No New Gear Year (2023)

[paterursus]

Made it thru another month! Started recording again too. How is everyone doing/feeling about slowing down?

I’m feeling like my head is spinning.

In one direction I see all the gear in my office/studio that I don’t use often enough, and in the other all the shiny new things I could/want to add to my collection.
I’ve definitely slowed down, although I can’t see how I could have sustained my 2022 levels of buying to be honest.
I don’t want to sell more stuff in case I’d regret it, but I need to in order to fit all the gear I actually want to use into my office.
I can’t find any satisfaction with my nearly finished modular cases that all seem to be messed up somehow at the moment by either some of the latest or future planned exceptions/missing acquisitions. But I think I’m slowly starting to think more pragmatically about it.

I’ve also seemed to have lost my music mojo at the moment, and most things I do don’t really pass my quality threshold for recording. Which makes me feel miserable, and makes me want to buy new gear, but now that too makes me feel miserable.

This said, I think it’s just a phase, and I feel like I soon will start to make more sense of all these things. There are also new modules that were ordered/planned in 2022 coming out soon that i’m really looking forward to, so I will definitely get a boost and should start feeling more content with what I now have and can use.

Even the most creative minds occasionally need some time outside the studio. Maybe a short break from going in there. Alternatively try to deliberately create a crap track. Like, as bad as you can. You might be surprised what comes out of it.

[thevegasnerve]

Creative funks are difficult but they pass. No amount of gear purchases will help that.

[LunaticSound]

Sometimes I have to make, and I mean finish, 2 or 3 weird, crappy, janky or just ridiculous tracks to prepare for the arrival of one that then is usually my new favorite.

[Kosmikos]

I’m away from my gear next week. That should reset a few things and keep me off from temptations.

I think what’s starting to emerge from this exercise in restraint, is a stronger sense of what gear works for me and what doesn’t.
It might be more because of how I approached it (limiting space rather than purchases), as I’m having to make more strategical choices about what comes and what goes, but also it makes me more aware of some great gear I already have.

[djthopa]

All good here too. No new gear and building plenty of stuff.
But….got a shipment notification from Buchla about two modules I purchased last year. Technically im good. Right?
Stay strong !

[paterursus]

All good here too. No new gear and building plenty of stuff.
But….got a shipment notification from Buchla about two modules I purchased last year. Technically im good. Right?
Stay strong !

All good! That’s happened to a number of us. Sounds like you’re doing great.

[Kosmikos]

All good here too. No new gear and building plenty of stuff.
But….got a shipment notification from Buchla about two modules I purchased last year. Technically im good. Right?
Stay strong !

Same here, I have a bunch of WMD stuff ordered last year that will probably start shipping next week while I’m away…

[ProggyBoog]

All good here too. No new gear and building plenty of stuff.
But….got a shipment notification from Buchla about two modules I purchased last year. Technically im good. Right?
Stay strong !

Same here, I have a bunch of WMD stuff ordered last year that will probably start shipping next week while I’m away…

I'm in the same boat. The Xodes 1u percussion module kickstarter will be shipping after not too much longer.

[stk]

How is everyone doing/feeling about slowing down?

Feeling great. Honestly the very idea of adding new gear kind of irks me. Seeing synth Sale ads popping up on my social media feed makes me feel faintly nauseous.

A friend offered me a Novation Drumstation (something I've gassed over for, like, 20 years) in lieu of some money he owes me, and I haven't even said yes yet..

[paterursus]

How is everyone doing/feeling about slowing down?

Feeling great. Honestly the very idea of adding new gear kind of irks me. Seeing synth Sale ads popping up on my social media feed makes me feel faintly nauseous.

A friend offered me a Novation Drumstation (something I've gassed over for, like, 20 years) in lieu of some money he owes me, and I haven't even said yes yet..

That’s a pretty healthy place to be.

