The watmm Anti-GAS thread

[cern]

1 hour ago, Key said:

I think there are 2 gear groups, the collector/consumer and the creative. The latter group has higher social status so everybody jockeys for position, with all the anxiety and friction that entails. If I don't make decent tracks have I fallen into the lowly position of the collector? etc Some collectors dont give two shits, just love noodling around, don't know what the problem is.

No no problem at all..

Okey maybe people will think Im attacking them now but anyway.. 

First of: Im not perfect in any sense.. I have done alot of shit + bought stuff that I barely touched etc.. 

But I think a person who has constantly GAS and just collect more and more gear for just the sake of it has big problems. 
It is like a person who can not stop eating or addicts that can not stop gambling, drinking etc.. 
They looking for a rush and nothing more. 

Then ofc you can be a extremely oversized person or a heavely drinker or gambler etc that can say "I have no problem, I have totally control and I love this lifestyle" 
And Im happy for them same for the people who collects gear even if they barely use it or doing anything. 

I just wanted to bring this idea here that less can be more sometimes. 
I want people to feel happy of what they have and use it, You don't need to focus on all the new gear that has been released. 

If you look at all gear discussions It is mostly people who craving for buying more gear. 
I think it can be important to talk about why you NOT need that specific gear. 

[auxien]

[Key]

19 hours ago, cern said:

No no problem at all..

Okey maybe people will think Im attacking them now but anyway.. 

First of: Im not perfect in any sense.. I have done alot of shit + bought stuff that I barely touched etc.. 

But I think a person who has constantly GAS and just collect more and more gear for just the sake of it has big problems. 
It is like a person who can not stop eating or addicts that can not stop gambling, drinking etc.. 
They looking for a rush and nothing more. 

Then ofc you can be a extremely oversized person or a heavely drinker or gambler etc that can say "I have no problem, I have totally control and I love this lifestyle" 
And Im happy for them same for the people who collects gear even if they barely use it or doing anything. 

I just wanted to bring this idea here that less can be more sometimes. 
I want people to feel happy of what they have and use it, You don't need to focus on all the new gear that has been released. 

If you look at all gear discussions It is mostly people who craving for buying more gear. 
I think it can be important to talk about why you NOT need that specific gear. 

Yeah for sure, it does seem compulsive and joyless for a lot of people. I have seen many a youtube/reddit comment of people flexing the gear list when nobody asked, like the actual selection of gear is their way of expressing themselves..

What I mean is that I don't judge people for wanting to just consume gear and not really create any music.  Its a free world and if anything the heightened sales figures/interest probably helps the industry grow and develop new interesting gear for those who do create.

But at the same time I dont really get it either, its like having a garage of classic cars but you don't drive, or a top collection of sneakers but have no interest in running. 

[dcom]

Gear-Shaming™

Edited October 5, 2023 by dcom

[chronical]

1 hour ago, dcom said:

Gear-Shaming™

You notice you are standing in a dimly lit cave surrounded by magicians, each growing more and more complex conjuring spellwork by reciting their old formulas in creative ways.
A want to join them manifests in you, yet you brought only your set of dice, some parchment and an E-Quill that you haven't read the manual of yet. You notice your power in this room is quickly fading,

What do you do?

• Ask mages for help with the quill

• Exit cave

• Speak loudly: "Quill-shaming"

• Discuss the intricacies of magic labor

 

 

[dcom]

44 minutes ago, chronical said:

What do you do?

Summon Cthulhu. Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!

Edited October 5, 2023 by dcom

[dcom]

But seriously, I'm wondering why discussing gear in a gear-specific thread is such a contentious issue, it shouldn't matter one iota to anyone else how much gear anyone else has, and getting unsolicited advice of the you're-doing-it-wrong kind is annoying.

[exitonly]

18 minutes ago, dcom said:

But seriously, I'm wondering why discussing gear in a gear-specific thread is such a contentious issue, it shouldn't matter one iota to anyone else how much gear anyone else has, and getting unsolicited advice of the you're-doing-it-wrong kind is annoying.

this is the anti-gas thread though so it seems appropriate. i think even in a pro-gas thread it’s still a viable discussion point. probably less so on a thread about a specific bit of kit. GAS is the topic so it seems ok to discuss the pros and cons. 

[dcom]

Yeah, I'll show myself out.

[Bubba69]

There are successful artists that also collect tons of gear, and successful artists that have very minimal workflows ITB, or with, say just, an MPC or roland SP-series and hone in (four tet, autechre). I think collecting many different mediums and esoteric tools is a valid approach as an artist, it's harder to dive deep on technique when you're spread across gear, sure, but it can be done (aphex, tycho). Early on, when I was starting to make music, trying many many different free vst plugins was sort of something I got really into. Maybe this could be considered GAS, or not. But I think there was merit in exploring different things all the time. I also changed DAW many times, this often transformitively changed my perspective and approach and overall made me stronger at making music. Switching to hardware was a huge, huge setback in productivity at first, but it set me on a path that actually made me very happy. To me, sitting with the same tools for album after album feels unfulfilling, I like changing it up. I hit a wall of interest and say, ok, time to spice it up, it's just who I am, I can't not explore or try new ideas, as often new ideas creates a drive to find the right tool to achieve it. I'm not happy just getting good at one kind of music and polishing it to the extreme for too long, perfect music is boring, I need new to shake things up, I need to hear something new.

