studio, I was only using hardware. It was not by choice, it’s because we had nothing else. If you wanted to record, it was on a 2” tape machine. Then one day we got the first MIDI sequencer on Atari (like Pro24, that became Cubase V1.0), and then I accumulated a lot of Synth, Romplers and other workstation keyboards, racks etc… it was just to get more sounds. And then came the digital era in the late ‘80s, early ‘90s, so I started to move to more virtual instruments and effects, and even thought I could fully move ITB. I sold all my gear and bought a lot of software, unfortunately it was not perfect at this time, but again we didn’t had much choices. Then later on in the late ‘00s, I was working in a full commercial studio, with plenty of gear, high stuff, and then I got a taste to the high quality we can achieve with proper gear, so I started to buy back some hardware to compensate the lack we had at the time in software, to emulate what I could do in pro studio. But slowly things got better, software got better accuracy, reproducing more accurately analog gear to the point we couldn’t make much difference anymore, and we got plenty of modern controller such Maschine, Ableton Push, MPC Studio, etc… So plenty of new solutions to work fully ITB with an adequate controller that provide the same user experience we can have with analog hardware gear, but yet have now the virtual unlimited sounds from the digital world. And I’m not working in commercial studio, nor I have nothing to prove to anyone anymore. It doesn’t have to “look good for the client”. Therefore now I’m focusing on getting a great workflow that works for me and allow me to get creative. And the solution that works for me (YMMV) is to get back to full ITB with a powerful MacBook and a couple of nice controller such Maschine mk3 and a keyboard. That’s pretty much all I really need now and it works for me. Of course, everyone is different and I don’t claim it’s THE ultimate solution for everyone. It’s just a solution that is proven to work for me and that I like… and in the end, it’s what matters. To pretty much forget about gear and just focus on the music.
yeah its different from person to person. my friend cant stand working ITB, but the thing is, friend is heavily into DIY... handmade sequencers and stuff... very creative. even using tape loops nowodays lol. and weirdly, friend makes good music instead of weird noises or smth. guess its just.. talent. personally i find itb way easier.
Hybrid is the way to but to each his own ... analog synths ... digital synths and apps .. acoustic instruments is where I flow the best... have no issues using amp simulations drum loops etc
Im totally with you, it is just a nice to have - but usually creative is created in the brain and not what kind of expensive gear you own imho - often people comfort themselve with big studios - but ofthen there is too much focus lost through out - so for me: Desktop PC - Midi Keyboard - Empty Desk - Headphones - Scarlett 4i4 - Ableton 11 and many vsts
My new challenge has been to make music in the box VS. using a bunch of expensive analog outboard gear. I figure if the music I make sounds better than those who need a ton of expense analog out board gear to achieve the same result then I truly evolved as a producer. I do use a lot of controllers to still have that turn the knobs and fader feel I like, but I never going back to analog...ever!
checked out your "Serum Trap Presets".......OUT OF THIS WORLD!!! Amazing stuff!! Great job dude!!
I honestly just use a keyboard and guitar. I hate having a room full of clutter and junk. After I started living alone, i just tried to keep everything minimalistic
It's really good to see you back on TH-cam!
I am the proud new owner of Multiplier's RE20 mic :) Good luck mate with your fresh start, looking forward to more content from you.
so stoked you're back king
keep one single analog monophonic, one controller(your favourite) and buy a COUPLE OF BIG (video) MONITORS.
I love this honesty. Everyone's just stripping down... getting back to basics. I'm not there, yet. But... I get it. I've bought and sold countless things for the past 20 years. I'd love to have a simple desk with a laptop and a pair of headphones. Not the way I work, though. I think a lot of multi-instrumentalists (guitarist / drummer / bassist / keyboardist / singer / producer) have a lot of trouble slimming down to a minimalist studio. I wish I could, but can't. Not yet.... anyone else in the same boat?
I play multiple instruments and have never had an issue working with a limited setup.
getting back to basics would be some cheap synth and 4track recorder, lol
Sometimes my midi gives me inspirations in moments I didnt know I needed it. And then I go straight to the computer. 😂
Minimalism is tricky in the producer world.
Very true
Man becomes a sage with minimalism... totally agreed...
