How will you know when you've acquired all the gear you need?

[robussc]

I’ve been carefully going through all the presets for the (non-RP) synths I have: Reason, Arturia V-collection and UVI Vintage Vault and building a collection of preferred sounds. It’s quite daunting, but also rewarding as I now have a ton of sounds that I’m excited to return to, rather than looking for needles in haystacks, which is how it felt before.

That's a limitation of the RRP (and many other synths), they don't use vst standards to publish their presets. So I have a list of global favourites in bitwig including for example the ones of Serum and a few others, but for the ones of reason, I need to go to their own browser.


I'd like them to support the ".vstpreset" format...

Yeah, I can imagine. Fortunately for me I’m sticking with Reason for the foreseeable future.

[Jac459]

That's a limitation of the RRP (and many other synths), they don't use vst standards to publish their presets. So I have a list of global favourites in bitwig including for example the ones of Serum and a few others, but for the ones of reason, I need to go to their own browser.


I'd like them to support the ".vstpreset" format...

Yeah, I can imagine. Fortunately for me I’m sticking with Reason for the foreseeable future.

... which is also a good choice. .

[Neo]

+1

Former hardware addict here lol.
These days I'm just waiting on that new "weapon"/"game changer" plugin that will make me a pro producer/sound engineer lol <Insert discount code here>
Lucky enough to go through the hardware phase in the early 90s. Sold off, or should i say literally gave away most of my gear..

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I think it is also depending of the genre.

If you are into rock or country or say, synthwave, you can build your studio and stay like that with minor upgrades.

If you are into electronic musics, the temptation to go to new synths with new features is big.
Electronic music has strongly used the progress of synthesis across the years, for a long long long time with subtractive synthesis and for example acid music being created only based on how the filter is opening.
Then there was sampling that was very much used in hip hop.

More recently wavetables and oscillators related innovations have been largely used. Then granular synthesis, then spectral synthesis which is currently changing a lot of things.
Then the capacity to modulate anything with anything, sometimes at audio rate level is new and crazy

Recently i discovered phase plant has wave tables for LFOs! How crazy is that?

Sure, innovation can be only in composing, but having new features/capabilities certainly help.

Indeed.

[MuttReason]

I think I have known for years that I have more than enough gear to create the music I want. But that knowledge has never stopped me from buying new gear because, well, new gear is fun, right? Over the last 40+ years I’ve flipped between all-hardware (when that’s all there was) to mostly ITB (Reason 1 was a gamechanger for me) then gradually added more hardware before switching to DAWless for a few years. Now I am in the process of going wholly ITB again because the combination of R12, Ableton Live 11 with Push 2 and my Apollo X4 interface with UAD plugins for tracking is truly all I need in hardware terms (I’m excluding my bass guitars and other instruments here, bass purchasing addiction is a whole other thread!). And this time I probably mean it.

Software, on the other hand… too easy to buy (way cheaper than hardware, takes no physical space) and loads of new sounds to open up creative ideas. The problem now is too many choices… it takes a lot of self-discipline to focus on building a track instead of getting lost in presets or super clever Reason device routing malarkey (I do love a CV input…).

On a related point I tidied up my main samples folder on my Mac the other day. This is mostly one-shot drum samples from companies like Samples From Mars plus other stuff I’ve bought over the years. I realised I now have over 5,000 snare drum hits, about the same again for kicks, similar for each of the other core kit sounds (hihats, toms etc). Plus over 4,000 percussion samples. And that is not including all the content in the 25 Gb of Reason Refills on my Mac or the 80 Gb of Ableton Live Packs. I could spend a large part of the remainder of my life if I decided to audition each of my drum samples one by one to find the perfect kit. That’s kind of insane… but at least it doesn’t involve filling an entire room with gear and cables then spending day after day trying to track down the source of ground hum…

[DaveyG]

...but at least it doesn’t involve filling an entire room with gear and cables then spending day after day trying to track down the source of ground hum…

Yeah, it's easy to forget about the cables, mains adapters, signal levels, clipping, dodgy connections, MIDI sync, MIDI sync again and the amount of space everything takes. I still have boxes and boxes of cables from my "peak hardware" days.

There is no denying that hardware is fun though.

[MuttReason]

...but at least it doesn’t involve filling an entire room with gear and cables then spending day after day trying to track down the source of ground hum…

Yeah, it's easy to forget about the cables, mains adapters, signal levels, clipping, dodgy connections, MIDI sync, MIDI sync again and the amount of space everything takes. I still have boxes and boxes of cables from my "peak hardware" days.

There is no denying that hardware is fun though.

Sure is fun. I’ve always enjoyed playing around with actual hardware synths, drum machines and outboard rack effects and guitar effects pedals. But the downsides are definitely there, from crappy tiny displays that make detailed patch editing an utter chore (hello Roland JV1080) through to dusting the damn gear all the time to try to keep it clean and functional (decksavers are great but lots of gear isn’t compatible and while I cover gear with cloths when not in use, they still attract dust and crud when *in* use).

My compromise is all ITB plus a small amount of well-made MIDI controller hardware (Push2 build quality is excellent, and I also use a MIDI Fighter Twister 16 rotary controller which is tough as nails). And I love UAD hardware and plugins, they are great.

