No New Gear Year (2023)

[FletchNYC]

Gonna check back on this thread after intellijel releases Cascadia. That’s one’s gonna separate the men/women from the boys/girls.

[paterursus]

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

Shhh…Not here.

Frap Tools may have something coming in the May timeframe. They’ve hinted at it winkingly. I have it as a possible exception in my no-gear pledge.

[thevegasnerve]

Gonna check back on this thread after intellijel releases Cascadia. That’s one’s gonna separate the men/women from the boys/girls.

yea those are the lines in the sand.

[Kosmikos]

Gonna check back on this thread after intellijel releases Cascadia. That’s one’s gonna separate the men/women from the boys/girls.

Righto, you can count me already in the boys/girls side, this Cascadia hype is killing me, it’s a day one blind purchase for me. It is like FOMO for gear you might not get because you just will never know what it is. Such a meta concept, it’s completely blowing my mind…

[coldstorage]

Holding myself accountable:
Beat lvl one boss (Taiga)
Died on lvl two when i couldn’t dodge the last wave of WMD restocks.

Dusting off and starting over.

[Kattefjaes]

Gonna check back on this thread after intellijel releases Cascadia. That’s one’s gonna separate the men/women from the boys/girls.

Righto, you can count me already in the boys/girls side, this Cascadia hype is killing me, it’s a day one blind purchase for me. It is like FOMO for gear you might not get because you just will never know what it is. Such a meta concept, it’s completely blowing my mind…

So actually, it might be Fear Of Finding Out, FOFO?

Also, in my case, I'm not doing "no new gear year", I'm doing "enjoy using your fucking modular more year". I put a pair of Rack Plumber modules in to let me get triggers and modulation from my sequencer spot to the drum area with less clutter and it has made things a lot nicer. Does "mostly boring, minor utilities that make everything 100% more convenient rather than all the latest shiny" begin to count?

I've found that swapping modules in/out of the rack and re-arranging a few things has been a really useful and enjoyable upgrade- that's more in the spirit of this. It has definitely let me optimise things to suit me better. Rate of modules going in and out of the house has dropped to almost zero, unless there's a specific reason. I do enjoy having a pool of spare lego bricks in the cupboard to draw on. Sometimes it also gives you that little dopamine kick when you swap them in an use the new layout too, useful lies to self.

[paterursus]

So actually, it might be Fear Of Finding Out, FOFO?

Also, in my case, I'm not doing "no new gear year", I'm doing "enjoy using your fucking modular more year". I put a pair of Rack Plumber modules in to let me get triggers and modulation from my sequencer spot to the drum area with less clutter and it has made things a lot nicer. Does "mostly boring, minor utilities that make everything 100% more convenient rather than all the latest shiny" begin to count?

I've found that swapping modules in/out of the rack and re-arranging a few things has been a really useful and enjoyable upgrade- that's more in the spirit of this. It has definitely let me optimise things to suit me better. Rate of modules going in and out of the house has dropped to almost zero, unless there's a specific reason. I do enjoy having a pool of spare lego bricks in the cupboard to draw on. Sometimes it also gives you that little dopamine kick when you swap them in an use the new layout too, useful lies to self.

“No new gear” isn’t literal for most of us. It’s really about supporting each other in general and specifically in getting to know our modulars better. Your goals are completely consistent with what we’re about.

[Kattefjaes]

“No new gear” isn’t literal for most of us. It’s really about supporting each other in general and specifically in getting to know our modulars better. Your goals are completely consistent with what we’re about.

Darn, who knew?

The thread is at least thought-provoking. I'm sure that in a lot of situations, there's more satisfaction to be had in getting something good out of gear you've under-used though, I've certainly been guilty of that too.

I feel like there's an element of privilege at work though, in that I now have more and better gear than past me would have dreamed of- so maybe it's easier to be sanguine and less GASsy. Hell, just my Ableton Studio 11 license probably provides far more riches than I can really justify. It's just that there's joy in the tangible machine, the physical patching and the real analogue heartbeat. I need to remember how past me would have felt, who couldn't afford a Bass Station and used to go play with one some lunchtimes at a friendly shop. If I'd been told "this modular here, this is yours", I would have been speechless.

[stk]

Well, I caved in and let down the team. Sorry/not sorry.
I became mildly obsessed with adding a new dimension to my spaghetti-goth//folk//doom project and tracked down a used & cheap Roli Seaboard.
First/only piece of new gear for '23.

On the plus side it's everything I wanted, and more. amazing piece of kit and definitely not redundant in my setup.

[thevegasnerve]

Well, I caved in and let down the team. Sorry/not sorry.
I became mildly obsessed with adding a new dimension to my spaghetti-goth//folk//doom project and tracked down a used & cheap Roli Seaboard.
First/only piece of new gear for '23.

On the plus side it's everything I wanted, and more. amazing piece of kit and definitely not redundant in my setup.

Yeah that’s an interesting one, I buckled and pre-ordered an Expressive E Osmose in January but that’s a special synth. I am happy to generally slow down though and use what I have.