Man, have loved your videos for years. Great to see you back. 💛
I am limiting myself to a digital workstaion, an analog synth, and midi controller. So I chose things I can get the most out of. I limit the studio gear to just one corner of my studio apartment. But I have a Yamaha MODX6+ with it's AWM3 and FM-X engines, and a DSI Pro 3 SE, which actually scratches that itch I have to go modular, it's mod matrix I can route almost everything to almost everywhere. I also have a Keylab essential 88. I'm a classivally trained pianist, but frankly, I haven't even touched a piano in like 3 decades, so the piano weighted keys really don't mean a whole lot to me anymore. BTW, I do still own a piano, but it's sits at my parents house, the whole, "I'm leaving and taking all my stuff" bit doesn't work when something weighs a half a ton. But I also left another piano behind after that, but a different story there.
Interesting to see, but I use my hardware devices all the time - so I'll keep it. I actually went the other way compared to what you just did :-)
---
I find the idea of sitting in front of a computer screen in order to make music frightening to be honest. But... I guess since I am an amateur, as in "doing it for the love" as opposed to professionals as in "doing it for the money", I have no interest in being economic. So I do not need instant and total recall, portability and gazillions of features. I work a fulltime job, mostly in front of a computer, so I want to use instruments for making music. The only computers in my setup are the "computer controlled" TB-303 and TR-808.
I don't even like MIDI that much as I found DIN sync to be more solid and reliable. I love that these machines just need to be turned on. No long boot-sequence, no updates needed, no internet connection and what-not.
That being said, I am not interested in having a room full of gear, even if it would be all the classics like JP-8s, Memorymoog or huge modular systems. My setup is like 1 meter wide, three tiers within a Jaspers rack, me standing/dancing in front of it. I got all the basics right for enabling myself to make the music I like. Acid techno / house / techno.
I do have a macbook, I am an Ableton Live user since the first beta versions pre v1. I know that programm pretty well. I sketch out stuff with it sometimes, but I always get tired after like 30 minutes, whereas creating music with hardware makes me excited and awake.
What I don't understand to this very day is why people in electronic music judge the tools so hard in financial regards. I mean, do piano players go crazy like that? Those are instruments, for most of us here, we're using them as toys in our spare time. Why is the money/features-ratio so important? Anyways, have fun guys and girls 😎
In other words, it's time for you to go modular. Like proper modular. With the hardware you've bought, the main upside you get is that it goes through a preamp - downside to those particular devices is they won't offer you anything your DAW won't. Modular on the other hand.....That's why it became obsolete to you.
i just recently sold all of my gear also. I found the Dirtywave M8. this little box is insane with features. check it out. you'll see why this is such an exciting unit. nuff said.
We used to beat in the lunch table and freestyle, that’s truly liberating 😎
So you got rid of everything to get a custom controller? :P
Congrats on the new chapter. It is always good to focus, evolve, and move forward.
Cheers
nohOuiAkadaCasserol?
“Oi mate I sold me instrimints and me equeepmint cuz I’m just soer createchiv that I don’t need it”
-Insufferable brit
13 minutes in one sentence lol
interesting. for me, it’s been the opposite. realizing that I don’t enjoy a DAW workflow has been so liberating
The fact that you have to make a video about it tells me you still have G.A.S.
I’m totally in the same place. As much as I love my hoards of equipment lovingly amassed over the decades I had the realisation that it’s gotten to the point where it needs a whole room of its own like it’s a person. Ultimately the goal is that everything I create gets recorded down but another realisation was that (ironically) the more equipment I have, the less productive I’ve become! I’m now looking forward to a massive clearance & put the leftover money towards a new simpler but higher quality setup than I’ve ever had. The appeal of a tolerable & not crazy workspace just grows by the day!
Great point. Maybe put your money in a better acoustic space, depending on how serious or remunerative your music making is.
Honestly that’s so cool that u don’t need so much analog stuff that means that digital is our future and that’s amazing because it will be cheeper, saving physical space and knows what else, I love it!!!!!