[Mistro17]

Maybe we are looking at GAS wrong and should embrace it as a profession feature that comes with being passionate about something. For example, as a visual artist, the only thing stopping me from pulling up to the art supply store with a 18 wheeler truck and taking everything I want is that I have to buy them. I could imagine everyone in some kind of profession feels the same way. Like tailors probably get boners when they see fabric stores with new shiny sewing machines on sale. Probably have rolls and rolls of fabric they didn't use yet. People who play golf probably have too many clubs etc. And guitarists have too many damn guitars. I just started with playing guitar and already I need a bass, steel string and electric in my life. Gotta make room.

When you are a creative person, endless possibilities are always at play so any creative tool you see is a possible asset for you.

If money was not the issue, GAS would probably hit differently.

[motuscott]

What can I say but , Guilty
Point taken

[Jac459]

I think we are all right when we comment about GAS even when contradicting each others.

Some are saying, "once you have all your sound capability, there is no point upgrading, you can create everything by yourself". I think they are perfectly right, another synth will just disturb their workflow after the 5 min of excitement.

Some like me are saying "more synths is more inspiration sources, more chance for chaotic events, it helps inspiration" I think it is perfectly valid also.

We are all doing different things in a different way, we shouldn't be surprised to have variety of opinions. It is like 2 passionate hikers, they can discuss equipment but if one is in Morocco and the other in Norway, there will be differences.

[challism]

When Abbey Road Studios calls me to see if they can borrow some of my gear.

[motuscott]

When Abbey Road Studios calls me to see if they can borrow some of my gear.

We'd like to rent that blue abomination, Times is tough, even here...

[kuhliloach]

I've been replacing gear with more plants and generally getting rid of things. The more I learn Logic and all the excellent free plugins out there I just don't see the need for redundant hardware. I'm more interested in AI machine-learned software compressors as software algo's carry the potential to improve sound worlds beyond what we would get from even our very best tube array.

[selig]

" How will you know when you've acquired all the gear you need?"
When I have 'enough'…

[MrFigg]

" How will you know when you've acquired all the gear you need?"
When I have 'enough'…

Yay!!!!
A month ago I thought I did. But yesterday I bought a reverb pedal and an 8th fuzz pedal. Hmmm.

[Chi-Individual]

For me it was the moment I looked at a VST/RE and said “I don’t need this but I “WANT” it!”. That changed everything. Now for the last 2 year I wait till the last day of a sale, because I never pay full price for anything. If I still “want” it by the last day of the sale, which I haven’t, I get it.

The only things I consistently buy are RS RE’s and that’s purely to support the company. That’s like my ongoing collection of RE’s. Most I haven’t needed but I get a small satisfaction out of having everything they make since I got R11 Suite.

V Collection may be my last GAS purchase and then it’ll be the occasional RE’s from companies I like from that point on that I want to support. But I def have everything I need, I’ll will never have everything I want. And I’ve come to accept that.

[moalla]

For a lot of musicanns it‘s soso interessting to discover new effects or looking to get a better sounding mastering chain....
So for me maybe the plugs i own, are quiet good enough for tracks, but for the final downmix the vst saturation/compression/eq (headcrusher sat,softube fet, millenia nseq) are not ass god i hope...
I’m really hot to get DiyRe Colour Duo 2 Channelstrip for the final stage.... 1k too much in this moment...
But mostly it‘s much more interessting to upgrade a good working devices than getting new stuff, likely my ryhtm wolf needs more output for the kick, and i hope a Neutrik Nte3 transformer will fit this circumstance

[DaveyG]

" How will you know when you've acquired all the gear you need?"
When I have 'enough'…

Yay!!!!
A month ago I thought I did. But yesterday I bought a reverb pedal and an 8th fuzz pedal. Hmmm.

That's fine. "Enough" is like the universe - it keeps expanding.

[avasopht]

That's fine. "Enough" is like the universe - it keeps expanding.

Is the universe expanding, or is everything inside it shrinking??

[DaveyG]

That's fine. "Enough" is like the universe - it keeps expanding.

Is the universe expanding, or is everything inside it shrinking??

It's all relative. And if our music gear is shrinking then that's all the more reason to buy more stuffz.

[wendylou]

Wants & Needs.jpg (519.07 KiB) Viewed 1429 times

[MrFigg]

Wants &amp; Needs.jpg

Is that wants and needs as in I want it and I need it or is it like two separate things. I want that and I need this?

[MrFigg]

I just keep buying stuff so there’s more chance my kids will go down to the studio and play stuff instead of sitting staring at Tic-Toc all day.

[visheshl]

I just keep buying stuff so there’s more chance my kids will go down to the studio and play stuff instead of sitting staring at Tic-Toc all day.

Thats actually a very good reason.

[DaveyG]

I just keep buying stuff so there’s more chance my kids will go down to the studio and play stuff instead of sitting staring at Tic-Toc all day.

Aw Daaaaad!

[Popey]

I kinda feel I am at the point I have everything I need.

That still does not mean I don't want things and I am sure there will be things in the future that makes things easier/quicker even if they are possible with what I have now. I fully expect I will buy more gear in the future and looking forward to seeing what the new rs synth and future reason versions are like.