Music - yin and yang and the balance of art and craft (and maybe a cure for GAS?)

[Winstontaneous]

Interesting thread. I'm close to releasing a 14 song album that I think is by far the best thing I've made yet. Generally the things holding me back on this project are not lack of ideas, instruments, or FX/tools but the time to work and clear vision of how to use the tools I have effectively.

That's not to say I don't succumb to GAS, in fact some of the tools I've acquired (particularly SoundToys, Valhalla, PSP effects & Ableton Live) have opened exciting new vistas that leave their indelible mark on the music.

The most productive period I've had for creating music in the past was when I was in art school and working a job 3-5 days a week. The "consciously technical" part of me was focused on art technique, and I didn't have a whole lot of free time! The music came on its own, often very quickly and from places I couldn't consciously understand. The art school experience also opened me to cross-disciplinary collaboration and provided hard deadlines, both of which are remarkable for jump-starting creativity.

[sqigls]

Gas can be a bit of a bank buster, and some people like to minimise, but i wouldn't criticise or question an artist for owning too many different coloured paints. It sucks opening old projects and you don't have that plugin anymore, but it's nice to have a tool that fits the job. but in saying that, you need to get to know your tools, and if you have to many tools it's harder to become familiar with them all...

I'm up for that challenge though

[OzoneJunkie]

It sounds like you guys are managing your GAS better than me, if not financially, at least psychologically.

I do think my recent discomfort within the acquisition of gear, coupled with my original viewpoints on the balance of art and craft, is a good signpost that I'm about to shift things to a path that's better for me.

[sqigls]

I've gone in cycles.
I once deleted everything except for one synth, one delay, one reverb et etc

then i went to 5 of each

tried picking names out of a hat even

tried a few things to manage my plugins, minimise or limit myself to generate some flow or whatever.
It gets a bit left brain though.
It's only really now that I'm actually genuinely happy with my kit.
Mind you i have some nice kit

nice colours to paint with


managing GAS, well... I just keep rotating. I don't actually spend ANYTHING on software really. I'm broke as, but if I have something in my box that i don't use anymore, i generally sell it, then buy something to replace it... I own a few like KarmaFX Modular that are not for resale too, which f**king sucks balls, cos i never use it. I didn't know about 'NFR' when i bought it, but hey, i had a decent wage then i guess... still sucks i can't sell it and buy something I'd use.

one project i'm really trying to minimise my kit, my house/techno stuff.
but my PsyDub stuff i like to have a million colours at my disposal, just cos i like to try a lot of things out, and fill up the speakers. Also in that project i use maybe half patches pre-made by myself and others, often so i can stay in the flow of the right brain.
My house and techno stuff I generally make all my own sounds from scratch, with the Tempest. And perhaps I'm not the best sound designer when it comes to deep and useable psychedelic/ambient stuff, but bread and butter patches are easy enough for me.

again, we can't all be Merv Pepler

[jancivil]

I can see how looking at a product which bespeaks a way to create music, and sound, produces teh GAS. And with all the magic out there one can be so all over the place with differing modi operandi and different instruments, Kontakt but then UVI and so forth; and finally want to get a focus by a sort of refusal.

I just decide not to buy, which is a no-brainer because of the finances for me, but even when I was fat I just preferred not to, being like Bartleby.
Because I got a DAW because I had ideas bothering me all day long. I'm more apt to go hyper-focus, the other side of the ADD coin I guess. So, I don't wander out into the ether and buy Kinetic Metal or Heavyocity or something; while it looks like fun it also looks like a black hole as far as time, and I prefer not.

For me, sound design IS composition. So when I load one of my Absynth patches, the sound and the way it unfolds is already a compositional sort of stage already set up. Then I sculpt away at that for the new thing. So by the time I do some note-ons in the piano roll, I've made some decisions.
I don't go for this notion of 'I should have something to say' or care a lot about songs or conventions. I have written lyrics and songs and there is no problem. This will sound bold or egoist but I'm sure I have something going on per se.

There are times when I make something which works great but it was essentially an exercise in developing chops and not really 'significant' - the form is ungainly or stale - so it's not added to the oeuvre. Yes, I went there: oeuvre.

[OzoneJunkie]

I guess if I could find some common denominator here, it would be finding a balance of gear amount is helpful. Also, and even more so - it seems that perhaps I'm missing a point here that y'all have figured out - that the enjoyment that we get in creating music comes from many sources, and the gear itself can spawn that enjoyment.

I've certainly felt that. I guess the thing that's becoming clearest to me is that internally I desire a new path for my music, and so my starting point may have to change. I think

Thanks again, all for your insights into your way of music. I find it all interesting, really.