Yeah man we all need to change shit up for creativity sake from time to time, musicians have been doing it for centuries. I enjoy seeing you comes to grips with this concept/need of musical creativity being fostered by change. We are beings that have evolved and are evolving and one of the windows into the evolutionary process is reflected quite vividly in music and music gear. I have many sides to my musical tastes and I create music in different genres. One if the things I did as a guitarist to break myself out of a box was to experiment with an altered tuning and I made that unusual tuning my own, got to know it's ins and outs and it gave me a completely different musical voice to express myself with.
Then there side of it too where having a room full of gear makes a music video look cool but I've been doing this long enough that seeing rooms like that make me almost nauseous because of the choice paralysis it gives me having so much gear...it leads to this jack of all gear master of none thing. I mean how many pieces of gear have been made that have so many functions and no one except maybe the gear company's reps even know or use all the possibly functions. It's like having 500 cable channels...why? You can never watch all the shows and you have to weed through millions of choices...oh it so fucking exhausting to think about.
I guess if I can be proud of anything when I hear my music, no matter the genre I've played in, it's distinctly mine, I have very defined imprint and to that point I'd add that, not learning to play other people's songs helped me forge my own identity. I didn't want to waste time learning other people's stuff in order to learn the instrument I was learning at the time, I'm currently able to play five instruments, but I was just wanting to make sounds and I had a drive to figure them out on my own and so I never took lessons either.
All of that happened because of exact what you've discovered and made a video about, change is necessary for growth which naturally has the effect of creating something new, if not in the world, then new to who you are at this precise musical juncture and it's that change that keeps music as a whole evolving and that can and does have a large impact on those in the world who love music, from fans to musicians themselves. Great video...welcome to the evolution man!!🤘😎🤘
Appreciate 🙏🤙
I completely resonate with what’s being said in this video. You can definitely hear that he has matured and evolved in a way where he’s questioning his way of operating.
This is real! There is often the pressure to buy gear purely for the aesthetic, as many other content creatures in the space appear to be more “credible” as a result.
Great vid.
I did the same thing. Coming back slowly with fresh ideas
I believe in a hybrid setup. Too much gear is also not much different than having too many plugins. The key to all is to keep it minimal, and focused. Focused gear and focused software/plugins.
this guy is just constantly k-rocked, no?
I experienced the same 20 years ago already, good music has nothing to do with commercial products !
I can feel you and my conclusion on beeing into gear and the dawless and analogue hype is quite the same. It may be cool for others but not for me and my workflow. I ended up with a MPC One which is more or less a daw but I still miss a mouse xD
Just came across your channel and I see that probably more than half of the hardware you owned I found to be very excited about myself:)
Support the step you took for sure.
I like that direction. We all have too much stuff.
For me I went through a habit of buying tons of hardware but then reclused all the way back to a midi keyboard and laptop. In all honesty, I do tons with the keyboard but ALWAYS end up editing when mastering ( as well as changing what I just played on the keyboard to create the sound I really want after going through the track ). New gear is addictive, but sometimes it's best to not think about it and be happy to go minimal if it helps you work faster
I forgot: My meanwhile go-to keyboard is a Korg Nanokey2, a simple 2 octave microkeyboard sized 3 cigarette cases. Makes fun, is portable, never missed the big ones .... ;-)
I'm starting out and this really helps drop a lot of anxiety off of the expression that is music. All that gear looks like an immense stressor haha, like an ADHD mind unboxed - I love it also though.
Especially the broken synths on the shelf!
You are absolutely right. The most creative way to make music is to sing. No switches, no settings, simply singing!! :-) To put it on a more versatile level you can add instruments: 6 string guitar, 4 string bass, a keyboard. Optionally: an electric violin, an electric cello, some flutes. These means are sufficient in the digital world to create even orchestral music. I am collecting instruments and amplifiers but do not use most of them. Same background as yours .... 😃
We simply followed the advertising industry, they made us believe we had a need on more and more devices. nOpE!!! :.-)
Some digital devices are sufficient, the simpler the better (creativity-wise).