[exitonly]

i think the studio size should be based on the amount of time you have to dedicate to working in it. if you can only spend a few hours a week or something like that you should keep it tight and focused. if you’re i. there for 4-8 hours a day it makes more sense to have something like Tycho’s or RDJs kind of setups so you can explore lots. But if you have a ton of kit and aren’t putting the time in then i guess you’re just a collector… which is fine but don’t kid yourself 

[th555]

Hmm, but at the end of the day a synth is just an instrument with a certain sound. At some point you know how to play keys and you know how subtractive synthesis works, I don't think it's illegitimate to have 10 synths and switch between them based on the sound you want even if that means you only play them 1/10th of the time compared to if you had only 1.

[thawkins]

On 10/5/2023 at 3:28 PM, dcom said:

But seriously, I'm wondering why discussing gear in a gear-specific thread is such a contentious issue, it shouldn't matter one iota to anyone else how much gear anyone else has, and getting unsolicited advice of the you're-doing-it-wrong kind is annoying.

Personally I would like to have more discussions about gear that are not just "wow check out this cool vid with €thing" and then a bunch of posts where people are sharing that they have preordered €thing and are waiting for it to arrive. Repeat ad nauseam.

And personally I would also like to be contributing something different to these kinds of discussions instead of being a party pooper.

 

Maybe one good concrete anti-GAS example I have is discussions about generative-random music.

For this stuff I think well the fastest way to get started is to fire up some free software like Pure Data and blast your synths - virtual or hardware - with MIDI that you can just mangle any way you want. Later if you know what you like and how you like it, its time to shop around for physical gear that will do it for you, especially if you want a DAWless setup.

But that's not what the pure GAS mindset accepts as a solution - here the first thing is to go and find some sequencer or arpeggiator, blow a bunch of cash on it (+cables and setup) and THEN you are legally allowed to make generative music. It's like mostly the only solution to get the results you want is to buy something, anything.

Yep I get the arguments about physical gear being more immediate and limiting and all, and it's of course correct. But let's face it, DAWless is quite an expensive approach and if your goal is to create new music and produce something, then wouldn't it be prudent to start small and as much as free software as possible, and get the basics (DAW, monitoring) in place.

OK and then we get to the dichotomy of gardener/producer - the gardener is literally there to get physical gear, whereas the producer wants to get finished music.

 

Finally, please read this post as being highly opinionated and projecting my own straw person and arguing with it. It's all cool in my book if you enjoy your process of making music, whether it involves buying gear or sperging over microtonal sequencers in a pirated copy of Cool Edit Pro.

[cern]

It sounded like dcom misunderstood something before and Im sorry if the discussion had lead to more of a "You are a fool if you buying gear" way and gear shaming..

This was NOT about gear shaming at all, in fact quite the opposite. I want people to praise the gear they have by using it to its fully potential!
Therefor instead of going the GAS way and buy everything you craving for maybe just go deep on the gear you have and get something good out of it. 
Like thawkins was saying maybe people should chill on the "Oh check this out! Ordered mine! Gonna order! OOH want it so badly" That is like GAS works. 

When you talk deep about a gear then you are lifting up both Pros and Cons. 
Maybe the Cons part can make one not to buy it? That is how Anti-GAS works. 

[xox]

On 10/5/2023 at 5:22 PM, dcom said:

Yeah, I'll show myself out.

 

[dcom]

My personal problem with these threads is that I feel like I'm being told - indirectly, natch - not to have fun, that I'm ruining things for myself by having enough disposable income to buy a lot gear I'm interested in, that I'm being a bad musician because people think I buy things just for show, or to appease GAS, that I'm not going deep enough with the kit I already have, and so on, and so forth. None of you know what I'm doing with the things I have, because I keep it to myself, and you don't ask, you assume; you don't know how deep I go when I'm learning a new piece of equipment; you make assumptions, run with them and your opinions about things, and make these discussions unpleasant - at least for me.

I've written about my musical background a few times, but let's recap: my mother is a professional musician, a singer, who recorded even before I was born; I took up the violin when I was 6, and studied music in a classical way for over a decade, and picked up a handful of other (non-synth) instruments on the way. My uncle was also a celebrated classical music composer, so I've had music in me since my cells started to divide in utero. I've been DJing for over 30 years, and I've made music on computers since I was a teen, starting with trackers on the Amiga. I'm not someone who thinks musical ability and talent come from the instruments, their quality or quantity; I'm not a professional musician, but I have enough knowledge, and might even have some talent, to know my way around music.

I've been making music one way or another almost all my life, and now that I've been financially stable for a long time, I finally wanted to get stocked on instruments and other gear that I want to learn and work with, and teach myself (more) new things. I'm not interested in and buying equipment because I want to show off, have more money than sense, or don't know what I'm doing. I know exactly what I'm doing, there are very specific musical things I want to do, and I'm finding and trying things out by myself, because I'm an asocial nerd on the spectrum and don't really care for company.

It's alienating, discouraging - sad, even - that on a specialized forum like WATMM people seem to have the need - like on most technologically mediated platforms nowadays - to be reflexively hostile towards others who are excited about or having fun doing something. I'm not asking for help making music, I'm asking for opinions on and being enthusiastic about pieces of kit I find interesting - it's got fuck all to do with synthfluencers, but I acutely understand how they can be used as a rhetorical device to claim that people (like me) don't have agency over their own actions because they don't understand they're being sold stuff - like I was a mook who buys everything at face value because someone on the internet says that it's great.

I should've probably posted this in Your pointless thoughts & observations because It Doesn't Matter™. Nevertheless, you do you, I do me.

Edited October 7, 2023 by dcom

[Freak of the week]

if i want gas i eat beans