#192

This is an excellent point - though often easier said than done & something I’ll need to build my resilience to!

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#193

I’m in the process of a significant downsize, selling basically my entire possession of modular gear, save a few key modules to use in a Palette case. I spoke briefly about reasoning over in a different thread, but I’ve found that owning so many modules has been a huge hinderance to my creativity, and even activity in general. I’ll be doing a Depth Year for 2020 to really understand the ways in which I can best express my creative self musically, and working really hard to shed the mindsets and material “things” that get in the way of that happening. I’ve come to realise that I need strict boundaries in which to work. I know that’s not exactly breaking news as a concept, but the overbearing weight of ownership of too many modules and gear in general has really forced it home for me.

I absolutely love this too. In the same vein, I guess I’m trying to lay a new foundation, creating fresh sediment from which I can grow.

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#195

I did it something like 5/6 years ago when I moved into Buchla World
Didn’t regret and I bought new stuff after that major change

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#196

i frequently move through radical shifts in gear. my attitude is that if i start thinking “man i could never sell ________” then it’s precisely time to sell whatever that is.

ideas not gear.

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#197

Same, haven’t looked back since going buchla. Easel, clones, and some 1979 modules here.

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#199

i’ll try to keep this brief - i’m sure other people have gone/are going through this sort of stuff around here.

i’m an instrumentalist who got into monome and then eurorack as a means for solo music making - being primarily a drummer, it seemed like a good way to add musical textures to what i already have going on.

i finally took the eurorack plunge this year. it started great, though i wasn’t making many “songs.” i have found, however, that the more gear i’ve gotten, the less i’ve been using it. it’s been weeks since i’ve even powered it on. as a contrast, i also got a tascam 4-track last week - and have already made stuff i’m happy with using my vss-30, drums, and guitar pedals.

i’m thinking it might be best to cut my losses and part with my eurorack setup. i suspect i really liked it as gear, but as a method for me to make tracks, maybe it just… doesn’t work. now, as i said, i only started this year - it’s not been long. but the inclusion of tape into my setup has presented me with specific things i want as i continue - and they’re things like samplers, not eurorack. i’ve known ever since i really dug into ableton and max that i’m more a “sample guy” than a “synth guy.”

when do you decide it’s time to move on from a specific method of music making? i know we have eurorack people, buchla people, ITB people, hardware people, DAWless people, tape people… and everything in between. when have you decided to cut losses and part with large gear purchases?

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#200

Two years ago I sold 80% of my gear. It was one of the best decisions I ever made. I had subscribed to this idea of maximalism and “more is more” but I ended up spending all my energy organizing, reorganizing, setting up, changing routings… it was exhausting. I went down to the basics. A few midi controllers, guitar, a few pedals, one synth. It was really inspiring for me. Now I’ve started to build back up and got into eurorack, but it is very focused and intentional.

The thing with my great gear purge was that I realized I didn’t have emotional attachments to any of the stuff. If I really missed anything I could just get another one at some point. If you don’t have emotional attachments to your gear I say sell/trade it, you have nothing to lose!

Why do you make music? What are your goals? Are you working towards a release?

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#201

i really prefer to make music with others - i don’t really have aspirations to stop playing drums in weirdo jazz groups, this year has just kinda been the time to work on solo projects.

i have some stuff already that i want to self-release, and would like to make more. eventually i’d like to be able to play solo sets. improvisation is a huge factor in what i do, and the hardest part with electronics has always been convincing myself that i’m “improvising enough.” there’s so many different types of improvisation, i know, but when you’re normally hanging out in free jazz land, you get used to a certain level of unpredictability.

i’d also in general just like to have the option of expanding my sound when playing with groups. the drums do many things very well, and many things not so well. i just want more textural options.

#202

any piece of gear that I can’t make a releasable track with - no matter how great that gear is - is not worth bothering with. For me, it’s about speed and ease of workflow as well as the sound. Imo the gear are tools to do a job - in my case, to release albums. If some gear slows me down and makes me lose that initial idea, then it’s not for me. Music making has to be fun, not a drag. When it’s not fun and you lose the enjoyment, that’s when it’s time to move on.

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#203

Yeah you got a couple things working against you right now lol. Playing in groups or gigs… I don’t think that’s going to be a thing for another year. Eurorack is awesome for solo exploration so it is a great instrument to get into right now.

As far as “improvising enough” I can totally relate, too. I’ve gone from the “press spacebar and twiddle delay knob” sets (just to see what it was like) to “build artisanal loops from scratch on the fly”. It’s about what fills you with a sense of self-fulfillment and joy.

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#204

Just sold off my eurorack system after constantly buying, selling, and trading modules, and spending many evenings exploring and playing. Like you, I found myself a lot more productive with the other things I have (Ableton, some cheap keyboards, field recorders, guitar, pedals, etc). I was moving things around in modulargrid for the millionth time after an unsuccessful eurorack session and thought: this is not worth the money or time for me.

