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I got my doctor to write a sick note for 3 months so I can tell the Employment Support Allowance that I am unfit for work. Now I recieve £50 a week for doing nothing at all.

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The Mountains
low-gain wrote:

Do not let the "gear" get you too distracted from the thing that's actually important.. the music.
Just get what you can afford, learn that inside and out and go from there.

Hail yeah.

Also bear in mind its not likely that everyone here just saved up shitloads of money and bought everything they have all at once- things are aquired, "aquired," bought cheap, etc., over time. Never buy anything new unless you absolutely must, that's just stupid.

Just remember the three "P"s when you really want something- Patience, Perseverance, and Fuck.

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Central-ish VA

A lot of my setup is either circuitbent toys or stuff I've built myself.  Radioshack and ebay/craigslist are my stops for purchases.  Lovely sounds, inexpensive.  Win-win I suppose.

low-gain wrote:

I will say though. Do not let the "gear" get you too distracted from the thing that's actually important.. the music.
Just get what you can afford, learn that inside and out and go from there.

Absolutely this.

Last edited by Beverage (Jan 26, 2010 8:03 pm)

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Yeah, some people I know (and you know EXACTLY who you are) have an extreme gear fetishism that really hinders their ability to get anything written. But I killed most of those friends and took their stuff.

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IL, US
Rainbowdragoneyes wrote:
low-gain wrote:

Do not let the "gear" get you too distracted from the thing that's actually important.. the music.
Just get what you can afford, learn that inside and out and go from there.

Hail yeah.

Also bear in mind its not likely that everyone here just saved up shitloads of money and bought everything they have all at once- things are aquired, "aquired," bought cheap, etc., over time. Never buy anything new unless you absolutely must, that's just stupid.

Just remember the three "P"s when you really want something- Patience, Perseverance, and Fuck.

haha true, my gear collection also spans 11 years of purchases, so while i have a lot of stuff, its not like i went out and ordered it all last week...like i sold a bunch of cds and punk 7"s in 2000 to buy a used boss sp-202, which is what i later traded for my yamaha cs01 big_smile

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Philly, PA, USA

I know i totally get distracted in the "stuff," partly because i'm not really a music writer, but i still love all the equipment. personally i get a lot of fun out of just making things and putting stuff together, i'm considering just starting to do that, making and selling things, of course me loving all the gadgets would hate to actually get rid of the stuff i make...

also Low-gain, that is the best advice

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PDX

I.T.

That and lots of shitty wedding gigs.

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Edinburgh, Scotland

College pays for my equipment.

Long live student bursery.

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Anaheim, California

If you ever need extra money you could avoid paying taxes

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Huddersfield, UK
Russolo wrote:

If you ever need extra money you could avoid paying taxes

You heard it here first guys!

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Finland
low-gain wrote:

I will say though. Do not let the "gear" get you too distracted from the thing that's actually important.. the music.
Just get what you can afford, learn that inside and out and go from there.

This.

I have very modest setup and every time I get something new I try to get most out of it before I get something else.

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York, Yorkshire

Working hard, and not pissing my wages up the wall every Friday and Saturday night.  I've got a fair bit of gear now, but it's taken me years to accumulate.

Give it time and hard work and you'll have a decent rig before you know it (you will also be knocking on the door of 40 before you know it too!)

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BOSTON

chiptune is the absolute least expensive music genre there is. i have friends who have literally FOUND all of their equipment, and soldered stuff together as they saw fit. other friends use 100% free trackers on old discarded laptops. and these are people who play TONS of shows and are well known.  i can do my entire set with 1 dmg, 1 lsdj cart, and 1 mic... ~$50?

there is no cost correlation in music; expensive gear adds nothing.

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uhajdafdfdfa
BR1GHT PR1MATE wrote:

there is no cost correlation in music; expensive gear adds nothing.

Until you get to proper production and mastering. wink

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Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA
ant1 wrote:
BR1GHT PR1MATE wrote:

there is no cost correlation in music; expensive gear adds nothing.

Until you get to proper production and mastering. wink


This isn't true. you can produce and master a record on next to nothing if you know what you're doing and have the ears for it.

Proper production and mastering should be defined as having the experience and ears for said job, not the tools that you have to do said job.
Nice gear  only makes the job either easier or move faster (most of the time, both).

Now... having an engineer master and having a producer who knows what he or she is doing work on your music will more than likely
cost a lot.

But i just wanted to point out that across the board, it doesn't really matter what gear you have, cheap or expensive... It's the music/song that makes it a good.
the rest is just icing on the cake.

Most commonly used example.. The Beatles. They had practically nothing to use for recording. no multi-track's, etc. they used what they had to achieve a record. And frankly i think a lot of the beatles records sound really bad (sound quality) compared to what can be done by pro-sumer gear of today. But it only proves my point that, the beatles had amazing song writing, which puts recording quality on the backburner because the listener cares more about the music then how it was recorded.

Another example. i believe it was led zeppelin III. Everyone raves over the drum sound on that record. And wants to know what was used. To the best of my knowledge they just grabbed 1 mic that was the only mic they happened to have, and worked on mic placement to obtain the best over all sound. nothing fancy, just put the time into working on the sound before hitting record. wink


I'll end my rant. teehee heart

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York, Yorkshire
BR1GHT PR1MATE wrote:

chiptune is the absolute least expensive music genre there is. i have friends who have literally FOUND all of their equipment, and soldered stuff together as they saw fit. other friends use 100% free trackers on old discarded laptops. and these are people who play TONS of shows and are well known.  i can do my entire set with 1 dmg, 1 lsdj cart, and 1 mic... ~$50?

Wise words!  Chiptune is definately affordable for everyone.

there is no cost correlation in music; expensive gear adds nothing.

But I have to disagree with you there.  While there is no substitute for a good song, melody and lyric writing, (possibly even more so in chipmusic), good equipment and the skills to use it bring alot to the table.

For music outside of chip and lofi, I'd say get the best money can buy.