[Powerdwarf]

damn its so easy to not buy new gear in year 2023 as there is no gear coming out :DD every brand was bombarding us with new stuff and now complete silence, death of eurorack craze

[Kosmikos]

damn its so easy to not buy new gear in year 2023 as there is no gear coming out :DD every brand was bombarding us with new stuff and now complete silence, death of eurorack craze

Even some of the stuff announced way back is still nowhere to be found.
Let’s just enjoy the moment…


But don’t forget that Superbooth is almost upon us. Now that will be the real test…

[thevegasnerve]

damn its so easy to not buy new gear in year 2023 as there is no gear coming out :DD every brand was bombarding us with new stuff and now complete silence, death of eurorack craze

Even some of the stuff announced way back is still nowhere to be found.
Let’s just enjoy the moment…


But don’t forget that Superbooth is almost upon us. Now that will be the real test…

And that’s my path, enjoy what I have and take this time to get to know the modules I have. Slow down a little so I can be productive in a way that matters to me.

[bemushroomed]

I failed :(
purchased the Disting EX, but i also did sell my uBraids (and some other stuff, non modular stuff). just seemed to good to pass up + i also noticed my calculation for it being too power hungry for my case was wrong, so it kind of sealed the deal.. one uBraids for 4 Braids, 4 plaits, rings and a ton of other stuff, pretty nice.

[Stu B]

I’ve sold all my drum modules and sequencer and couple of other modules to buy an Alpha Base or maybe a TR-8S. It’s served to remind me how much more expensive modular is than stand alone gear. In fact fuck it, maybe I can buy both and still have change. If you don’t spend more it sort of doesn’t count as new gear, right?? RIGHT???

[Kosmikos]

I’ve sold all my drum modules and sequencer and couple of other modules to buy an Alpha Base or maybe a TR-8S. It’s served to remind me how much more expensive modular is than stand alone gear. In fact fuck it, maybe I can buy both and still have change. If you don’t spend more it sort of doesn’t count as new gear, right?? RIGHT???

I wouldn’t say an Alpha Base is any cheaper, although I have no idea how many drum modules you are selling.
If I was selling all of mine, after eBay/Reverb fees I suspect I’d just be about to be able to buy one and maybe get a bit of spare change if I’m lucky, but probably not enough for a TR-8S.

I too would love an Alpha Base though.

[soundular]

I’ve sold all my drum modules and sequencer and couple of other modules to buy an Alpha Base or maybe a TR-8S. It’s served to remind me how much more expensive modular is than stand alone gear. In fact fuck it, maybe I can buy both and still have change. If you don’t spend more it sort of doesn’t count as new gear, right?? RIGHT???

I wouldn’t say an Alpha Base is any cheaper, although I have no idea how many drum modules you are selling.
If I was selling all of mine, after eBay/Reverb fees I suspect I’d just be about to be able to buy one and maybe get a bit of spare change if I’m lucky, but probably not enough for a TR-8S.

I too would love an Alpha Base though.

Well with this logic, if you give someone else your money and they happen to buy it for you, that doesn't count either.

[Stu B]

I’ve sold all my drum modules and sequencer and couple of other modules to buy an Alpha Base or maybe a TR-8S. It’s served to remind me how much more expensive modular is than stand alone gear. In fact fuck it, maybe I can buy both and still have change. If you don’t spend more it sort of doesn’t count as new gear, right?? RIGHT???

I wouldn’t say an Alpha Base is any cheaper, although I have no idea how many drum modules you are selling.
If I was selling all of mine, after eBay/Reverb fees I suspect I’d just be about to be able to buy one and maybe get a bit of spare change if I’m lucky, but probably not enough for a TR-8S.

I too would love an Alpha Base though.

I’ve had a big clear out. Although tbf if I bought both I’d only have enough change for a McDonalds. I just got a bit overwhelmed by the amount of stuff needing attention in front of me and want to narrow things down a bit. Also, I think I’m just pretty trad in my drums taste, 808/909 style works for me best.

[thelowerrhythm]

All of this talk about trying to make shit tracks -- good luck with that. I've been assigning something like this to my painters for years and no one has yet to achieve it. Our minds do not like to swim upshitstream. It can be VERY difficult. The worst you're going to do approaching this intentionally is making something weird as hell off the beaten path, that you or someone else will kind of love, and then that experiment will fold over and benefit your other work in some way. It's easily the most successfully artist-block destroyer I've seen.

