Let's talk about: Gear Acquisition Syndrome

[zerocrossing]

Everytime a non-musician person comes and sees my setup I get embarrased. Whatever I do music wise it does not reflect even 1% of the rig's capabilities...

Really? I always feel proud. I guess it's my equivalent of the mint (insert name of vintage or exotic) muscle car in the garage that some dudes love to baby and wrench on.

Lot's of people spend their extra income on hobbies. I know a lot of people keep cases of wine or good beer on hand and for me a $9 bottle of red lasts me 2 weeks. What's a pack of cigarettes cost? What's an oz of pot cost? I have no idea, but that type of spending is what sometimes bothers me. No visible residue.

Again... if you're uncomfortable with the amount of stuff you have, by all means stop. If you're going into debt to fund your next VST, stop. If you spend all your time hunting for new stuff and it's getting in the way of playing with your stuff, stop. What I did is I worked out my budget with my wife so that I have a special account that gets a monthly allowance. If I want something that's more expensive than my monthly stash, I have to wait, plain and simple. It's actually liberating not having access to as much as I could spend. The excess goes into savings.

Look at it this way. We're actually fueling an economy at a time when things are not so good. If my hobby let's Urs Heckmen buy candy for his baby, then I've done a good thing.

See? I'm a ninja of justification!

[DHR53]

Er, I'm down to about 7 VIs. And I'm using a built in drum synth... Every time I demo something new I think, Naaaaah. I've got that covered already. I will say, the Ultranova I tried at Guitar Center really made me go Hmmmmm... mainly because my USB keyboard is 7 years old and my audio interface is 5 years old and the Ultra contains both... and is the first synth (virtual or hardware) that made me go WOW lately. Seemed like a good solution. 32 keys also which fits under my desk. I'm sold!

[Jesse J]

about needing gear.

if you want to produce grim sounding crap that is on the radio today, you don't need much, you can do it with a few plugins or something like reason. In the box is ok, if you swing that way.

If you want to make beautiful music or sounds that are alive, you will most likely need something more, preferably something that is alive itself, like real acoustic instruments or a analog synth.

Instead of software plugins, you might end up collecting guitars or get a modular synth and be hooked on eurocrack for the rest of your life.

Having a nice arsenal or palette is essential to me (personal opinion) as an artist, I like to have the palette to choose from. Like I have some guitars I have collected over 25 years I've played guitars, they are not expensive, but I have the palette needed, the telecaster sounds very different than the les paul, and the les paul is very different from the stratocaster etc. Same thing goes with the modular, I can choose between oscillators, how many I need and then choose filters. I like it.

Software doesn't give me the same options and richness as these hardware things do, but I do use software a lot, specially to fill the ambiance and to do special tasks or emulate something I do not have for real.

I think there's a big difference between collecting a nice palette for creation and GAS, which is hoarding things you don't need.

All you with GAS problems, try start thinking about what you really *need* as a palette, be it software or hardware. Selling unnecessary crap will most likely get you the money needed to collect that palette.

[ew]

GAS is mainly an internet disease, imo. Stop your internet connexion is the way out.

Sorry young wipper-snapper. Before the internet there were stores that whorishly displayed their wares to induce G.A.S., not to mention music videos showing people lavished in fun gear. I had G.A.S. long before the internet existed.

As did I.

Nowdays, between the music stores around me and the local Eurocrack community (c'mon- just one more module...), the disposable income's gone long before I turn the computer on...


ew

[V0RT3X]

I should point that I am not only getting this stuff for just my own use, but I plan on starting a small studio to rent out to poor artists who want to get their hands on good stuff and still stay legit if ya know what i mean.

[lionscub68]

so far, I have managed to avoid the modular thang.
once I get the Roland JP8080, and two EMW programmers (for the Alpha Juno and JX8P)... then I might consider trying out an EMW or Eurorack mini modular...
oh yeah, there's also the fretless acoustic electric bass I'm lookin' at. And a Kala U-Bass... And I have to get back the Steinberger GT-Pro I sold 4 years ago.
And a Roland HDP-15 or -10. And another Zen Tambour. And a Halo Drum...

Aw hell, I have it baaaaddddd

But at least lately I've been rather balanced in "real" instruments vs VST purchases.

