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Overwhelming music tech - how to deal with it?
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mosc
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PostPosted: Tue May 06, 2014 1:25 pm    Post subject:  Overwhelming music tech - how to deal with it? Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

There is a problem for us electro-musicians that isn't new, but it continues to concern me. There is an overwhelming amount of electronic music making technology out there, and more great stuff shows up every day. That's well and good, but for me it's very hard to adapt to this situation.

I open this topic to see how others are handling this.

When I started with E-M in the late sixties, there was not much in the way of gear. I was lucky enough to have access to a Moog Modular and I learned most of my skills on that machine. After my schooling, I needed my own kit, and started a lot of DIY stuff, because the new synths didn't inspire me. Fortunately, I learned electronics that way and eventually got into a career as an electronics engineer.

Gradually, the gear explosion happened. I won't go into all that but today I find the gear market is so massive that I can't keep up. Even the little iPad is a massive ecosystem. Many of the programs are huge, with long learning curves. Just trying them out is an endless project.

It seems there are two extremes:

1) Gearhead - get as much gear (hard and soft) and keep exploring. This takes valuable time from the part I like most, making music.

2) Limit your gear - learn to play what you have and master your skill.

I guess most of us are in the middle somewhere. I'm starting to move to mode 2, but I just can't help myself; I love this stuff too much to tune out new gear, and that can be very frustrating.

How do you deal with this?

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Cynosure
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PostPosted: Tue May 06, 2014 1:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

I find that I am restricted in a couple of ways.

1. I don't like to spend a long time learning software, so I tend to focus on only hardware instead.

2. My wife has placed limits because she thinks I have become a hoarder. I am not allowed to buy any new synths, but she does allow me to make them. So I either have to make them, or buy small rack or desktop synths that she won't notice Wink

I am trying to do more with what I currently have, but I always come up with ideas that would improve my workflow and creativity. Those improvements often require some sort of new gear, either DIY or commercial.

I think that the instrument/gear has more influence on creativity in electronic music than any other type of music/instrument. So the easiest way for us to get new inspiration and ideas is to get a new piece of gear.
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PostPosted: Tue May 06, 2014 1:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Good topic. I have guidelines for myself.
1. If I don't use an instrument (this includes processors, effects etc) for 6 months I sell it. The exception to this rule are high end microphones and preamps.
2. If I don't use a piece of software for 6 months, I delete the software from my machines. Stop upgrading and sell the license if possible.
3. No redundant hardware or software.
4. I limit the amount of time I spend looking at gear, reading about gear, talking about gear. I'm a musician. The instruments I use are supposed to play a supportive role to the creative process. If I'm spending more then 10% of my creative time and resources putzing around with gear/software then my priorities are screwed up.
5. The combination of software and hardware I use IS my instrument. I have to practice my instrument. Proper practice requires consistency. My hardware and software (my instrument) has to be the same in order for me to master the instrument. Changing gear every week makes for a poor instrumentalist. In short, I should be practicing my instrument 2-4 hours a day NOT putzing around with gear.
6. 90% of new software/hardware is fashionable junk that is nothing more then a distraction and generally redundant or ultimately useless.

I can't remember the number of times I've told students/clients to stop buying gear and focus on the instrument(s) they have. They seem to think they can buy technique and musicianship. IMJ, people need to stop being good consumers and focus more on being good musicians.

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Cynosure
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PostPosted: Tue May 06, 2014 2:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Charles - You made some great points, and I agree with most of what you said. One place where we differ though is that I like making instruments almost as much (maybe even more) than I like playing them. So no matter what I currently have, I am always going to be tinkering with electronics and coming up with new ideas. However, I won't need to spend a long time learning on things that I make, so I can probably put them to good use a lot quicker.
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PostPosted: Tue May 06, 2014 2:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Oh Cyn I totally get it Smile I know a number of instrument builders who are also wonderful musicians/instrumentalists. Alas, I tend to be mono-thematic bordering on OCD.
I don't think I would be able to stay focused on music if I started being a builder. Even the simple high level Max/MSP programming I've done turns into a black hole for me.

