too much gear... sucks

[false tropics]

More gear usually means more headaches, and ish breaking on you. I used an mpc 4000 alone since 2004 with great results until earlier this year when a ceramic chicken fell on it and it needed to get fixed. Without my only sampler, and desperate to make something, I found a 303 at the pawn shop. When I got the mpc back, I started using them both together and it was great: I loved the speed, ease of use, and effecs of the sp, and the sequencer of the mpc.

Then, because of the sickness, I started thinking how I needed a 404 sx for increased voices, speed, new effects, blah, while keeping the 303 in the chain and maintaining its sound. I hooked it up and for about a week there I had a sweet set up... until the right rca out on the 303 crapped out. Now that's being fixed, along with my integrated amp that just happened to stop working the same weekend.

Point is, if you have a system that works, it's probably best to leave well enough alone. Or maybe the point is to avoid buying cheap used gear. Or maybe the point is to treat aging rca outs like faberge eggs.

[SadFac3]

I agree with False. Sorry to hear of the chicken falling on the MP.... Ouch!!!

[springwater]

Excuses excuses.... More gear is good, less gear is good. From what it sounds like is that most of ya'll talk it up why yer not making music. Deep down making music comes from passion. If you have shitty gear it doesn't mean you'll make bad music and vise versa with having all the gear in the world. Work with what you got and let the music speak your words. If "life" gets in your way from making music maybe it's a signal to focus on that instead of complaining why yer not making bangers, same goes for having too much gear...... Too many people with passion have nothing..... Not trying to get down on ya'll, but if you have multiple samplers/gear with the time to complain about your lack of time/skill it might be time to put things into perspective. If any gear/software makes creating music "easy" why doesnt everybody have an entire library of tracks to share? ..... Food for thought.

Thanks! Your totally right. My passion for creation and posting is totally down the drain. But my passion for actually creating is spot on. A complainer is a complainer and im a complainer. Ill admit it. But dont think for one second im sitting with a ton of gear i never touch and collects.

Samplers are samplers..... The user controls the content. There is no magical way to go from somebody else's artistic creation to recording a section of it and making a creative piece for yourself. Gotta do work.....

Don't get me wrong guys, I am in the same group that thinks less is more. I love working with one piece of gear and pushing it to its limits. Bottom line is that when you are determined/creative you'll use what is at your disposal and the work that is created will be amazing. If you have no passion and $xxx,xxx.xx worth of gear the machines will not work wonders for you.

Thanks! Your totally right. No excuses. Gotta do the work. Im actually fighting not to type a ton of "this is why and that is why" cause that would be another paragraph of bull shit and really its shit or get off the pot.

[formal]

Sorry to sound rude in my last post. I guess it was one of those days....

Just stay up on it and keep pushin through. Hopefully you'll find the right combo that works for you

[springwater]

I didnt take it rude at all. I took it like a friend laying out the truth for me. Cause of that, ill be posting something right after i finish this bowl of nighttime cereal. Something i made and am sitting on. I think most of my problem is confidence but i gotta plow through that. Keep an eye out for it cause i want your opinion since your in a "blunt" mood today. My fucking best friend just got fired from our job today so im in a weird mood as well.

[Astromass]

Just got my 404sx today... Really simple and intuitive to use....only a few things I had to study up on in the manual (button pushes). Man, what a fuckin BLAST this thing is! I deleted the samples on the Roland card and sampled directly via the internal mic and came up with some INSANE shit!
This will be my studio in the box for a LONG time. I feel SO inspired, just had to come onto the forum and bust nut.
This sp404sx and an iPad (for sampling the different apps into the sp) is making my ableton rig obsolete....this process of tweaking the 404 and resampling just feels "right".
Cheers.

[Unfolding]

Hey Spring & Formal- that goes for all of us! Setting up a comfortable recording rig can a double edged sword.
Is that new bit of gear really going to help make fire?
or
Is the lack/excess of gear & options holding me/you/us back?

That was some intense real talk back there. Respect!

[JZTR]

I used an mpc 4000 alone since 2004 with great results until earlier this year when a ceramic chicken fell on it

That's not funny what happened... still, couldn't help but find it quite comical!

[false tropics]

I used an mpc 4000 alone since 2004 with great results until earlier this year when a ceramic chicken fell on it

That's not funny what happened... still, couldn't help but find it quite comical!

I feel like we all do this: make a beat, really feeling it, and then just blast it on repeat while doing other stuff around the house like dishes, or going to the bathroom or whatever. Anyway, I learned the hard way not to put something heavy (chicken that wifey made forever ago) on the shelf next to your speaker. The bass just kept inching the chicken forward, like over the course of years, and I just never noticed until it fell off and cracked the operating board on the mpc.

Here's the really depressing part: just that morning we got our tax return and I was gonna put my half toward putting out a new lp... but it ended up going to Forat for repairs.

[KIDesign]

Im currently going through this right now. I grew up with no money, and my buddy had the 303, so he and I would make beats, and I would lay verses over them. Im finally in a position in life to afford the gadgets I wanted as a kid.That being said, in my lab now as it stands is:
MPC 5000
MPC 1000
Sp 555
Sp 808
Sp 505
Sp 303
Maschine
APC 40
Akai s20
MRT ZOOM drum Machine
Tascam Mk11
alesis MMt8
Mac Book Pro/Ableton
2 Technic MK2s
Vestax PMC 05 proii with an Innofader
Shit tons of records
oh and a Numark ppd 01 or something like that.

Ive already sold a KP3, Kaossilator, Kaossilator Pro, Kurzweil k200 synth.
woo, weird to see it all written down.
I am the craigslist king. All heil!

[jbl]

Idk I say keep it if you can. Why sell it? Do you need the money, space? Who knows when you want that 'sound'? As for controllers, just one is fine if it is does what you want. But samplers have a flavor and a work style.
I'm like you, couldn't get it b4, making up for lost time I guess. Starting to think about keeping some of it at my other girls house, what!!!
Seriously, it costs more to get it back! If you know you don't want it, say good bye but if there is doubt, hold on to it. It's not like women, you don't eventually have to choose one cuz the others'll get jealous. They just sit there quietly until you want to play with them again. Oh why can't love be so easy???

[Unfolding]

It's not like women, you don't eventually have to choose one cuz the others'll get jealous. They just sit there quietly until you want to play with them again. Oh why can't love be so easy???

At least girls & gear are both fun...

2nd the rest of what you said. Probably gonna sell a bunch of gear soon after reflecting about what I own vs what I use each bit of gear for vs what I actually use (ie- more than once every couple of months). If the bit of gear doesn't score enough points, it's gonna go soon. It's hard to be objective about this though.

[4aron]

I got an sp-404sx just to focus on making music, instead of starting something and then getting lost on the way playing with a synth or what ever.
And I can play it on the couch like a calculator.

It's nice sometimes to be confined, to just one or 2 things.
This means more time making music not tuning a synth or playing an old video game you set out to sample.

On the other hand

I don't focus on making one type of music, so it is nice to have other peaces of gear when you want to do some thing different.
For me working with different things gives a different result.
With my monomes I like to make more ambient and harmonic stuff( feels fun)
With the sp at the moment it feels fun to make glitchy broken music'
Some thing that takes more time to do in ableton.

End of rant.....