My personal list is (but meanwhile I transformed hardware to digital VSTs which is bad as in the hardware world):
Kuassa Caliburn (Marshall), Lancaster (Vox), Matchlock (Fender) for guitar
Klanghelm MJUC, DC8C and TDR Kotelnikov as compressors
Loudmax as limiter
Twin2 by Fabfilter, OP-X_Pro_II by sonicprojects, Vital, Synth1 as synthesizers
Ampeg SVT Suite for bass
Celemony Melodyne Editor for vocals
Fabfilter Pro DS for de-essing vocals
Fabfilter Timeless3 for delay
Sanford Reverb for Reverb
Sitala and MT PowerDrumKit for drums
Fabfilter Pro-Q3 for equalizing
Voxengo SPAN and Voxengo Correlometer for analyzing/phase detection
FreeG for gain staging and mixing
Klanghelm SDRR, IVGI and Fabfilter Saturn2 for saturation
My favourite personal microphone is the MXL CR89 and a pair of MXL CR21
eh i cant sing. my fingers are okay with playing guitar though.
i have a lot of gear that I could technically get by without, but I draw the line at the push. and a keyboard controller, at least.
I feel like u can't go wrong with a keyboard and a mpd or some kind of pad. You'll be good for the rest of your life with just that
One of the best motivational videos for me! Big love for multiplier
👍🏼
Welcome back man. Congrats on the new place.
I'm all for this but I will never get rid of my ableton push
Good call dude. Been selling off a lot of my old studio gear thats been sitting around doing nothing. Didnt get much for it but definitely nicer to have more space. I'm now very picky with what I want/need. But I still love guitars and amps 😆
Minimalism is great, and there is so much you can do in the box these days. Between some wonderful plugins, like Slate VMR, Arturia FX Bundle, Liquidsonics Seventh Heaven Professional, and some of my favorite VSTIs (Omnisphere 2, Trilian, a few Kontakt libraries), I don't feel like I will ever need any hardware other than my midi controller, good mics, and my interface.
Absolutely thrilled that you're back!
Diamond in the rough. Thank you sir.
I feel you 100% I sold everything during the pandemic and I’m starting fresh this fall. Might be switching to Mac and buying a new camera, keyboards, mics, monitors etc... Only things I kept were my Apollo X4, Beyerdynamic DT 770’s, and Sennheiser HD 650’s.
Wish I found your channel earlier. Awesome video !
welcome back bud and to the freshness of a new beginning - all the best
That’s exactly what I think. All these devices eat time and like you said almost bring you nowhere. I have a Fantom 8 now and a new Alienware x17 now. That’s all I need to make awesome stuff. Hope you will keep going the ZEN way and which you well!
This is a excellent update and inspiring...I applaud you as I can't seen myself doing that. Then again you are levels and levels above me.
I hear this so loud. Stopped buying stuff a couple of years ago. I just don't have the time creatively to constantly get my head around new kit. The end result is underwhelming. The one constant is the laptop and I'm cool with that.
I’ve had more synths and gear then I can recall.
Ultimately what I ended up with is 1 poly and 1 mono synth, a Peak and a Pro 3. I wanted very versatile hardware synths since I was only going to have 2. Of course I do have a ton of synth plugins.
The limited hardware gear and workflow because of it have been liberating!
Inb4 ‘hobby’ eurorack appears
I'm considering doing the same. Can you recommend where to sell?
Great to have you back, man!
The only real surprise for me is your decision to get rid of the Push, but I agree that ‘Influencer’ is a worrying but honest term in that has somewhat contributed to GAS and gear credibility, I do think that a ‘New’ way of working can be to focus on selecting 1 or 2 bits of gear and see what comes from that gear alone, but In the end, you have to be honest about your current musical direction, clearly there’s not much point in buying and TR8’s if you are really inspired by orchestral percussion. I think you are brave and that regard. There is also the saying, better to have something and not need it, than need something and not have it, perhaps a more honest look at that before purchase could be a good thing for all of us. 👍
I did the same thing and sold nearly my whole studio, altho I'm still hardware. Just an MPC60, Novation Bass Station Rack & Roland VS880EX now and have never been more productive.
PS - it really irritates me when modern bods refer to anything hardware as "analogue", when, obviously, hardly any of it is.
Did you seek out the old Roland VS880 or did you already have one/got it easy or cheap?
@@kenzieprice6745 I was using reel to reel and cassette before I got it a few months ago for £50. I had the bigger VS1880 briefly about 10 years ago but when I found myself looking for digital effects to make it sound more analogue, that's when I realised that I should probably just stick with tape, ha ha. But recently I just wanted things as simple as poss so flogged my tape recorders, mixer, outboard, keys and other samplers and got the smaller VS. I have never and would never use a computer/software for my tunes, mostly just coz I'm one of those people that needs the "limitations" of hardware to find inspiration.
