yea videogames can be fun, but im thinking ill get a greater satisfaction out of making music if i cant even THINK of being distracted by them. anyone ever trade in their shit just to get it out of their life? regrets?

i sure could use a trigger finger and a 2 stereo out soundcard....

Don't trade your Xbox for a 2 stereo soundcard though, the Xbox is worth far more than your average good quality soundcard.

Anyways, yup, I'm having similar issues as well lately, too much distraction going on.

Just went through a similar thought process a couple weeks ago... I'm getting ready to move, and really don't play the NES/SuperNES/N64/xbox/PS2/xbox360 that much at all anymore. I decided to box em all up and keep em around tho. I can never make myself get rid of old gear... music stuff or video games. When I think of the amount of money I would be able to get for the stuff I never feel it would outweigh the fun that could be had throwing in an old game and zoning out for a little bit... possibly finding something good to sample or some creative inspiration... or getting into some good 2 player action with one of my bros. Even an xbox360 and some games would only net a small amount of cash... I'd rather hold onto that stuff and just save up for a little while. I'm definitely a pack rat.

Guess it would be different if it was something that ate up a lot of my free time and cut into my beatmaking efforts. Then I would probably demonize the hell out of it and make it a personal quest to oust it from my life.

i feel like eventually it comes down to a constructive/destructive mindset. spend enough time in either one and it controls you. yea its fun to shoot your friends in the head and call him a bitch, but after playing for an hour or so that mindset still lingers and makes it harder to make music. not to mention that games are getting so complex that to enjoy them you have to spend a long ass time getting used to them... and i only see this trend continuing in the future.

sacrifice is good you know?

definitely sell it....and get a PS3

i use to play unreal tournament 2003/2004/3 all the time but i reformatted my pc recently and only installed my music aps and its alot less destracting if your bout the music its a good move..

I love my old xbox with a mod chip inside and wouldn't trade it to anyyhing.
I have a hard drive in it full of emulators and games. All NES, SNES, Genesis, Atari 2600, Arcade etc games in there. I've got some 20 000 - 30 000 games there. That's also a great source for samples..
My favourite at the moment is still Donkey Kong (arcade version)..

sorry going offtopic a bit but I JUST LOVE RETRO GAMING!!!!

not quite.

Also I dont think getting rid of your xbox is going to help.

If you work non stop on music, you will burn yourself out.

Regular non-musical play should be part of your daily schedule!

yea its called college. i disagree that you can burn yourself out from music though. you can burn yourself out that day but a new day gives you new energy. if you push yourself everyday you WILL get better. its inevitable even without inborn talent.

I partly agree in that practice naturally will improve your skills, but I'm thinking cartesia here is talking about producer / writer's block kind of exhaustion, not a lack of energy. If you run out of creativity, getting a few hours sleep won't really do much good as that's usually not the issue. A short holiday or at least something distracting and different will more easily recharge your creativity pool.

i understood his point and agree to a point, but we were talking about videogames he as the distraction. which i said earlier, can decrease the amount of creativity when you do return from it.

I see. Yeah, well for me personally I tend to only play games for a maximum of about 2 hours in the evening, íf I play games at all.

It's usually a bit different when I've bought some new games, but basically I have found a rather nice balance between music, PC games and going out to parties and what not.

But I can't deny that for some people getting rid of it all together might be a good solution.

i dont think gaming will help but i think getting out of the house will....like going to a pub or out to eat for awile and when you get back home its amazing how shit feels.

yea no need to tell me that, i get my share of partying done

or you can mix both together for some dopeness
http://www.aqi.co.jp/product/ds10/en/index.html