Let me qualify this by saying I'm talking about me here. Maybe others will identify too though. I started this a a reply in another topic, but then realized it served little use there.

I found that seeking and finding "perfect" was not possible for me, so I tried a few things and wound up with a PA80. I still have it, and it still works for me. I can make music with it and entertain. The tools serve me well enough.

Maybe for you it will be a G70 or a Tyros. maybe a workstation, maybe a combination, maybe some software. I don't know. What's important for me is now is utilizing what I have and working with it to the best of my abilities. My gear lust for arrangers ended a long time ago, but I simply switched to gear lust for analogs and later virtual analogs and computer based sample sets.

I think it's finally over ( the gear lust thing ). I'm finally back to making music for myself, as well as doing tracks for others ( I never stopped doing the latter ). I have no regrets either, because I've learned an awful lot along the way. The thing is though, creativity and musical direction suffered, but thankfully my playing and live work has not.

I was so good at this years ago... I stuck with my M1 for over ten years ( and I hated things about it ), but with everything that kept coming out, I felt sometimes like I'm on a merry-goround.

I've started writing music again. It feels good. I start simple ( gear wise ).. Less is sometimes more... Sometimes I just wanna move past the gear and just play something. What do you guys think ?

AJ

[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 03-12-2005).]

I think this is often a such thing that goes with season. When I got the Korg Trinity back in the 90's I thought this is it. It was almost it, but now I am more interested than ever in different keyboards and synths especially since the Tyros which lead me into completely new ways of working, which was very satsifying. (registrations rock!) For me gear is half of the satisfaction. Combining technology and music is what makes it for me, I don't want only creativity. But this is a season thing, sometimes I want to focus on creativity only, then I want to focus on technology, then I want to focus on the combination and so on. What works best for me is to not tell myself to do it this way or that way, I want to be free enoguh to have fun. If it's fun it's right and works great!

Best regards,
YamahaAndy

Yeah, season might be a good way to look at it. Unfortunately for me, it was like a season that never ends. I really am happy, if not sometimes overwhelmed, with what I have gearwise, and my new studio is finally almost finished.

The latter has had an effect too. I was not comfortable at all working in the cramped room I've been in for several months. Not being able to play here with a live band has not made me happy. Most of my studio work has consisted of clients and / or bandmates giving me a piece to work on, and then me doing it here alone, or I've been traveling somewhere else with a lot of gear. There is barely enough room in here for a guitarist with a small amp.

I have learned much over the years that I didn't know, and for that I'm grateful. I staretd out in my first working band almost 25 years ago. I was a young kid. I knew nothing of the business. I knew I showed up, played my butt off, and got paid. It seems like I could always play, that was the easy part. I didn't know how much money the band was making, what or if any royalties were paid for doing cover tunes. I knew none of that stuff, as our singer ( who also managed the band ) did all that. I knew very little about studio work. I knew how to turn a recorder on, and play into it. Not much more.

Ya know what ? I was pretty happy. I always had decent keyboards. A CP25 and a Polysix back then. My recording gear was very crude. A two track Technics cassette ( yep two seprate tracks, a couple of old reel to reels, and a little later a 4 track portastudio and a drum machine.

What's surprising is when I listen to my old recordings ( some solo stuff too ), it's surprising how good it sounds knowing that I used that ancient gear. Some of my songs were pretty complex too, but not overbearing. I was into jazz fusion in a big way in those days. Some were just way out there though..lol. I guess the point I lead up to is, I recognize the need to use what I have in my head and my hands a much if not more than the latest gear.

AJ



[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 03-12-2005).]

I must agree AJ. I've hopefully, puchased my last keyboard. And, while it is technologically an incredible device, I can readily see where we, myself included, get so caught up with the technology that we tend to forget about the musical aspects. At this stage of my life, I hope to spend more time playing and entertaining, and a lot less time learning new systems.

Cheers,

Gary

AJ and Gary...this is something I struggle with all the time. In our business we use some pretty high-tech gear...Avid Editing suites...Cannon broadcast digital video equipment...digital backs for 4"x5" and 8"x10" view cameras, as well as both Mac and PC based computer systems for publishing (Mac)and communications research analysis and database management (Pc's, mainly), in addition to studio equipment and music equipment.

If I learned everything I would like to know about all of these fantastic devices, I wouldn't have any time left to create anything. In my business, deadlines are everything, so I simply can't be the expert
at every process. Luckily, my oldest son is a tehnophobe. He takes the rough tracks I do and does final mix-down and production (I couldn't tell you much about the equipment, other than the price). He is the expert at the Avid video editing suite. I write the scripts, shoot the vital scenes and compose the sound tracks. He completes the job under my direction.

My solution is to learn enough with each system to do my part of the work and leave everything else to people who really know the systems. For instance, when I make the switch to an SD-1 plus, I know the learning curve will be pretty steep, and I've got to block out the 30 hours or so it will take. That's partially why I'm still using an 11 year old MS-60. I would probably be OK with the MS 60, but after using it for 5 or more jobs a week, I am concerned about it dying on me.