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robsol
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PostPosted: Tue May 06, 2014 3:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

The iPad has allowed us to impulse buy a huge amount of apps which we may use once or twice then never again, even if they are highly complex apps - I think that can be a problem. Personally I have stopped buying any new apps whatsoever... Well, I break down and get the occational free or very low priced app now and then, of course. Wink

I am probably a bit of a gear slut, but I don't drink or smoke, in fact I hardly use any money at all except when it comes to music equipment. I usually wait and go for a few, carefully chosen things which are mature products.

I enjoy exploring things in depth and I have currently enough to keep me busy for a long while, but not much of duplicates - meaning; I have one good Sequencer (software), one DAW, one drum machine, etc. It is important to feel on top of things, and the only way to do that is to not buy new gear until you do. Over the years, I have slowly grown with my needs, some times I have been catching up with new things and other times I have been bored with what I have - that's life.

I definitely spend too much time thinking about what I could have and so on... I could take inspiration from Charles on that one. Smile

I must say though... I don't really think of myself as a musician... I don't know why, maybe it is because I come more from an engineering (as in sound technician) and studio background, and I never practice. I could benefit from it, but I prefer to read about how to create reverbs, or see what happens when make a reverb into a looper, or dabble with other ideas in some form or other... It's all sound for me, and the tools are all terribly exciting. Very Happy

Music? I gave up trying to make it a while ago, and now I just hope I stumble onto something good in the continuing adventure. Smile

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Electromagnetic Wave



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PostPosted: Wed May 07, 2014 12:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Hi Mosc, I understand what you said. For me :

2) Limit your gear - learn to play what you have and master your skill.


EDIT : I think important is to learn and have fun. With too much material I am saturated. Limitations are so powerful to keep a good workflow.
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PostPosted: Wed May 07, 2014 3:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Electromagnetic Wave wrote:
Hi Mosc, I understand what you said. For me :

2) Limit your gear - learn to play what you have and master your skill.


EDIT : I think important is to learn and have fun. With too much material I am saturated. Limitations are so powerful to keep a good workflow.


I agree, but there is a flip side to this which I rarely hear people talk about, which is focus. Focusing your attention is the same thing as limiting your options. Ultimately this means that you can be more flexible as you are less reliant on outside factors for your workflow.

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PostPosted: Wed May 07, 2014 7:21 am    Post subject: Re: Overwhelming music tech - how to deal with it? Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

mosc wrote:


It seems there are two extremes:

1) Gearhead - get as much gear (hard and soft) and keep exploring. This takes valuable time from the part I like most, making music.

2) Limit your gear - learn to play what you have and master your skill.

I guess most of us are in the middle somewhere. I'm starting to move to mode 2, but I just can't help myself; I love this stuff too much to tune out new gear, and that can be very frustrating.

How do you deal with this?


I'm gradually moving more and more to #2, having spent about 10 years doing the gearhead thing. I don't think those years were wasted though, as I still kept making music and learning about making sound, but it did reach a point where I had too much gear to actually use it all at once, so I ended up just using selected bits for each project.

Now I'm gradually downsizing to what I actually use on a regular basis, and with my ipads full of cool sound apps will still have more options than I did with a room full of synths, which is wonderful, as I like different options Smile

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PostPosted: Wed May 07, 2014 8:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

I'm also going in the direction of mosc's #2 and agree with Charles' #5 and #6.

I found myself tiring of the gearhead side of it, realizing that I have all the gear I'll ever need. I still like good gear and haven't bought my last bit of kit, but the short lived fashion items in Charles' #6 sent me into a kind of new-gear-observation-depression.

The cure? I've taken up the guitar because I just love the feel of something lasting and "physical". Incidentally, I view and treat the guitar with all its FX and stuff as a powerful electronic instrument. Of course the guitar comes with a whole world of GAS opportunities too, and before I knew it I had racked up a small collection...

I still like my synths, and I think that playing the guitar has primed me for a new approach to them Smile
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PostPosted: Wed May 07, 2014 10:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

During the years I learned what works for me and what doesn't work so, basically, I now (for the last few years, in fact) have a fixed setup consisting of "gear-that-works-for-me" only (Alesis Andromeda, Waldorf Q, Korg Z1, Yamaha TG77, Waldorf Microwave XT, Roland JD-990, Yamaha FS1R, Waldorf MicroQ). To me, it was much more useful to fully explore/master, for example, Andromeda and Q (my two desert island synthesizers) than to just scratch the surface on 20-30 another synths, although the later could be interesting in its own right.

