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RE: When does it end?



Title: RE: When does it end?

>>I'm curious to hear if anyone else has the same bittersweet dilemma: Revolving Gear Syndrome.<<

jeff, I think you're asking the wrong group of people.... unless larry's still there.... :-)

>>There are only two cures for me on this one: 1) giving up all electronics completely and going to strictly my acoustic, or 2) finding the holy grail of rack gear that replaces everything in my 8 space rack now...like maybe just two processors<<

krispen has put his finger on it for me. the problem occurs whenever you arrive at a combination of gear that offers a particular, shall we call it "music-making functionality"?

 
when you get there, you've usually gone though a great deal of strife getting various bits of kit to work in accord.

your gizmo from the states is finally talking the right flavour of midi NRPN's to your gadget from japan, & you can run the whole rig from a midi-board from germany AND it all fits in the bit of your car that's left over when the rest of the band have got in.

& then some smart-arse at one of the manufacturers comes up with a new /thing/ that does all of what your complex rig does, only it's the size of a paperback & runs on watch batteries. there's no steep learning curve, because the thing does exactly what you need for your musical vision.

it's almost as if the guy who designed it came to one of your gigs & took pictures of your rig.
so you buy one & now there's room for something else in the car.....

you see where I'm going with this?

that's how my band went from schlepping a flight-case the size of a fridge to being able to gig overseas & actually make more noises than before..... but nowadays we have to factor in a drum-kit, a bass-rig & as many amps as the guitarist is into that week. so there's no net saving, even though the current flight-case would fit in a brief-case.

 
& of course, the fact that the guy who did the spying at your gig has sussed your technique so precisely that he can fit it all onto a dsp the size of a stamp... well, that is sort of galling too. so you invent new tricks, & you have to figure out how to get the new thing to work with it's new japanese cousin & maybe you'll need to remote the whole shebang with some fancy controller from the netherlands.....

in short, it doesn't.
we are, largely, musician/engineers or engineer/musicians. I say "largely" in case larry IS still there. :-)

as much as he or anyone else may dislike it, a lot of us aren't content with just exploring the nuances on offer from 12 notes or the limitations imposed by using a traditional musical toolset. we like to hear sounds that no-one's heard before, & experimenting with technology is our way of creating those new sounds. but (& it's a two-edged blade) technology ages very quickly these days.

it's very difficult indeed to step off the evolutionary spiral & say "I'm stopping here- I've got what I need".

duncan/r.m.i.



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