[Kosmikos]

All of this talk about trying to make shit tracks -- good luck with that. I've been assigning something like this to my painters for years and no one has yet to achieve it. Our minds do not like to swim upshitstream. It can be VERY difficult. The worst you're going to do approaching this intentionally is making something weird as hell off the beaten path, that you or someone else will kind of love, and then that experiment will fold over and benefit your other work in some way. It's easily the most successfully artist-block destroyer I've seen.

I make shit tracks all the time. I don’t find it too difficult. I don’t usually let anyone listen to them though.
But yeah, anything I record simply have to be worth the effort, and I often listen back to it with interest, even if I initially thought it was a bit shit.

The worse is having made a very good track badly recorded/mixed (not multitracked) that you can’t do anything with. I find it soul destroying.

When I am in a block, I often find that re-starting from scratch can be of help. I just unpatch everything, change instruments, whatever, and start again. Better to write it off as wasted time than persevere with mediocrity.

But getting new gear has always been like a magic creative booster to me. There is something about trying to learn a piece of gear, while putting it through its pace, that seems to really inspire me.
What I’m trying to do now is dust off some old friends (=synths/modules) instead, rearrange some modules, or get my less used DIY rack in action. It seems like a good substitute, but it feels much harder somehow.

[thelowerrhythm]

All of this talk about trying to make shit tracks -- good luck with that. I've been assigning something like this to my painters for years and no one has yet to achieve it. Our minds do not like to swim upshitstream. It can be VERY difficult. The worst you're going to do approaching this intentionally is making something weird as hell off the beaten path, that you or someone else will kind of love, and then that experiment will fold over and benefit your other work in some way. It's easily the most successfully artist-block destroyer I've seen.

I make shit tracks all the time. I don’t find it too difficult. I don’t usually let anyone listen to them though.
But yeah, anything I record simply have to be worth the effort, and I often listen back to it with interest, even if I initially thought it was a bit shit.

The worse is having made a very good track badly recorded/mixed (not multitracked) that you can’t do anything with. I find it soul destroying.

When I am in a block, I often find that re-starting from scratch can be of help. I just unpatch everything, change instruments, whatever, and start again. Better to write it off as wasted time than persevere with mediocrity.

But getting new gear has always been like a magic creative booster to me. There is something about trying to learn a piece of gear, while putting it through its pace, that seems to really inspire me.
What I’m trying to do now is dust off some old friends (=synths/modules) instead, rearrange some modules, or get my less used DIY rack in action. It seems like a good substitute, but it feels much harder somehow.

Well, I do suppose "shit" needs to be better defined here, but the not letting anyone here it makes it untestable haha. I'm so off the deep end at this point though that I've started to love unintentionally bad mixing. I've worked in amazing spaces with gear worth more than my home and my favorite mic'ing technique in 2023 is to prop up a Packard Bell computer microphone from the 486 era in an old stinky tennis shoe.

[paterursus]

Well, I do suppose "shit" needs to be better defined here, but the not letting anyone here it makes it untestable haha. I'm so off the deep end at this point though that I've started to love unintentionally bad mixing. I've worked in amazing spaces with gear worth more than my home and my favorite mic'ing technique in 2023 is to prop up a Packard Bell computer microphone from the 486 era in an old stinky tennis shoe.

I’m repulsed and oddly curious at the same time.

[Michael]

I haven’t been tempted by anything recently so no buying problems here (at least when it comes to synthesizers). Actually I recently figured out a new patch which has rendered a decent number of utility-type modules redundant so in theory I could be selling quite a few, which would be nice. Unfortunately the price/module would be too low to really be worth the effort selling them individually so I’m kind of stuck.

[Kosmikos]

Unfortunately the price/module would be too low to really be worth the effort selling them individually so I’m kind of stuck.

Sometime I sell stuff just for the value it brings by decluttering my place, not really for the money.

Maybe do a lot job on eBay, and let someone else deals with the individual sales.

[Powerdwarf]

does anyone know what would be interesting products for this year? i guess companies not releasing anything because of coming superbooth? or is it chip shortage