What piece of gear helped you speed up or improve your workflow the most?

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a full-piano range keyboard (digital piano)!

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theoretical and practical experience with whatever you can afford. nothing else will make you faster than your own skills.

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My Yamaha MX49 since it has tons of sounds.
Many paid and free VSTs as well as Kontakt libraries. As well as HW synths/drum machine and acoustic instruments.

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My Digitakt opened up music making to me like few other pieces of gear have.

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Ableton Live. 11 years ago, and onward. Has sped up my songwriting process and workflow like nothing else before or since. Session view is where it's at for me, compositionally. I do everything in there to write a song (and arrange later).

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Jace-BeOS wrote: Tue Apr 07, 2020 2:25 pm Moving from Sonar/Windows to Logic/Mac.

I’m not trying to start yet another “verses” thread derailment. It answers the question the thread asks. This was the change that improved my productivity most.
Agreed on everything, although more precisely, I had been using both and ditched Windows for my home studio completely last year. For me, it wasn't Sonar so much as Windows. I love Sonar and was able to work very quickly and efficiently with it. However, between my old Windows machine, my son's Windows machine, my Windows machine at work, etc. I spent more of my life staring at that damn little spinning ball and troubleshooting than I did making music.

Again, not trying to start a Mac v Windows debate. I've been using both OSs for many years on many computers at home and at work, but ditching Windows for my music production made a huge difference in *my* music productivity (and enjoyment).
Logic Pro | PolyBrute | MatrixBrute | MiniFreak | Prophet 6 | Trigon 6 | OB-6 | Rev2 | Pro 3 | SE-1X | Polar TI2 | Blofeld | RYTMmk2 | Digitone | Syntakt | Digitakt | SX7

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The non-musical stuff can be important to get out of the way;

Good speakers,
Nice sounding room that you know,
Powerful computer that works well,
Good desk and chair,
Ergonomic mouse/keyboard/monitors,
Good weed,
Good neighbors.
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ohgrad wrote: Sun Jun 21, 2020 6:15 am theoretical and practical experience with whatever you can afford. nothing else will make you faster than your own skills.
You din’t answer the question. What was it for you personally?

Beside Max/MSP, Bitwig and the LinnStrument I should also mention my violin, my fretless bass and my Tibetan bowls...
Different times had different tools pushing me but even more often other musicians inspiring me...

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HREQ wrote: Tue Apr 07, 2020 8:00 am Just curious, what gear helped you guys the most with getting compositions down, or producing, or mixing?
This is an interesting and important question - and indeed,
I had to think about it a little: What was really the MOST
IMPORTANT piece of gear? :?: :?: :?: And my answer is:

--> My new pencil! :tu:

Half a year ago I bought a new pencil of the hardness grade
2HB. The right degree of hardness is important for writing down
quickly and agilely.

It is the MOST IMPORTANT tool because with it - right at the
beginning of every musical creation - I write down the basic idea
of the melody and the lyrics! And it is exactly this initial process
that determines whether a song is really good or not. Everything
that comes after that has long ceased to have this importance.

Consequently, it is clear that the type of pencil is decisive for the
creative process. This means that the degree of hardness must
correspond to the personal feeling, the colour must be appealing
and inspiring. And finally, the circumference and length must of
course fit exactly.

I even dare to say that YOUR PENCIL is the decisive tool that
decides how good your track or song will be in the end.
:D
free mp3s + info: andy-enroe.de songs + weird stuff: enroe.de

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As per usual, depends on the task at hand. But overall, getting a comfortable setup is always key. Investing in a good keyboard and mouse might not sound like that of an important thing and to some, it might not be, but a great mechanical keyboard and trustworthy mouse made navigating a DAW so much more enjoyable.

And when it comes for lyrics - a good notepad app. It's almost bizarre how better the writing experience can get if the app is well done.
Take care :wink:

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The thing that has been the most useful to me in my workflow is learning keyboard shortcuts (Cubase in this case). It has made a world of difference.

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Really great answers in here, definitely gives me some things to consider. For me personally, I'd say learning Fl Studio keyboard shortcuts and taking some time to invest into my work area made the biggest impact. I'm a person who hates clutter so a nice open work area goes a long way to being more productive.

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Perhaps this isn't the kind of answer you were after, but I hope anyone can learn from my mistakes: work with the BARE essentials for as long as you can, and once you start running into bumps and difficulties, upgrade. For example, the integrated soundcard on your computer is not powerful enough or you want to start recording so you upgrade to an external interface; you find drawing MIDI by hand a nightmare so you buy a MIDI keyboard.
Same applies with software: make the absolute most out of everything included in your DAW and once that isn't enough, you start looking into upgrading the tools you use the most.
Know that both hardware and software is ENGINEERED to look pretty and pro in order to get you to buy it, so be careful and don't fall in the trap that x controller, y module or z plugin will 100% fix your blocks. Hope it helps. :party:

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oatmealcookies wrote: Wed Jul 08, 2020 7:03 pm Perhaps this isn't the kind of answer you were after, but I hope anyone can learn from my mistakes: work with the BARE essentials for as long as you can, and once you start running into bumps and difficulties, upgrade. For example, the integrated soundcard on your computer is not powerful enough or you want to start recording so you upgrade to an external interface; you find drawing MIDI by hand a nightmare so you buy a MIDI keyboard.
Same applies with software: make the absolute most out of everything included in your DAW and once that isn't enough, you start looking into upgrading the tools you use the most.
Know that both hardware and software is ENGINEERED to look pretty and pro in order to get you to buy it, so be careful and don't fall in the trap that x controller, y module or z plugin will 100% fix your blocks. Hope it helps. :party:
That's a great advice. What I ran into while helping people pick up producing is that you shouldn't really jump and buy a studio monitor setup, for example. I think there is a bar, that you end up reaching and that's the moment you know it's time to invest in a setup. I think with any hobby in general - do it because you love it and if you reach a point where you 100% know you need/want to upgrade to push yourself to the next level, that's the right time to pick up some gear.
Take care :wink:

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Thinking less about your gear and more on just the basics of the music will make you more productive. Gear is fun, but no single thing is going to make better songs for you. But a keyboard is always nice 😉

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