Gear Lust and Hardware vs Minimalistic Setup. Discuss.

tomperson · Post by **tomperson** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 7:31 pm

Well,
More and more i'm into this "laptop music" thing. Everything gets done on the laptop. The laptop is a limited resources tool: relatively small displays, relatively small disk, processors that are optimized for power savings, etc. As a consequence, it leads to all kind of ways of doing things with "small" setups. And that is cool in my opinion. Even more important, the laptop music movement has made evident a shift in the way we think of music production. We don't want to "emulate" a "real" studio anymore. We are not envy of the guy with loads of cables and a fixed setup. We want to take our music with us, we want our own identity, our own way of doing things. Even more, we can now produce music AND play it with the same rig.

On the other hand, many of us still want tactile control, flashing lights, and all those physical cues to the music that come with real hardware. Not to mention pure gear lust, a disease that seems to be embedded on most electronic musicians

What do you think? How do you feel about this? How do you face music production? Do you feel your mind has changed/shifted? How much have your production techniques changed? How do you integrate hardware and software?

Let's discuss

detroitechno · Post by **detroitechno** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 8:10 pm

choosing just one way is pure limitation on your creative outlet. your truely at your 'peak' and most efficient when you combine them together as one.

tomperson · Post by **tomperson** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 8:25 pm

The question is how? When? Why? Sometimes limitations are as inspiring (I dare to say, MUCH MORE) than having every resource at hand to achieve a goal.

computo · Post by **computo** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 8:43 pm

I think its most important to determine what you NEED.

If you do that, then all the fluff will float away, and you'll have a much easier package to setup.

Ive gone the big setup route, Im a drummer. I could never play gig without making 12 trips back and forth from my car. Now, I just have 3 bags, which I can carry all at once...I often pack my stand, just in case, but rarely bring it out of the car, because most venues have good enough tables.

Nothing like being able to run around with your whole setup attached to you.

Its a blessing.

tomperson · Post by **tomperson** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 8:59 pm

Yeah computo, you got to the point.

For me it's like I want to have the opportunity to work with real gear sometimes, that's why i got a remote 25. Beautiful piece of gear. And I've always found nice those electribes and such, would love to know how is like working with them. The same with stomp boxes, outboard FX units, etc. Tactile control.

On the other hand sometimes i'd like to be able to pack everything i need to play on just one bag and there you go. No need for car/taxi/whatever to carry your stuff.

More importantly i'd like to know how you feel philosophically with regards of music production right now and how the portability affects your decisions/judgement. For example, as I'm more and more oriented towards live performance, i'm finding myself using just a small collection of really trusted and stable plugins, and using as much as possible from the built in ones that come with live, see?

sounddesigner · Post by **sounddesigner** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 11:04 pm

detroitechno wrote:choosing just one way is pure limitation on your creative outlet. your truely at your 'peak' and most efficient when you combine them together as one.

Wise words! My philosophy aswell!
I currently have a desk top computer but will be getting a laptop for traveling, but plan to keep my desktop studio wich has the more powerful stuff connected to it.I think both set ups will work well together.In the past i'd stick to one program like Sonar or Reason then as time passes i run into limitations, Some limitations forced me to buy ableton live, and a more complete arsenal of plugins, i believe one can over due it, and out of gear obsession buy too much, or buy the wrong things, it's just about recognizing the tools your talent needs for it's level and type of expression and getting them.Knowing what will help to complete you!

computo · Post by **computo** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 11:36 pm

what really pushed me into crunching my setup down, I was playing all these clubs that were about 3-5 miles on average away from my apt. in Boston. So I bought a $300 electric scooter, and forced my setup into 2 bags, so I could just hop on this badboy, and ride to and from gigs, with no problems.

Well, the scooter was badass, and I more than got my money out of it, but not for getting to gigs. hahaha. It turned out to be more fun to just ride around the city for a day, and explore. But, as a result, Ive peared down my setup a lot. And now I have a fetish for small SUPER powerful and useful setups.

djsynchro · Post by **djsynchro** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 11:49 pm

This is why you get two unlocks. One for the studio, one for the laptop.

Angstrom · Post by **Angstrom** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 1:16 am

on the general subject of paring down equipment to the minimum and avoiding gear lust :

my favourite thing for recording/writing is a pared down minimal & known setup combined with a new and unknown thing.

what happens is that your known setup gives you stability and ease of use, while the new unknown thing gives you "beginners mind".

Noises out of a borrowed Jupiter6 (for example)sound as excellent to you as they will to a listener to your track ... but if that synth was in your permanent setup you may have become jaded by its limitations and base sound and not use the same sound because it is old to you.

To me this has implications for "synth lust" and gives it context, purpose and meaning. There's less need to own a new synth, but understanding of what a new synth brings - "beginners mind", so strive for that instead!

sounddesigner · Post by **sounddesigner** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 1:47 am

Angstrom wrote:on the general subject of paring down equipment to the minimum and avoiding gear lust :

my favourite thing for recording/writing is a pared down minimal & known setup combined with a new and unknown thing.

what happens is that your known setup gives you stability and ease of use, while the new unknown thing gives you "beginners mind".

Noises out of a borrowed Jupiter6 (for example)sound as excellent to you as they will to a listener to your track ... but if that synth was in your permanent setup you may have become jaded by its limitations and base sound and not use the same sound because it is old to you.