Also, like the man says, I just got sick of constantly thinking about and chasing and swapping around my set-up, wasting hundreds of hours and thousands of pounds. Now all I want is my SP1200 back and I'm set for life.
@@RunOfTheHind Thanks! I guess I asked because I bought a couple of the older hardware multitrackers with the idea of more simplicity and live playing work flow but the workflow seems slow on the units I have and I feel too much time dinkering with them. I wanted to see your attraction and experience.
I think my problem too (and probably mostly everyone else's) is not spending enough time with gear and writing it off before it clicks especially because of the plethora of gear available.
....looked at the isla 2400?
@@kenzieprice6745 Yep...and that's a no for S2400. Ain't no thing like the real thing. It was when I got the 1200 that the 'simplicity unlocks creativity' thing really kicked in for me. Gutted I sold it...and not just coz it'll cost me 2 or 3 grand more than I sold it for to get another, roflz.
Re: the multi-tracks, I guess it depends on what you've come from. If you're used to pooters, it probs does seem clunky. But I'm coming from cassette multi-tracks etc so the only difference is that it's less easy to fuck up your recording, ha ha, and everything sounds a lot tidier (albeit with less character too).
I agree. Though I still get inspired by jamming with my synths and create melodies and chord progressions that way, I find myself most times deleting the audio and using Diva, Hive, or an emulation of the very same synths. When I hear someone say that they need to buy this or that in order to "make it", I remind them that Skrillex blew everyone away with a laptop and a skateboard cruising Huntington Beach. Boris Brejcha does everything in the box. Finneas O'Connell & Billie Eilish won Grammys using Logic Pro and stock plugins. We don't need any of that extra stuff
This past year, I've bought so many things and then sold them back because I didn't like them. I bought an MPC X, hated it... too many things to do that I could do in the DAW without all of the steps involved. I bought a Behringer Deepmind. Hated it. Sold it back. Had a Behringer ARP 2600 on order, they couldn't get it off the line before I changed my mind. I have a few Moogs I'm keeping. Sold the Subharmonicon though. Hated it. Didn't use it. I have some desk modules. I don't use them. I do use my synths though. Most of them anyway. Ok, I'm going to rearrange things around for better use.
@@elyot4010 yeah well. idk. for me, its harder to COMPOSE inside daw/pianoroll/etc. Usually its my fingers who find melodies - on guitar, keyboard etc. So controller helps i think. Then you go and put notes into your digital studio and work further. But moment of inspiration often comes during "live playing" process. Especially when you like things such as finger drumming.
@@kurisuchiinathecrocodile333 I agree 100% If I find a great melody or progression while jamming with what I already have, be it a drone or a beat, I will record the midi. I see my post was done 9 months ago. I must have been in a very bad mood lol
For me it went the entirely other way around. I like "Live playing" and DAW just don't do it for me, too much fiddling, delays, dependencies etc. So I went all Dawless. But there's a difference, because a lot of people out there seem to think that these 1 monoponic synths are all the rage with their displays and twistyknobs, and I'm thinking - how would you even make music with that?
So when I purchase synths, they are always hefty ones with TONS and TONS of Polyphony, and preferably "insta recording" or "step recording" where I can do stuff and make changes on the fly, I find that easier, more inspirational and more interactive with the music. But hey - we're different, and that's not a bad thing.
what genres you do? as for monosynths, id say those make more sense with DAW track-by-track "studio" work, haha.
personally i always liked grooveboxes like electribe esx instead
Glad to have you back mate
I was beginning to think I'm the only guy doing music entirely in software - I use Reason (v12).
Glad to see you back. Love your Groove3 content as well.
This is very true. One Ned Rush tutorial alone had probably saved me 1000€ in purchases…
Often, evolution of music - especially in the area of electronic music - is a process of simplification.
Yamaha DX100
Casio CZ1000
5000 and CZ1
Korg poly 800
Roland 626
Yamaha RY30
EMU E5000 Ultra sampler.