I don't bother with new hardware synthesizers because (for the last 10+ years at least) I didn't see anything worth bothering.

I don't bother with DAWs because I developed my own sequencer some 8 years ago, and my own VST host, too.

I don't bother with software synths because I invested a lot of time in DSP programming and the development of my own VST synthesizer.

I still do bother with some VST effects, though. But - my own synthesizer now has a great FX section, so I will probably throw most of VST FX away in the future.

That's it, a few hardware synthesizers and some VST effects, combined with my own software sequencer and synthesizer, that's all I need for my music Cool

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mosc
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PostPosted: Wed May 07, 2014 12:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Great comments, so far. Maybe what makes electro-music.com a bit different from other communities is that the ultimate focus is on the music, and we still have fun with the technology.

Funny, as Dr. Justice recently has found the guitar, I've started playing the baritone Ukulele. It has a certain satisfaction of being a relatively ancient instrument that has no electronics, and playing folk and blues for fun brings me back to Earth. Still, I am fascinated with the hard/soft world electronic gear; of course, that's Earth too, and natural.

I'm thrilled to see that people are even now making their own instruments; this golden age of experimentation is not over by any means. I feel a strong urge to kick the tires on Blue Hell's Wrench and HrastProgrammer's Tranzisto soft synths. Both of these guys are brilliant musicians and engineers. How can one resist?

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pyrosonic



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PostPosted: Wed May 07, 2014 7:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

I def agree that #2 is the way to go.
Do I actually succeed in putting that into practice?
Not so much.
I spend more time setting up controls in Lemur lately than playing.
Hence my barely being able to move in my studio.
The iPad has made that completely ridiculous.I have dozens of synths that I haven't done much else but preview the presets.I routinely use 2 apps all of the time and another 2 or 3 occasionally.
Plug ins,virtual synths,etc. My CPU runneth over.
I have a mastery over pretty much nothing,but I AM getting a pretty standardized setup for live use and doing much more on the laptop,so I actually AM moving in that direction.
A lot of hardware sits idle since I began working in this way and I have been thinking about selling off a bunch of it.
I try very hard not to even look at modular stuff because I know what I would end up doing if I even bought so much as one module.
I see the posts by Synthtopia on Spacebook and yeah,it's overwhelming.
I've gotten pretty good at not buying new virtual instruments because I'd have to dump something to be able to run them,but I'm a sucker for a new plug in. Not buying hardware is easy because I have nowhere to put it.

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PostPosted: Wed May 07, 2014 10:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

mosc wrote:
Great comments, so far. Maybe what makes electro-music.com a bit different from other communities is that the ultimate focus is on the music, and we still have fun with the technology.


Definitely! electro-music.com is, more or less, the only EM-related place I am still visiting regularly (although I don't post too much), still enjoying it and still feeling very comfortable here, very nice, clever and kind people here. I hope it will stay that way Very Happy

Many other forums just turned into d**k-measuring competitions ... Look at Gearslutz, for example, it's not worth to spend a single second there anymore.

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PostPosted: Thu May 08, 2014 8:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

If I'm spending more time to troubleshoot technical problems than to make music, then things are out-of-balance for me.

To build my own equipment was my foot-in-the-door to electronic music and, as such, DIY is near and dear to my heart.

But, having built my equipment, I want to spend my (limited) time on music-making.

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PostPosted: Thu May 08, 2014 2:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Well I took Charles advice and deleted a bunch of apps on my ipad. It feels lighter now. Smile

There isn't much else I could slim down because my setup is already pretty lean.

...now on to trying out that practice thing...

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PostPosted: Thu May 08, 2014 3:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

One day I fled from my studio, too much stuff there and knobs that scared me. To my living room, took a G2 and a laptop with me .. I ended up having my studio in my living room.

Then another day I didn't understand my setup anymore .. useless cables going everywhere .. I pulled everything. Got a new audio interface for the computer, got rid of the mixers, its close to a matrix mixing setup now.