To me this has implications for "synth lust" and gives it context, purpose and meaning. There's less need to own a new synth, but understanding of what a new synth brings - "beginners mind", so strive for that instead!

Very interesting way of looking at things! And seems to have merit to it! I personal believe in picking out what i need and like but when it is time to create let the track tell me what it wants on it, The track often chooses different from personal preferences. hence i don't believe in a fixed set-up.

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 2:30 am

Angstrom wrote:my favourite thing for recording/writing is a pared down minimal & known setup combined with a new and unknown thing.

what happens is that your known setup gives you stability and ease of use, while the new unknown thing gives you "beginners mind".

yes yes and yes!

Modern producers should do Gear-swap chains, where they each borrow eachother one piece of kit for use 1 month, letting it do the rounds and then return home.

-crawls back to redo brand-new software setup - same thing: beginners mind

djadonis206 · Post by **djadonis206** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 4:14 am

Minimal all the way - kind of like Reason, you have to do the best with what you got - makes you focus on what you're trying to do

on the other hand as others have stated it's pretty inspiring to get that brand new plug (and all the magic you feel you can create with it)

You know, as loing as you're buying (IMHO) software and maybe some controllers you're safe going on a spending spree (gear lust thing)

but when you pay $10,000,000.00 for a new peice of hardware kit you kind of feel obligated to making everything with it and you may get frustrated because:

you spent 1 trillion dollars on it
you feel guilty for not paying your rent
You never really had room for it so it sticks out like a 5 million dollar sore thumb
you just heard that your favorite producer did their new album all in live (no hardware)
2 weeks have gone by and GC wont take it back

you get the idea - software, it's like, I'll come back to that later and if it sucks I'll sell the license

on the other hand

I was fooling around with a friends Nord Lead and honestly, if one popped up on CL I'd swoop with the quickness (honestly)

peace

DJA!

sweetjesus · Post by **sweetjesus** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 4:51 am

Problems I experienced or see in others...

1) Much of it comes down to lack of workflow and organisation.

2) If you have a lot of equipment, but do not know every single bit inside out, then you are limiting yourself with your equipment chain as a whole.

3) If it takes you longer to route and use a piece of equipment than to do what you need with it, then that's where your bottleneck is.

4) A lot of people obfuscate the distinction between production/writing/mixing

5) Many people get overwhealmed by too much choice and that reverts back to point #2 I made which is often overcome by experience with your setup

6) Doing everything in the laptop can be as messy as having too much equipment, some people I know have so many VST effects that they don't know what to use for which scenario, the same thing can occur outside of the computing realm

7) Laziness... for some people it is too much work to use a piece of gear in its proper form, so they implement its functionality in a half assed manner which results in poor performance

The 5 P's (I learnt this from a flatmate of mine)... Proper Planning Prevents Piss-poor Performance

9) Forcing yourself to use a piece of equipment just because you have it...

10)
A: Knowing which bits of your equipment are there because you just love it as a toy so as to inspire you and which bits are there to actually get work done with

B: Being able to let go of a piece of equipment during the production process. If I make a cool bassline or idea with my SH-101 but know that it will take too much time to actually incorporate the SH-101 into my production whereas I could easily get the same sound out of another synth and MIDI it up and process it and utilise it in half the time, without having to worry about tuning, noise and a billion other factors then I will go with a different piece of kit as opposed to trying to force it out of the SH.

crt · Post by **crt** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 6:11 pm

This is an especially interesting topic for me to read about as I am running on a very pared down setup: g4 Laptop, soft synths and Oxygen 8. Hmph.

I moved a few months ago and put almost all the gear in storage. I packed the bare essentials in an SKB case and I plan on putting together a rudimentary studio in the basement. Someday.

With the teeny setup it's been interesting. I think I am making some better tracks because of it for a number of reasons. I am not sitting in front of my usual array of stuff and pursuing all too familiar avenues of production. I am forced to explore limits of the soft synths and al hardware is packed away. And given the limitations of Live on a Mac (shut Up i know it already) I have to learn how to keep stuff down to a minimum.

Limitations and boundaries are excellent tools for creativity. Sir Brian Eno said if you gave a painter a wghole art store he wouldn't paint a thing. Eno himself has some pretty old pieces of kit. Limitations are an amazing thing if you view them as gifs rather than hindrances. Remember someone else could make better music than you with less or what you alreayd have. Hah!

That said, I am dying to break out the studio. I bought a Juno 106 before I moved and I haven't really gotten a chance to do much with it. And I got some old synths repaired that I am eager to get my hands on.

And I'm a wee bit bored with the teeny-tiny setup now.

Peace...

D K · Post by **D K** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 6:40 pm

cool thread...
i just liquidated the remainder of my old-school set up a couple of months ago...
while on tour this past summer, i had alot of work i wanted to do.. but since i had alot of my kit in hardware form at home, i was slightly limited...enough to bother me, though.
now i have all in need with me or in the laptop. it's very liberating to be able to do it all on the spot, and to take it with me.
as far as hardware controllers are concerned, i have yet to find one that incorporates everything that would be ideal for me, but things are coming together out there,
and in the end i could always build one fairly easily with the diy kits available.
cheers
doug