During one of my usual obsessive moments, I felt the urge to step away from doom scrolling and try making a photo album of all the gear I’ve owned over the years. What could be a more fun activity for an inward-looking nerd, right? Starting from my very first sampling device for the ZX Spectrum (or maybe the Casio SK-5, honestly, not 100% sure) all the way through to my current, amazing but not quite as sexy MacBook Pro, I think I remembered it all… give or take a few things.
The process brought up a few thoughts. One was: thank god I don’t still own all this stuff, or I’d need a warehouse just for my studio. And another was how I loved a lot of it, but I don’t actually miss any of it. Around seven years ago, when I moved from Brighton to the countryside, I did a major gear downsize to fit into the small but lovely studio we built in the garden. When the choice is between a bright, vibey studio with daylight and a bit of free desk space versus a dark, windowless room full of blinking lights, I’ll take the sunshine every time. I get the appeal, it’s just not where I want to spend every day.
I like to think of my gear as transient, here for a while, inspiring sounds, then moving on to the next nerd. I do have my core instruments that I’ll never part with, mostly unique pieces I can’t replicate in software. And speaking of software, I know it’s all the rage to be hardcore about hardware these days, but I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to live in a time where almost my entire historical collection is just a search bar away. Convenience aside, the quicker the process between idea and creation, the lower the barrier to actually creating.
Anyway, I’m off to browse more plugins now….