Hi there! What’s been on your mind? What have you done this week? Any fun plans next week?
I’m new to synthesizers. I’ve played with a microkorg for 15 years! but never had an interest how anything worked until now. This week I learned how to use the microkorg, I figured out how to make some bell/gong timbres, and now I’m trying to model a string, which is difficult! Not a string ensemble but like a single violin. It’s been fun
Fun! Feel free to share things. Maybe we have some tips 😊
I’ve been hit hard by the GAS. I have too many synths already, and I’m always tempted to buy more. It’s an obsession - every single night I’m looking at synths on my iPad in bed. I spend way more time staring at synths I want than actually playing the synths I own.
Yeah, it’s not good.
Part of the problem is every time I realize I’ve gone overboard, thinking about scaling back and selling synths gets me back into over-analytical comparison shopping mode. I’m trying to figure out what’s the best possible combination of just a few synths to keep, and then I think “hey, this new thing could replace 3 of my other synths.” Except in practice, usually the new thing isn’t as great as I thought, and it becomes more difficult to decide what to keep and what to sell. I don’t want to make that mistake again.
Maybe I’ll sell some things later, but for now the important thing is I have everything I need to make the music I want to make. That’s what I should be spending my time and energy on instead of making databases to compare and rank synthesizers. (Yes, I’ve actually done that.)
Well this probably won’t help you at all then, but for me my solution was to buy “the one” instrument that I most enjoyed. Not that you can necessarily guarantee to know ahead of time which one that is. In my case I got a Waldorf Iridium, and that killed my GAS for synths. There’s just something about that synth for me that feels “just right” but also deep enough to not lock itself into a corner. Now every time I hear a new synth demo, I think, “That’s a cool idea! I bet I could get close to that sound with the Iridium.” And instead of thinking about buying something new, I instead use what I have to accomplish something similar. Or more likely, I start with imitating, but end up going into a different creative direction that I preferred anyway.
A similar piece of gear in my guitar arsenal is the Empress Zoia. Instead of getting GAS over new pedals, I instead hear the cool sounds and immediately start thinking about how I could replicate it with the Zoia. No need to buy a new pedal. Multi-FX pedals can be this way too – I hear similar experiences for owners of the Zoom MS-70CDR.
So partially its finding something that you mesh with personally, which no one but you can figure out, but it is also partially being sure it isn’t something that is too niche into a specific sound but instead an instrument or module that is flexible enough to be used for multiple purposes.
Anyway that’s been my experience. 'course my noobish opinion isn’t worth much.
I feel you. I’ve spent more money on synths than would be healthy. I’ve bought and sold the same synth multiple times. The new and shiny thing is always so attractive…
I’ve yet to find a solution. What helped me temporarily is forcing myself to make music. I am ha hobbyist, not a professional. So I don’t put a value on my time making music. Me making music IS the value.
So what I did for a while (until I got too busy to pick them up) was make music for people who needed it and release that music into the public domain. Kinda like open source music. I got a few people who were making documentaries, videogames, video stories, and the like. It was good to have someone you’d disappoint if you didn’t make them a full track. I drove me to actually get the music done.
But when I got too busy, I shut down the website.
