#1

Music gear can be expensive. I think it could be helpful to start a conversation about how to keep costs low — not to promote GAS, but to attempt to help lower the barrier to entry. Possible topics:

  • DIY kits
  • Online marketplace tips
  • Search terms to use/avoid
  • ‘Clones’ (but not ‘Behringer thread 2’)
  • Product recommendations

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I’d also like feedback on how to make this a better discussion thread — is this interesting? too vague? engaging?

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Reaper DAW, tips, tricks, praise and questions
#2

iOS is a bit of a revelation for me. I have a lot of functionality in a small package and it’s relatively very inexpensive.

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#3

I think the best advice to keep music making cheap is to buy less, and overall, to do with less. Depending on your budget and goals this might be done very differently. For some, it’s buying 1 piece of kit of high quality, and pretty much nothing else. For others, it will be to buy cheaper alternatives.

Second advice would be, if you can make your music with a computer, that will be cheaper. And I would +1 @lloydcole advice of iOS in the same philosophy :slight_smile:

But if you want to buy cheap gear:

  • Look for previous versions on the used market(ie mk1 instead of mk2)
  • Look for less featured versions of gear (model:samples instead of digitakt, el capistan instead of timeline, etc)
  • digital reissues of old classics
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#4

DIY! Buying PCB/Panel sets, sourcing parts and building yourself it’s not hard to build most modules at 1/4th their retail cost, and if you don’t gel with a particular module sell it at a discount and you’ll probably still make a profit towards the next design.

I’ve recently started designing my own circuits after a year of building other people’s and it’s even cheaper and more rewarding.

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#5

90% of my gear (including computer used for editing/production etc) have been bought 2nd hand

It’s hard to give blanket advice but if somebody wants to discuss specifics of getting/finding cheap gear i’d love to help

ask here or dm any time

one thing i’ll say off the top of my head is…trade when possible, don’t always buy

if you can offer the seller something of value (e.g. equipment whose features overlap with the gear you seek) you can probably get some decent things without spending new money

even if you still have to dish out cash
partial trades are great way to soften the dent a new purchase will make on your budget

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#6

There’s an abundance of free VST’s out there for you to download. A lot of them can be extremely weird and inspiring (thinking of the bird call physical modeling synth I downloaded for example).

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#7

You can make many wonderful sounds with an old Casio and a cheap reverb or delay pedal.

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#8

Speaking of those old Casio keyboards (and Yamaha), sometimes you can get lucky here:
https://www.shopgoodwill.com/

I got a Yamaha PSS 470 for $12 (+ $35 for shipping).

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#9

If you’re a DAW person, practice recording a lot and keep a sound library. This includes good organization (can be as simple as folders, as complicated as a sample database) and regular pruning. I can tell from my filenames if I’ve cropped or split a long sample yet. If I happen to work with a ‘raw’ longsample, I’ll cut it up in DAW and save those chunks within the project to be safe. That way you can measure twice and cut once when it comes to spacesaving cropping and splitting.

You can follow @glia’s advice and trade thru a lot of instruments, invest in relatively cheap storage space and end up with a lovely assortment of instruments.

It’s advice that comes from a tough lesson – I have to frankenstein new sounds out of old stems from synths long since traded :confused:

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#10

Everything @glia stated here is great advice, especially in re: to trades.

For purchasing used, I have a price in mind that I want to pay for something. I’ll keep note of it in my head or on a document or wherever. Usually somewhere between 15%-25% off of retail. When I see said gear at around that price point, I’ll grab it (if the funds are there). Its a slower process, but you can get what you “want” or “need” at a more digestible cost without breaking the bank. This also allows you time to learn what you currently have while slowly acquiring what you want to add. This is how I built most of my modular over about a year and a half of patience. This method also prevented me from being unhappy with my module purchases. I have kept at least 90% of what I bought throughout this process. Rad!

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#11

Look into the flavor-of-the-month devices from many, many, many months ago. Now more than ever you can find lots of capable and interesting equipment for good prices just cuz the hype machine has moved onto other things.

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#12

one of my most productive setups is 64 grid, DIY midi controller, and ableton/m4l

I really think a choice combo of one or two pieces of hardware + a programmable (or super configurable) software environment can do as well as any pricier setup ¯ \ _(ツ) _ / ¯

download

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#13

It has come up here many times before, but a cheap second hand laptop with Linux and a universe of software will get you very far. Add a usb audio device or handheld field recorder that doubles as a usb device and a small midi controller and you can still easily spend less than most smartphones cost now…

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#14

This was going to be my suggestion. I remember when things like the Moogerfoogers were absolutely dirt cheap, now they are selling 2nd hand for more than new when they were first released.

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#15

eBay is your friend! I got my Microbrute for almost half price. Set up saved searches for stuff you really want to help you grab bargains.

Also… free VSTs but idk if that’s heresy here xD

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#16

One thing worth mentioning about free VST’s is that while a lot of creators have shut down their sites hosting them, most downloads available on a page that’s been archived in the Wayback Machine are still downloadable.

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#17

@andrew

I keep coming back to this. I always get gear lust and think that I desperately need something but I always sell it for the next big thing within weeks.

The only thing I have never veered away from is Ableton Live. I bought it when the new version (Live 2) was a new product getting rave reviews in the magazines. It was my first ever DAW and still the central piece of everything I do.

Of course, buying Live 10 Suite is not exactly a cheap option but Operator, Wavetable and Sampler would cost a fair chunk to replicate in hardware.

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#18

Not at all! Even though lots of us on lines have some nice gear, there’s no gatekeeping or expectations about what people should be using.

Also as someone who dabbles in DIY, I wouldn’t recommend it as a cheap alternative. I’ve wasted many hours of my pouring over broken crap. I stated building veroboard guitar pedals, and I kind of took a break when I realized how much money I was theoretically “losing” (compared to the market rate of the pedals I was replicating/if you want to value your free time in the way you might value your time at work). Of course it is an incredible feeling to make equipment for yourself, it’s just not always cheaper. Why buy it for $10 when you can build it for $15?

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#19

This topic is near and dear to me. I’ve always been very hardware focused but was recently given a Raspberry Pi 3 and somehow put a micro desktop together with found components and only had to purchase an HDMI cable.
Just discovered Sonic Pi yesterday and have been limping along in the most elemental way. Nonetheless, there’s a lot of potential for creative folks there. So cool!

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#20

Def not! I personally try to get all my processing done with a simple set of free VSTs (mostly built around Airwindows) because I like the accessibility factor

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