Some ponderings...
From the original Analog Industries archive. Some links and images from that era no longer resolve.
Can “pondering” be pluralized? Any grammar Nazis out there that want to correct me? Shit, I’m digressing before I’ve even started pondering.
Anyhow… The previous discussion came to mind because I have undertaken a rather extensive Spring Cleaning fiesta. I rented a U-Haul, and backed it up to my studio door, and basically threw away anything I haven’t touched in more than, say, a year. This turned out to be quite a bit of shit, including a round dozen computers (which nicely documented the history of Apple), a whole fuckton of half-finished DIY projects of one form or another, and a bunch of other shit I didn’t need.
I could have probably sold a fair portion of what I recycled on the ’bay, or just kept it, but that wasn’t really the point. My thinking was that every time I go out to my studio to record, I end up dicking with something that hasn’t anything to do with what I intended. On top of this, I could barely turn around in there for all the shit that was piled on top of other shit. I have a tendency to make sudden turns and stops when I see a sign pronouncing “Yard Sale,” much to the dismay of my wife, and as a result, I’ve nickled and dimed myself in to a corner.
So, it was time to clear out. And that’s that.
But… I seem to all the sudden find myself looking gift horses in the mouth. Someone just offered me, essentially free, a particular incredibly rare piece of kit I’ve been looking for forever. Now, I know that this thing will be fun for like 15 minutes, then it will sit there collecting dust. So I turned him down. Then I find something on eBay, with a BIN well within my target price, that I’ve also been looking for forever. Then, a store I buy a lot of gear at is having a monster sale. The list goes on.
Ultimately, my point is this: the gearlust, it can get away from you. Lord knows I have 10 times the shit I need to actually make the kinds of music I make. (In actual fact, for most of it, all I need is a computer, a single mic pre, and a convertor.) But I find myself eyeballing things I know I don’t need, because if I only had that one other thing, it would all fall in to place. That’s how a keyboardist ends up with 11 guitars.
Adam and I have an ongoing discussion that has lasted nigh on four years, wherein we have decided that there’s people that collect gear, and people that use gear, and those people are generally not the same people. There ain’t nothing wrong with that, but I am of the considered opinion that unless a particular form of music requires a particular piece of kit (e.g. 303 for acid house) then you can generally make do without all the fuss. This obviously goes entirely against the general drift of this website, but like I said, I’ve just been having some ponderings…
10 comments
I've had similar thoughts about clearing out unused gear because of the whole plug-in explosion, and yet I can't seem to pass up a decent deal on a piece of hardware that I've wanted to use. While I can't escape the fact that it's just a heck of a lot easier for me to open my DAW, load a few decent VST instruments, effects, etc..., and make music I still do enjoy firing up hardware from time to time and just letting it rip. I don't make music to make a living, it's just a thing I do because I enjoy it. Add to this the fact that I can't allow my oldest son (who's nearing 4) to play around on my computer for fear of his wrecking it whereas I have no problem allowing him to mess around with the hardware synths, patch bays, etc... that I have. This is probably something that I'll wrestle with forever since I'm sort of a pack-rat too.
When CR told me he'd hauled 1600lbs. of stuff away, including 12 computers, my first reaction was "why didn't you tell me that you were doing this? There could've been stuff that I wanted!"
Then I thought about it for 23 seconds, and noticed how I have more than enough stuff of my own, and thanked him for not telling me about it.
--Adam
man, the timing of this post! so i just sold my jupiter-6 that i spent almost 10 days with after spending about 3 months gearlusting after one. long story short, i sold it and it actually felt good. i got the exact same feeling getting rid of it as i did when acquiring it. this has happened a few times in the last months. im sure most people won't agree with me, but i think the best thing you can do for your "creativity" and "improving your sound" is getting rid of gear/shit. shit, in my case, was an sh-2, a mono evolver keyboard, the jupiter 6, and my white matrix-1000.
it used to be that i lusted after (and eventually bought) gear based on a missing piece of my sound. now that doesnt really exist.
im fucking spoilt.
it just occurred to me that instead of bragging about how much gear we have, we should brag about how little gear we have. cathartic.
In that regard, I think Wade Alin has us all beat. He does commercial music beds for big name clients, and his system consists of a pair of speakers, a computer, and a Lavry convertor. His control surface is a mouse.
But then again, he has pinkeye, so perhaps there's something to that.
-CR
You've heard of the 80/20 rule?
I think it's also called the Perotti principle (sorry Mr Perotti I don't know how to spell your name!)
Basically it says that you use 20% of your gear 80% of the time and only use 80% of your gear 20% of the time.
I too am struggling to sort out the 80% but moving house might be a good opportunity.
I'll be the first to admit that I've got more gear than talent... but gear is fun!
i feel it's the limitations of the gear that give the music its character. no limitations can mean spending 3 hours selecting a snare drum. i too backed up the touring van to the studio when i relocated from missouri to the bay area 4 years ago. i had been running an all soft studio in tandem with a traditional rig and simply wanted to lighten the move. what i've learned in the last four years is that the focus i maintain in working on my macbook pro is far more productive, for me, than fussing with cables, loading in samples off cds and trying to recall eq/effects settings. i'm more productive, can follow more ideas down rabbit holes and most importantly, i enjoy making music more.
i would add that you can also run into the same issue with plug-ins. spending more time updating and keeping things working than creating. it's a balancing act. i'm relieved to hear that many composers face these same challenges.
I usually collect that crap, and then when I really want something I flip three or four things on eBay and I'm half-way there. I've managed to keep my gear collection to pretty much what I use all the time using that method. Plus, I live in LA and have very little closet space.
However, I'm doing more scoring which requires a broader base of gear. Dvorak one day, Dimebag the next. Someone who specializes in one style of music might end up collecting gear they'll never use in that style.
I want to get a trumpet, but have no place to put it. That's pretty sad.
I 'ponderings' like these...it's what makes this blog such a great read. It's the side to music making that doesn't get discussed nearly enough.
I totally agree with the 80/20 principal and I think it's very healthy to rid yourself of things you just don't use in the creative process.
Nice analog keyboards can be hard to part with, but then again it just gets back to 'it's what ya do with it' that counts.
I do the same cleanout thing with plugins after a year or two : it's just a pointless distraction.
Audio Damage plugins are, of course, a permanent fixture.
Hmmm,
I don't buy much hardware nowadays and I sold all my keyboards (except my Petrof upright piano and e-mu x-board) and I don't need any more. I am tempted to buy something now and there but resist most of the time.
My computer is a mess though, I just don't want to bother with a clearout there.
k
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