#122

yeah, its the obsessive behavior that I have identified as the sign for me… checking ebay everyday. looking at every website, local ads etc. etc.

no problem with making sure you are paying market rates, and vintage/rare items will have generate a scalpers mentality in any market.

1 Like
#123

Well, on the bright side you’re probably composing in your mind when you do that. When you have such a desire there’s often at the root of it a creative spark.

On the other hand, composition is never “in the mind” but always and only in the conversation, in that which is granted by the opening in the space between oneself and the gear. Only in and through conversation is the gear disclosed as it really is. No matter what the conversation turns out to be, one has to be open to it and experience the spark afresh within the opening. Ultimately, the failure to be open, or the impossibility of an opening is what leads to frustration and a quick turnaround sale.

But there is in fact no opening without this initial desire. Lack of wanting something to happen is just as severe a kind of closure as forcing something specific to happen.

So I wouldn’t beat myself up, I would just see the cycling through possibilities as necessary, as mistakes that need to be made, and there will be long periods where it seems only mistakes happen. There’s no avoiding the dark night of the soul; the only assurance that one will never make it into the light is to adopt the posture that these problems have simple solutions, such as doing what others do and ignoring one’s own desires.

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#124

What you wrote made me reflect on the few years recently where I very nearly gave up on seriously making music ever. I don’t think GAS necessarily has to be the price I pay for not being there, but I’d rather be here than there. (Although maybe @glia’s right… maybe I don’t want anything right now because I know that I can’t afford to want anything)

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#125

20%20PM

i received an email that my reverb purchase was delivered (it is still in the mailbox as i type this) when i clicked on the link it took me to my reverb page where i found this message.

i am very guilty of this, i don’t like it at all. feels very unhealthy.

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#127

I dunno if I COULD sell some of my stuff to people I know. Like, “hey @Olivier, I [have] a Beatstep Pro but I realized I actually want something like Kria instead, wanna buy it off me?” just isn’t really gonna work…

#129

there’s a thing I want
and a thing I don’t want. where
should I trade it? llllllll.co

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#130

Actually met one of my best friends buying gear on craigslist!

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#131

there’s a thing i think i want
and a thing i don’t use. i should
just sell the thing i don’t use

^ my thought process nowadays

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#132

my feeling is less about the gnarlyness of reverb (though that’s certainly a thing) but more how i feel personally with all the selling and trading. i would have to say that very little of those changes made much of a difference. i sound like me no matter what gear i have. my taste is the same and my skill set did not radically change because of these purchases. i would have been fine keeping what i already had. save 2 things. 1) getting into modular in the first place around 2004 (sold a bunch of pedals to do that) and 2) getting into the monome world (ansible, then grid then tt etc.). these purchases changed the way i think about composing and performing music. the rest of the stuff far less so, if at all.

looking at the evolution of my various set-ups over the years makes me feel rather silly.

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#134

I agree, a lot of things are all kinda the same, except sequencing, which I seem to be swapping out the most, but now that I’ve entered the Monome world, I might be done with that too. The only other thing that makes me want to trade things out is how efficiently it uses it’s space, I went from a Rene, to a TSNM & Prizma, to an Ansible and a Prizma. Now days I’m thinking if I really need a 14hp Serge Filter…

1 Like
#135

It’s a really good point that no matter what the gear, I create out of the same basic disposition, so what I ultimately end up expressing is the same. Some paths are quicker than others but I eventually converge on the same thing, and I’m not talking about genre or surface style. It brings to mind Tangerine Dream from 1970-1987, their surface style changed radically as did their gear every two years. But all their albums from Electronic Revolution to Tyger have this same fundamental disposition and in this much deeper sense express the same thing. The paradox though is in order for me to create, the process often starts with wanting to discover a new thing and that does involve changing up surface styles and gear. I wish I could free myself of it, I have a much too large hoard of broken gear… also unused working gear. I do sell off now and then but the process is so depressing. what I hate the most is that Reverb and eBay thrive on sowing distrust, which destroys community. I remember the old days when you could just post ads in the recycler, which was kind of an LA thing, I don’t know if they were in other areas, and everyone I dealt with through there was trustworthy.