Never really had that much gear, currently four Nords, a Kyma, some PC software, some iThingies .. but I tend to have everything connected to everything, as the Nords and the Kyma are just as much audio processing devices as they are synths.

I goes in cycles for me, currently just making noodle thingies in Wren .. fixing bugs while going, making new modules where needed .. all other stuff is off. Could use a 'real' computer Rolling Eyes

It will be larger again some day I guess ... it is all about cycles Laughing

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Electromagnetic Wave



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PostPosted: Thu May 08, 2014 11:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

That right. It's all about cycles ! But they differ from one person to another. And some cycles that meet more people than other in different time periods.


-1994 -1998 : my first harware synths, mixer, FX

-1999-2004 - sofwares explosion. I try everything. I'm excited about this new era.

-2004-2008 : I buy a lot of new harware to mix with software ("headache-bug-lag" era)

-2008-2011 : I meet 2 guys at music school and buy an old grocery store and turn it into production studio with them. We had a lot of gear. A very instructive period. Every two weeks I was getting a new setup with 4 or 5 machines. And I had fun composing based on limitations ... again and again .. for 1 or 2 year. Many meetings, lots of sharing and differents ways to compose music.

-2011-2012 : missing link...

-2013-today : Nord Modular G2... basta! probably another one soon.


Yesturday I was looking the show on sonicstate.com. Towards the end they talked about convolution. I remembered: wow, it's been a long time that I did not play with it and I love it! But I'll live without. That's all. I can not have everything, master all. But I'm agree with Muied Lumens too.

I know that other cycles will be coming. I put aside what I want to explore soon. As exemple AudioGL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCC9uHHAEuA

and the Blue Hell's modular software too Smile
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PostPosted: Fri May 09, 2014 2:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

I like to get a new instrument every now and then, because I get inspired by that. Trying my hands at something that I don't fully control yet usually results in some nice happy accidents with a song or two as a result.

Last thing that really gave me that feeling was a dirt cheap and crappy mandolin that I bought here in town. It's very hard to play anything that sounds in tune on it, but you get a nice percussive feel when playing which can be used for rythmic stuff - a new way of playing for me which felt satisfying. Still riding on that a bit.

I obviously don't go and buy a new instrument everytime I want to make a song, but I do try to find new ways to do stuff, sometimes in a gear-centric way, and sometimes whatever experiment I do with the gear results in something that's useful as a base for new music.

Also I don't mind having a bunch of stuff lying around that can be used when needed, and I'm not nervous about not being in complete control when I play stuff. The discovery and journey is the destination.

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PostPosted: Fri May 09, 2014 6:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

I know many EM'ers already do it, but a thing I would recommend if one feels stuck in the (electronic) gear rut is to shake things up by doing something seemingly simple and cheerful like taking up an acoustic or electro-acoustic instrument. In my "old" age I'm realizing they're anything but simple when it comes to subtleties and rewarding fun. As (partly) mentioned, in my case it's changing my outlook on music.

And regarding cycles, as a kid I was deeply fascinated by my fathers electronic music records, then I got into acoustic instruments (flutes and trumpets), later it was all about electronics, and now I'm back to "mechanical oscillators"... Too bad that some of that is hard to master - should've done it eons ago as it's harder to learn the motor control later in life. Anyway it's a satisfying challenge Smile

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PostPosted: Tue May 13, 2014 2:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Oooooh, the humanity! This last year I've mainly dealt with extramusical affairs, looking after my parents, work and so on. AND wondering about what gear to purchase, if and when funds should appear. I'm really happy you brought this up, Howard. Thinking about this may help me extract my top from my bottom, as it were.
But then again, this March I went to a teacher conference in Turkey, so now I have Turkish GAS! I simply HAVE to have a baglama, a cumbus, an oud and a saz. Come on, I only have 16 or 17 stringed instruments! Cool

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PostPosted: Thu May 15, 2014 1:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Buying a house stopped me from slipping further into the "buy lots of gear" hole. Well, it slowed down at least.