[stk]

Well, I caved in and let down the team. Sorry/not sorry.
I became mildly obsessed with adding a new dimension to my spaghetti-goth//folk//doom project and tracked down a used & cheap Roli Seaboard.
First/only piece of new gear for '23.

On the plus side it's everything I wanted, and more. amazing piece of kit and definitely not redundant in my setup.

Yeah that’s an interesting one, I buckled and pre-ordered an Expressive E Osmose in January but that’s a special synth. I am happy to generally slow down though and use what I have.

Yeah I figured it's borderline "OK" - it's not like its adding to my glut of "stuff" (like if I, say, bought another analogue mono or even a poly) - it's a genuinely unique and relatively cheap (AU350) item that allows me to do "more" with what I already have.
That's what I tell myself, anyway! (plus it was paid for by my big Euro sell-off of last year so I'm technically still in the black).

[Arrandan]

“No new gear” isn’t literal for most of us. It’s really about supporting each other in general and specifically in getting to know our modulars better. Your goals are completely consistent with what we’re about.

Oh, I thought it was! I spent last year getting into modular and racking up the purchases. This year is definitely about using what I have and only adding things I need. So I bought a multicore, because I have two cases and it wasn't fun going out with them and having to label my patch cables going between them. And I bought a Nin because triggering envelopes manually + a second cv per envolope for Zadar is becoming unmissable. I held off on an Ensemble, Haible Tau (can do basic phasing with Squawk Dirty) and Stasis Leak (2x Versio+FX Aid = plenty of reverb/delay).

Somebody mentioned their Ableton license. Yes, it's a cheap way to get a tremendous amount of possibilities. For me, modular goes back to the days when not everything was possible with a click. I remember fondly getting 1 unit of something and really getting the most out of it. You can't imagine how complex programs can get in 56 steps on a programmable calculator until you spent 3 years programming one because you have nothing else. This thread, for me, is in that spirit. Right, you have these 250-300hp of synth. What do you do with it now? How far can you go? And that's much more about music and about me than about the gear.

[Stu B]

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

Shhh…Not here.

Frap Tools may have something coming in the May timeframe. They’ve hinted at it winkingly. I have it as a possible exception in my no-gear pledge.

I will also call a one day amnesty if this happens.

[Michael]

I hadn’t been remotely interested in anything until I accidentally heard a snippet of sound from Virt Iter Legio’s harmonic setting. Fortunately I seem to be able to resist - what helps is that when it comes to any particular oscillator I need several (polyphony), which makes it very expensive and therefore less tempting.

As for upcoming modules, I’m sure the North Coast Synthesis quad VCA will be cool.

[Stu B]

Gonna check back on this thread after intellijel releases Cascadia. That’s one’s gonna separate the men/women from the boys/girls.

Have they said what it is yet? We’re getting into the same kind of time frame as Jesus return to earth.

[djthopa]

Hello! hope you are doing well.
I guess my mind is getting rewired, i cancelled an order for two buchla modules i had ordered last year.
Is this it for me?!!

[djthopa]

Hello! hope you are doing well.
I guess my mind is getting rewired, i cancelled an order for two buchla modules i had ordered last year. The gas was strong but….I managed.
Is this it for me?!!

[Kosmikos]

Hello! hope you are doing well.
I guess my mind is getting rewired, i cancelled an order for two buchla modules i had ordered last year. The gas was strong but….I managed.
Is this it for me?!!

Same here, it does indeed feel like a rewiring of the brain. I’m still feeling very confused about it.
Although I didn’t cancel last year’s preorder (I’m not that strong yet!), I did manage to not succumb to some rare/out of production/on sale modules. It’s unheard of…

[paterursus]

Hello! hope you are doing well.
I guess my mind is getting rewired, i cancelled an order for two buchla modules i had ordered last year. The gas was strong but….I managed.
Is this it for me?!!

Awesome! Your mind is getting rewired in the sense that the source of your dopamine hits is shifting away from buying something new. It’s a process, but it’s cool when it happens.

[djthopa]

Thanks for the feedback!
I don’t know…i would have done it without blinking a year ago, but this time i wondered do i really need this modules? and surprisingly the answer was: not really!

This is a big change in the thought process for me, before i would have said don’t need it but i want it.

Skateboarding is also helping a lot!!

[LunaticSound]

It's kinda amazing how this thread is slowly starting to be used for the discussion of upcoming cool new modules. Brace yourselves, folks. Winter is coming.

[Kosmikos]

It's kinda amazing how this thread is slowly starting to be used for the discussion of upcoming cool new modules. Brace yourselves, folks. Winter is coming.

It’s a trap, that’s how we keep getting new recruits in.

Superbooth is in less than 3 weeks now, bracing myself indeed…

[Multi Grooves]

I found a happy medium. (I'm skint anyway) but I am very focussed on understanding what I have really well. The only time I consider anything new, is because it is something I do not currently have. I won a Michigan Synth works big fader bank thingy on fleabay really cheap a couple of days ago. I lack in tactile controllers.