Ok so I’ve spent some time reading you all and thinking about where I situate myself, because it was puzzling. What strikes me most (and correct me all if I’m wrong) is that GAS seems to be something quite related to working and making music mostly alone. At least to me it’s one of the (many doors) that can lead to this kind of constant craving, because in some way, you replace your upcoming interaction with people (which will always be as new as a brand new gear because, well unless it’s different somewhere else in the world, I never know what other musicians are gonna do and it always forces me to apprehend my work differently, and that seems to be the kind of thing a lot of people here except from new gear?) by an upcoming interraction with new instruments, modules, name your item, which will in some way do the same job, meaning surprising you, do something you didn’t expect, or always wanted to try, or whatever it is that keeps musicians moving forward. To be perfectly clear I don’t think it’s a bad thing, as I value working alone a lot, and think it’s just as important as collaborations and bands.
Also, after giving it some thoughts, I don’t think I’m that much of a gas victim (I make most of my work with the same analog synth, a few plug ins, and mostly acoustic instruments and compared to most of you my gear is absolutely ridiculous ^^) but it’s mainly because what I love most is to go places where some of this gear is available, and try and improvise with it for a short period in time. I think I’ll always prefer to spend my money to go into a cool studio with a lot of cool synths and FX and weird instruments that I could only dream of, and discover there, and experiment and see the colors I can have, and then that will define the color of this particular project I went in studio for. Also that will help, a lot, because it’ll create a mood, and from that mood it’ll be easier for me to figure out who I am at that point in time, and for me, an album, an EP, a collection of songs, is always about that, about who you are at that point in time and space. So I’m pretty happy I don’t buy all that gear, and it’s fine that I don’t ALWAYS have it at the tip of my fingers, but instead just use it in a particular context and then have this music I’ve made with it that will be with me forever, and move on, and my joy comes from that.
Also this option saves a lot of time and money that I don’t have and brings back the idea of collaboration (with the studio owner, the sound ingeneers, or other people you can find in these weird things that studios are) even in the most solitary project, as the gear is not yours and therefore you tend to need some people to guide you through what it can and can’t do.
Alright, that was a bit long. But that’s an interesting topic.