Everyone needs to find their comfort zone. I'm not comfortable with the fact that I'm not the technician I'd like to be. I simply don't have the time. But, I'm equally comitted to doing national quality work in the film production, photography, design and video production filds, and I simply can't concentrate on just one process.

The final product is what's important to me.
For my film score roughs, I still sometimes use a 4-track portastudio. I can handle it by myself, sometimes late at night. Then I let Logan handle the logistics of arranging for final production. Luckilly, the jobs we do bill out at fees which allow us to use the best equipment, editing equipment, etc.
That brings up another issue. Generally the jobs that pay the most are boring as hell
(Think films based on explaining the changes in the most recent National Electric Code).
The enjoyable jobs don't pay as well. That represents another set of choices we all must make.

Each of us must define where we are going and how we are going to get there.

And, most of all, do work we are proud of, regardless of the process.


Russ

Hi AJ,
for me, music's only ever been a hobby. Technology became a lust, keyboard after keyboard. In the end, I was barely playing anymore, too busy with the technology side of things, not enough time spent on music.

I'd totally lost sight of why I became involved with keyboards in the first place, My original aim was only to be able to create some midifiles that I could use as backing when I played piano, just to fill things out. ( there wasn't much around in the early 90's, and the commercial one's were very expensive) In the end I stopped playing piano totally.

I think I'm finally back to where I want to be also. I have my laptop/omb/softsynths for when I feel the need to play an arranger, but better still, I've finally gone back to playing solo piano, found some online lessons to help me brush up again and I'm having a ball. I found some "New Age" piano lessons. ( I'm sort of 20 years too late for this type of music) but, this guy has at least given me some hope, ie that you're never too old to learn. haa haa

best wishes
Rikki

Well, I look forward to changing keyboards fairly often. For one thing, there are income tax considerations. With the combination of this and my usually being able to buy at or close to cost, then selling before the kb is too dated, it doesn't cost me much to change.
Of course the new instrument must be an improvement over the one I have! I can think of a time or two where it wasn't an improvement, so the change came more quickly.
DonM

Thanks for the replies. I guess in my head I know it isn't just me that feels this way, but sometimes I get so caught up in the technology that I begin to feel a bit isolated from creativity and even from other musicians.

I guess I think much as you guys / gals do on this subject. Rikki, I identify. I realized as my life became busier and filled up with other things that I couldn't realistically work with a band all the time, so I turned to drum machines and then arrangers to help me.

This was good, but I found myself always looking for the next great tool. In the end, I too lost sight of what I wanted to really do.. make keyboard based music. Playing keys at times almost became an afterthought.


There have been some positives. I have learned a lot of cool studio tricks over the years. I've realized that try as I may, I can't always emulate certain aspects of a rythym guitar on keys in the way a real guitar player does it on a real guitar. The tools have improved vastly, but a guitar is still a guitar. So.. I finally gave in and have learned to play guitar. I'm not great at it, but I can get by. Ditto drums. Programming beats actually made me want to play on a real set.. so now I do when I can.

Thanks Gary, Russ, Rikki, and Andy. I feel just a little less isolated from music itself right now.

Don, I don't know you personally, but I,ve seen enough of your posts that I suspect your reasons for changing are quite valid and reasonable. Nothing that I've seen posted from you makes me think of gear lust. Changing one or two or even a few boards a year in support of your livelihood is one thing.

Spending countless hours trying to improve on an already over complicated system and trying to learn to work with many synths and related tools at the same time, and still sometimes not being satisfied is quite another. Unfortunately, at times, for me it has been the latter. I think I've finally gotten away from it. I hope to stay that way for a long time.

Regards,
AJ



[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 03-12-2005).]

Another of the reasons why I think GAS and creativity is a season thing is because gear should enable you to do something new with your creativity. And it does! For instance I recently bought an RME Fireface 800 audio interface, a Mackie 1604VLZ-PRO analog mixer and an Edirol UM-880 MIDI interface and this means really a lot for me as a musician since it enables me to setup a home studio and start doing high quality stuff! Without this I would not be able to record anything and my creativity would not rise as fast.

But there are certain points when you have lived with the possibilities that the gear gives you and you feel empty inside with technical babble. You have focused on the tech stuff for a while and realise you haven't produced a single good peace of music for a long time! Sometimes I find myself in such a situation and then I usually start with these work shops I usually do. I do something new. For instance I started working with some attack parameters on some of the electric pianos in the Tyros and found out that by raising the attack time you could get a really sweet edge on several electric pianos in the Tyros, that was much better than the original sounds. And I started experimenting with layring electric pianos. I had this song I thought sounded good, but I wanted to be more creative with it. Do you know what I did? I added 1, only 1 note in a chord (low a in the chord of f) on a single track and mixed that single note separately! I was completely overwhelmed with what I had achieved, because I had learned how to make a fat sounding electric piano! These small things makes it for me. I can experiment, I can enjoy it, then I take something, do something ridiculous with it and I feel great!