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#136

I put together my first 126HP a few years ago, and I’m now staring down the barrel of wanting (needing?) to make some substantial changes. The FB group that @shreeswifty administers is my logical choice to post the items I’d like to sell, but frankly, I’m more likely to start them here for a week or so just because I hate FB.

#137

uhhhh I just came across this post and thought it vital to bump it.

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#138

My latest tactic. For every youtube video of shiny new stuff you watch. Watch one about a piece of gear you already own…and get some of that ‘I’m only doing a fraction of what this thing is capable of’ guilt.’

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#139

Another trick I like to do: when I hear a sound I just love, I try to recreate it on the synths I own. I often end up learning something new AND liking my sound better, or just as good. Plus I get a new patch/preset out of the deal!

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#140

In the grand scheme of Lines’ inhabitants, my setup is probably quite small and under control, but I do tend to pick up new things regularly and magpie syndrome frequently leads me down YouTube (and, often, eBay) rabbitholes. New avenues of sound possibilities are opened up, but productivity rarely prospers.

Commenting on this, a close friend suggested that I should consider freezing my setup for a period of time - or until a particular goal is realised - which sounds like an excellent (albeit oddly daunting) prospect.

For me, I think I’m likely to use a productivity-based measure rather than a time-based criteria. Say:

My setup must remain as it is (no new additions, at least) until I have finished a new album/tape

Has anyone else utilised this method of GAS freezing? How did you find it?

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#141

i have two types of GAS

•that thing looks super cool and I’d probably have a blast with it (rn this is Just Friends, as it has been for some time)

•that thing is a definitely upgrade to what it would replace and i really ought to unload my money (rn this is WMD Pro Output, as it has been for some time)

i have a full 6u/104hp case that has been working really well, inclusive of recent purchases (the first new acquisitions in at lease one year), and some overflow in a 3u case. i’m good, really. those recordings from yesterday maybe aren’t great, but i practice and record a lot and the cream rises, eventually.

i also have no income outside of selling my things rn so it’s a little more complicated, but over 4 years of eurorack i’ve found that continuing to work with and explore what i have keeps the money in the account. i bristle at what i perceive in “eurorack communities” to be more of a “retail practice” than “creative practice” -
that a new purchase is more crucial than commitment, insight, error, editing, discovery - but also appreciate that shiny new things are pretty cool. do yr best.

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#142

I tried this! I went from 10u 84hp to just a single row of 84hp with the intention of freezing that setup. But I kept all my other modules and the 7u 84hp case with the intention of selling them. So I froze it there for a month or so. But then I felt I couldn’t quite get enough out of it - so I started swapping some of the modules (which I’d not sold). I then decided that a single row of 84hp wasn’t enough. So I switched back to the 7u 84hp case and filled it with modules. And I got a Norns. And a Grid. But it wasn’t enough, so I purchased a few more modules to get everything to play nicely. And then I realised that I’d not (properly) played my piano, the instrument I love, for 10 months - and that a considerable chunk of my waking day was spent not being satisfied with the modules I had. It wasn’t healthy and it certainly wasn’t creative - so I am now actually going through the process of selling my Eurorack modules, they’re nearly all gone. But I’ll keep the Norns and the Grid. MLR helps me be more creative with the piano. I’m going to try and freeze it at that! I love modular but I don’t think it quite works with my present state of mind. I’d like to come to it again someday when I can be more disciplined/responsible.

That said, I think I got the most out of the system when it was just one row of 84hp. I got to know those modules well, and I was never paralysed by choice.

So tl;dr, I tried to freeze a GAS. “This is my setup for the next 12 months!”. But I wasn’t disciplined enough to maintain this. If I was - I think it would have worked well.

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#143

if i spent as much time working on music as i do researching gear, i’d be prolific as hell

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#144

At one point I had about a dozen keyboard synths. To keep from accumulating more and to weed out the ones that weren’t inspiring I came up with an exercise: to randomly pick two per week to only use that week when writing/recording music (this was during an unusually high period of musical productivity). At the end of this time I could more easily say what was a pleasure to work with and what didn’t gel with my process. I was successful in not buying more synths and I got rid of almost all of them.

1 Like