DD12
DD10
DD65
Korg Monotron (s)
Korg Volca keys
Alesis Nannoverb
Alesis Reverb
Zoom RFX 2000
If I added all the outboard and the mixing desks and the computers I've had over the years - that list would be huge.
All are things I've had - I've kept only 5 of the above list.
The rest has been sold.... Often to simplify and streamline the work process.
One of the main changes I've made in the 20 plus years I've been doing music is going portable.
A laptop and good batteries can give you the freedom to use a pair of phones and create a track in totally different environments.
This, to me has more effective modulation on the journey and process than having lots of little boxes with LEDs on them.
The end results are often very different than having "a room" to work in.
i consider laptop being a bit fragile for portability though, but well, ipad+controller is okay replacement (just dont fall into trap of apples "always update" that kills software on yearly basis)
Interesting. I've gone the other way, stopped using a DAW not because one system is better than the other, I just can't stand using a music word processor any more - I find it soul destroying, scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, presets, plugins, more presets, aaarrrggghhh! I find a small amount of focused hardware and really knowing how to use it great for my personal workflow, though may not suit everyone.
One aspect I don't like is cables - so cable management is crucial to making the experience more pleasurable.
well, alternatively you could use max/msp with a controller :D
Glad to see you back man!
What controller do You use for keys and drums pads if any?
Okay bro - you should repack this as general life advice - with a title like Should YOU dump the elephant on your back - (just a suggest) Key is at 3:30m.
I just happened to be interested enough in music 'gear' and production evolution to want to give a hear to your 'personal issues' about it - but it turns out to be a major issue - I have an elephant on my back - course could also flip him around and give him a ride - but your key question there is the solvent to loosen the old bowels .. LOL.
Loopop only shows one piece at a time. He has peak credibility.
"Dobby is a free elf" :P
That was me 20 years ago. Got rid of everything.
1 keyboard, 1 pc... done!!
Just done the same thing with my acres of guitar gear…. The Most liberating experience. I play more with less effects. I get much more our of less gear .
Certainly in terms of raw musical satisfaction… contemplating going for a phase 2 clear out… with the stuff I just couldn’t give up first time…
Once I got brave… it was great, I miss nothing I thought I would . It’s given me money to look at the raw instruments I make music with and make clear decisions about the musician I am.. or would truly like to be…Great video … like watching the inside of my own head.👊
which ones you decided to keep? for me, its usually overdrive (or fuzz) + delay = thats enough for guitar. maybe ringmod or good reverb for special cases.
on the other hand, im more interested in stuff like microtonal guitar so you can play persian or indonesian music scales
What I don't understand is what is your current set-up now ? You did not keep a big screen, monitors, one mini controller and a sound card at least ? Even if you just work with a laptop now, you need basic equipment don't you think ?
perhaps he could get a harmonica and become a street musician. ahahaha
IRL > Computer. Every minute less behind a screen is a minute closer
to sanity. New beat-boxes (MPC Live, Toraiz SP-16
those things allow you to make the whole songs just in them, yes. so its daw indeed.
guess you prefer having separate instruments instead of "jack of all trades"?
@@kurisuchiinathecrocodile333 I think the biggest challenge is to plan and compose the song by hand and by intuition, thus making the process of creating the music more like a performance instead of just listening back your creation played by the machine. Or at least as much as possible. But it's a personal preference ofcourse.
And a different means to an end, it's a very different experience.
I cleared out all my outboard synths….worst decision of my life. Using Cubase, using I think it was media bay, it combined all the patches from all my software synths. I found they all sounded the same. I lost the individual voices of the hardware synths. Recording in the box almost destroyed my musical life. I see your point of view. The box killed creativity. For me synths reside in the eurosynth. Life resides in voltage. Real voltage.
you went modular? so, hows your journey so far? often i hear the opposite problem. that people get too much into sound design with them, so they stop producing "music" (e.g. full made tracks/compositions). some deal with it via having hybrid setup (e.g. pc/daw or something like octatrack+portastudio). some deal with..eh.. finding a way to play the whole track "on the fly", but depending on genre and/or music complexity, you may need pretty complex setup. its all interesting though.
on the other hand, some people able to do amazing music just in freaking FL. or, well, DefleMask or Renoise.
What virtual synths do you use , besides serum?