[zerocrossing]

I should point that I am not only getting this stuff for just my own use, but I plan on starting a small studio to rent out to poor artists who want to get their hands on good stuff and still stay legit if ya know what i mean.

Ah, I thought like this once. Don't bother. It was a crappy business back in the 80s/90s when I was hacking away at it and it's worse now... a lot worse. Stay away and keep the toys for yourself. It's better that way.

[hibidy]

Zerocrossing - dreamcrusher

[V0RT3X]

I should point that I am not only getting this stuff for just my own use, but I plan on starting a small studio to rent out to poor artists who want to get their hands on good stuff and still stay legit if ya know what i mean.

Ah, I thought like this once. Don't bother. It was a crappy business back in the 80s/90s when I was hacking away at it and it's worse now... a lot worse. Stay away and keep the toys for yourself. It's better that way.

really? alright, well in that case I'll ditch that idea. I just thought it might be a cool way to make some side income.

Ahh well I guess I better work harder on my music so these things get better use.

[Gonga]

I engineered some people's music in the early 80s (San Rafael, CA) on the side and it was OK. I had an Oberheim FVS-1, a Rhodes Stage 88 and a Roland SH-1000, so people came to use the keys or to record vocals and guitars (I had no drums). I made some cash on the side, not a lot, but it was often fun. You could try it and see.

[jonahs]

Staying off forums cures GAS for me. Made a rare check back to KVR - bought permut8. I don't consider that GAS though, which to me is more about collecting and retail therapy than anything else.

Luckily, I'm the type that only has software GAS and once I made the switch to mostly hardware and found tools that really suited me I haven't been bothered. I think it goes software>guitar pedals >modules in terms problems. My modular and any new pedals are all DIY based on very cheap parts so it's only a matter of finding the time.

Still, I'm not going to deny that's a pleasure to experiment with new tool and interfaces.

I wish there were more places online to talk more generally about music and concecpts, without so much focus on specific tools, but I'm not sure it's possible. It's easy to "talk" more generally in real life - it's called jamming!

[hibidy]

I can dig it.

[Acid Mitch]

Before the internet there were stores that whorishly displayed their wares to induce G.A.S., not to mention music videos showing people lavished in fun gear. I had G.A.S. long before the internet existed.

And we haven't even mentioned the monthly magazines yet, that were encouraging ewveryone to buy the latest stuff.

[zerocrossing]

I engineered some people's music in the early 80s (San Rafael, CA) on the side and it was OK. I had an Oberheim FVS-1, a Rhodes Stage 88 and a Roland SH-1000, so people came to use the keys or to record vocals and guitars (I had no drums). I made some cash on the side, not a lot, but it was often fun. You could try it and see.

Oh that's funny. In the mid 80s I was working for a crappy goth band out of Novato ( ) doing mostly live sound. I'm pretty sure I never got a dime out of them, though they did let me crash on the lead guitarist's couch for a while. That was in some roach ridden apartment complex in San Rafael. Good times. Ever hear of a band called Roshambo? My brother was the bass player and they used to play a few of my tunes. They played New George's all the time. But I digress...

Basically, I'm sure that all the money I've done from audio engineering hasn't been enough to pay for the gear I purchased to do the job, or the schooling I went though. I'm glad I did it, I had some amazing experiences. I got to work for Laurie Anderson for crissake! But in the end, I realized I could make more money working as a salesperson in a home electronics store than I could trying to do audio engineering. In fact, the one guy I knew making it in that business back in the 80s lived in his mom's basement. A friend of mine who does it now lives with his girlfriend who's dad bought them a house. I'm not saying money can't be made, but you really need to be dedicated to it and bust your ass for a long, long time before you see a profit and make sure you love it. I loved playing music and not getting stiffed by clients (which seemed to happen all the time) much more, so that's that.

So I'm saying if you want to be an audio engineer, by all means follow your dream and go for it but be prepared to work hard for a very long time before you see any real money. However, if you think it's a fun thing to do to get some extra cash, you'd be better off getting a paper route.

[zerocrossing]

Staying off forums cures GAS for me. Made a rare check back to KVR - bought permut8.

Oh crap! You're right! I'd forgotten Permut8 was on my list!