It’s been about a month now. I haven’t missed any of it. It’s felt so freeing. I don’t feel like I have to be a “modular musician” anymore. I have been thinking about a polysynth to replace it, but Ableton is so…handy. I have unlimited LFOs and envelope generators. I did buy a few filter pedals for non-computer playing (Vongon Paragraphs and a EHX ModRex). I learned a lot from my few years with it, but it’s so nice to be done with it. No more worrying about the next cool module that could help optimize my system and watching hours of youtube videos.

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#205

one thought i had was to just sell parts of my modular - it’s not that big of a system and i think i might have expanded too much too quick. i already had a norns so i built the system around crow + jf… i can’t deny the flexibility that allows, but i might be far off in my coding skills to actually access that flexibility.

i added a sampler, and while that’s been really fun, i’ve mostly been tweaking it by hand as opposed to patching it in any interesting kind of way… so really it’s not doing much as part of a modular system that a standalone sampler couldn’t do, and more.

then i added teletype and that’s kind of been the end… maybe i added a control element (a la crow, needing light code) when i should have added something else. i’ve enjoyed working through the tutorials and tt is just so cool but it’s kind of been the end of my modular use.

#206

I maintain a modular setup and a non-modular setup (the latter with heavy reliance on Max for sequencing). I switch every month or so. Both are valuable tools for research into the overall compositional process. The stuff I learn with one carries over into the next session with the other. There are still certain things only possible with each setup and so a different but related personality emerges.

Anyway, it took me a long time to realize that I needed both. The only thing that would make the process better is ease of scaling them up/down to fit the moment, via modular/movable design techniques which I’ve discussed elsewhere.

In summary I’ve long since given up on making the system(s) ‘right’ and learned to enjoy things not being perfect. Working both with and against imperfections is just part of the process. I make each time some incremental changes and absolutely avoid any upheaval, such as going to a tape-based recording setup — even that’s for another person and another life.

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#207

Have you tried doing a depth year? That’s a good exercise on learning to make best of it what you have. I would guess the instruments we own we have bought for a reason, at least most of them. Sure, it’s easy enough to sell them again but I would suggest to at least to remind the reason you went for this particular instrument/sound/workflow. I do agree with a lot what @mlogger, @tyleretters, @caulymaculkin and @ht73 have said about the virtue of productivity but maybe we also need some time for the aimless exploring of the boundaries of our creativity.

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#208

Dunno what other modules you have but it sounds like you went pretty deep into the code/cerebral side of it all. Maybe more wacky / immediate stuff? Delays, juicy filters…

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#209

I have seriously downsized the last few years and I am doing so again. There are things I want to get back which I sold many years ago as I realise their value more now that I have more time again (better grid than I have and an Arc for example).

I sold off all my Euro, Grid 128, Arc4 (from the first run I believe), a bunch of pedals, several guitars and I have all but my actually used guitars up for sale.

When I didn’t have the time to make music much, I think I bought stuff as a subconscious replacement. Now that I have time to actually make more music I am trying to shed stuff i haven’t been using and replace it with tool to help me achieve what I want. Had a couple of mis-steps along the way but I definitely like have a focused set of quality tools.

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#210

+1 for drums
all contraptions (trap set’s) change
you’ve checked in with @Rodrigo about how to incorporate electronics into your kit?

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#211

Sounds like you are very hands on person with a hands off instrument :slight_smile:
I’m not sure TT or crow suit themselves easily for improvisational workflow, I think it can be done but requires mastery of the tools and also ability to extract enjoyment from typing on the keyboard.
I suppose something much more simple and “knob per function” might work for you and rekindle the interest

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#212

i’ve been ruminating on this. you’re very right, but thinking about it like this has reminded my of my original goal - i wanted to be playing drumset with my modular, and had intended for my system to operate with active but minimal manipulation from me - since my hands are busy over on the drums.

maybe i haven’t given my system the time it deserves yet. i might still sell much or all of it… but maybe i need one more push first.

i think a process issue for me has been a constraint i placed on myself - i wanted to be able to play any additional instrument by itself as well as with my drums - maybe that’s getting my further from the goal. through my whole electronic music journey, i’ve learned over and over that things go FAR better when i keep myself at the drums. funny how we learn the same lessons over and over…

#213

well hands on process does not necessarily mean you have to actively do everything by yourself all the time.
keyboard and scripts are awesome, but the process mostly happens in your head. I can do it as a work, but not as an exploratory practice. To do scripting i have to know exactly what i want, but to know that i have to explore first.
What i mean by hands on instrument is that it allows you to explore and then once you find a spot you like leave it to do it’s thing.

2 Likes