Gear Lust...please help

canefire, resist that urge to keep upgrading gear and buying the latest new gizmo. Instead, spend the time learning all the ins and outs of your equipment. I see so many people who buy the latest item for a particular feature when they could have acheived the same thing with an older item, just in a different way. An example of this is to see the way Artemio squeezes far more out of his S88 than many of us do with our FX's... this is because he has learnt his instrument inside out and also why he doesn't see the need to upgrade to an FX.... or the B3 patch that "jcthemc" is working on that is not far off being an actual B3 emulator on a peice of gear that "doesn't do emulation". You will also feel a lot more satisfaction from getting more out of your current gear than you thought you could. When it comes down to it, if you have the talent, you can make great music with just about any peice of equipment... hence the quote in my signature ;o)

Dave

http://www.drstudio.demon.co.uk/
"Some musicians have a physical block, some have a mental block, while others have a wooden block". Unfortunately, I'm in the 1st category!

canefire -

1. Give your wife control of the checkbook, debit card and credit cards.
2. If you're not married, do so and perform step 1.
3. Once she knows how much you've spent on the stuff, she will give you plenty of motivation to do something good with it.

My stuff: http://dhsw.home.comcast.net

Let's be honest, having the lastest gizmo is a helluva lot of fun. Thinking of the the things you could do fires your imagination. Lust is good! Maybe not so much the acquisition and purchase, but having something you value which you can use to achieve something. If you genuinely haven't felt this way about anything, you have missed out on some of your greatest life experiences.

But its a close cousin to "If only I had X I could make music". The external symptoms may seem the same, internally you're searching for the technology which will somehow make you good at making music.

Then again some people are more collectors of gear than anything else, and that's cool too. As long as you understand why you want that new gear...

And since we're in the Free Zone, if you are going to buy something, buy it without a guilty conscience and never have to explain to anyone why you want it. If you're under the thumb (which I'm not by the way), you deserve better than to feel your hobby, passion or profession needs to be justified

B

this is a interesting thread cos it is something that I guess so many (me too) think about.

I guess balance is the key. just go with what you need/want with a few items and spend time then making the music and having fun.

When something new comes around, I weigh the cost, want levels, then the need levels. It is tricky at times tho.

sometimes we should go for an upgrade and sometimes we should wait.

I agree with dbouldens post however, if the 'latest gizmo' is better then the 'previous gizmo' I reckon you should get the latest gizmo'.

It doesn't matter how well you know the gear - in the end you are controlled by the capabilities of the hardware. A FantomX sounds better than a PSR250, it doesn't matter how much time you invest in learning the ins and outs of the PSR250 - the Fantom always will have the edge over the PSR250.

Having said that I don't think the S got that much 'edge' over the X, so having an S may not need an upgrade.

Cool thread this one!

I think that creativity and dedication is more important than the gizmo. As dave pointed out, there are people who dedicate themselves to learning this in and out and excel in it, and there are people, whom, even with the Fantom X ask questions like "How do i make good beats with this thing?"

there IS, however a line. Above this line,creativity becomes more of importance and technology is least important. Below this line, technology is a considerable factor and imagination is held back...

As an example, a Casio compared to the Fantom would be below the line. you can still make some good music with the Casio, but you need more to satisfy your imagination.

A Fantom S compared to a Fantom X is above the line. you use your head and the music flows like a river....



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If at first you dont suceed, then skydiving is definitively not for you.

I'd like to contribute

I own an FS model. I rarely ever thought I'd like to upgrade to X. Why? I haven't really hit the limits of FS. Frankly, sometimes I think, for example, "true analogue bass module would be cool", and the other day I get that unbelievably dense bass out of my FS, or other lovely almost analogish stuff, and I tell to myself "ok, I might wait a bit with squandering". Instead I ask myself how I got to that sound, and the answer is it's thanks to
- I dig into my FS (also thanks to Art's tweak book)
- I listen carefully to "right" (for me) music
- I study all that synthesizing, sound-engineering, production tricks stuff
- and I try, try, try

in fact, when you worked out some sound tricks for yourself with one set of gear you doubtfully will want another one, cos there will be a lot of job for you to be done from scratch again.

It seems to me I feel your situation very well, cos if I understand right you got a day job which lets you save and buy gear. The same with me. And I guess the key point here is time available. Studying, digging in and trying-trying-trying requires a lot of time, and often day job takes to much of it. When we realize this we tend to substitute our passion to creating with a passion to possession, just because the last does not take time! It is a very hard fight really, I'd suggest to everybody better work out some tricks to boost your creativity (there are many books on this subject). It doesn't take time or money, but eventually you'll find yourself deep in a creative process with what you have, quite satisfied and with no need for strained extras.

btw, I've got VS2000CD too but I had bought it for a purpose of recording stacked vocals, and I never wanted to spend more money and workspace for VS2480, plus I'm not jalous about FX Audio upgrade now, he-he ))

And finally, there must be at least any sensible profit for money spent, beside a chance to figure out new piece of gear, before i'll want to blow some more.

Please, be creative.

Peace,

lol.

i'm totally happy with my FS even though some times i have problems and most of the time its becos of ignorance. its pathetic though, to see some FX owners still rave about what they would do if the next Fantom Z comes and all that stuff...

do what you do best. dont worry about whats the latest giz thats gonna come tommorow. you'll never make music if you keep thinkin bout it..



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If at first you dont suceed, then skydiving is definitively not for you.

How do u make dope beats with these things?

Septimo ,'^)
X6
XT