I just sold my Moog Voyager. It's a sophisticated synth for an analog mono synth - too complicated in fact for my simple needs. I've effectively replaced it with a Korg MS-20 Mini, Arturia Microbrute, and Bassbot TT-303. Lately I've been focusing on learning how to use the iMS-20 ipad app and how to patch MS-20 style. Been having a lot of fun doing this.

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PostPosted: Thu May 15, 2014 5:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Good thread, Howard!

Almost everything I do involves me writing some new software as a piece of a virtual instrument / composition. That puts a tight limit on acquisitions and keeps me focused.

I don't think of myself as much of a gear head, although I just cleaned up my study today and finally organized cables left in a heap from the March 29 planetarium event, and there is plenty of stuff here.

I deal with many advances in technology by ignoring them until I have a reason not to. I still don't have a smart phone, despite the fact that essentially all of my computer science students do (or maybe because Very Happy ), because I just don't give a shit. I am connected to the net too much of the time already. Of course, I was designing and building software tools to put software onto cell phones more than 10 years before I finally got one. I still forget to turn it on or forget where it's at many days. As I say, I just don't care.

I like iPads & Android for touch. Better than mice. Just upgraded my iPad-1's ios today and need to put TouchOSC & Lemur on it, but I don't care personally about generating music on it. Touch will let me lie back & look up at the dome instead of staring at the laptop screen. Also, I need to learn to write Java on Android so I can teach it (& catch up with some of my students), have plans for sonified calligraphy on the dome after I learn the android code libraries.

Having the planetarium as a big immersive instrument for which I need to design much of the software -- just try doing tilings for a polar geometry space with out-of-the-box graphics libraries -- surround sound with totally non-standard circular geometry -- etc., etc., keeps me focused. It's like a big, beautiful spouse who keeps you too busy to have time to bother with a bunch of superficial flirtations.

Bought my fifth open back acoustic 5-string banjo last spring in the same week that my university bought me a Nechville electronic banjo. Been playing them a lot now that classes are over. Plan to get good at Kyma and hopefully Supercollider this summer, after having other projects in front of them for 2 summers in a row. I need to learn Android and Processing programming, too. That's another nice thing about having too much to do: I put the tech stuff in a 12-to-24 month queue, and if/when it makes it out, then I work on it.

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PostPosted: Fri May 16, 2014 1:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

I'm more of a use-what-you-have musician. I only seriously WANT something new when there's something specific I want to do that my current gear won't do. I feel like I have enough of a spread to make that event highly unlikely, though. There are a few things I would really like to have, like the mini/microbrute and a Doepfer modular. And I want some nice outboard processors for vocals and effects. But like some of you, I haven't seen a whole lot in the hardware synth world produced in the last decade that makes me sit up and notice. In fact, I would opt for older analog synths if I had the money. I won a bidding match on e-bay for an AX80 and while I put it to limited use, I really like programming it. OK, it's not analog but it's still nice.

The last thing I bought was Harrison Mixbus when they had a sale to buy it for $10, and then I bought a couple of their plugins for a total of $5 on another sale. Before that, the last instrument I bought was that AX80 and the last gear I bought was new monitors. I'm more interested in making music than owning stuff and playing with gear. Totally NOT into iPad and have no plans to own one. If I get one for free, I'm sure I'll play with it, but otherwise, meh.

The acoustic/mechanical instrument thing I also agree with. I have an acoustic guitar and a banjo that I'll get into one of these days. I also have a singing bowl that I use and play with. I'm learning just how many tones you can get out of one bowl.

I did get a couple of major pieces of gear in the last year or so - bilateral cochlear implants. I consider them part of my gear because without them, the rest is moot!

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midirus



Joined: May 04, 2012
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Location: Paris
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PostPosted: Wed May 28, 2014 11:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Hey thanks, that is a nice and relevant thread for anyone doing electronic music Smile

My 0.02 cents are that I find the overwhelming choice of software/hardware disturb creativity. Remembering my electribes' days, the limitation of those little beast was in fact great to find your path. Once you realize how many tricks they have to ease production, you can clearly focus on music with what you have at hand.

Compared to a traditional DAW with the usual VST profusion, I find myself easily lost and lock with thing I don't really like.

It may just be an engineer thing.
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