Do you ever feel pressured to use a synth?

[griffin avid]

Strange one, I know, but....

Sometimes I almost feel guilt or pressure to use a particular synth I own (more).
The feeling comes on in in several ways, but always feels similar by the end....

1) I buy something expensive and feel like I MUST get my monies worth or I'm being wasteful. -especially when it contributes very little to my overall sound/music. "It cost that much and I only use it in this narrow dimension"

2) I spent a long time pining for something or waiting for it to become available, maybe even go through some serious hoops to obtain it (travel, restoration or a trade) and when it arrives, I find it only works for me in a small capacity. And I don't want to be wrong or disappointed so I struggle to find some use and squeeze it in wherever I can.

3) I see someone else talk/post about how incredible, awesome, life-changing, world-altering it would be to get one. Maybe you hear what they are doing to get one or how they are SAVING UP a long time to get one and you've got that same synth- sitting there collecting dust....standing upright against a wall and not even plugged in.

After a while I usually give in and make something that uses that synth a lot or at least as the lead sound.
Surely, I can't be the only weirdo round these parts.

[salwa]

Have it all the time. On a related note - I have also pressure to use more notes when I play a bass/guitar: "It has so many frets and strings and I'm only using six or seven notes"-kind of thing. I'm weird, I know.

[Automatic Gainsay]

I used to have vintage 13 analog synths at one time.
Analog synths break when you DON'T use them. As long as you turn them on and use them, they seem to last longer. As such, I felt like I needed to be using them all relatively frequently. Of course, it wasn't much of a chore... but eventually, other things take your attention. So, then I would walk into the studio and I'd see all of those synths needing to be played. I'd go to the ones that always inspired me, and the ones that didn't sat their MUTELY CONDEMNING ME and THREATENING FAILURE. It was unbearable. I ended up selling a lot of them. But even still, every time I walk into this studio, I think "I haven't played that one in awhile... s**t..."
It's stressful.

[meatballfulton]

I struggled with modulars for a long time, thinking I really needed one and was always trying to find something to use it for.

At one point I had a 44-space dotcom system worth about $5000 and was just staring at it one day wondering why I had it, so I sold it.

I was just purging my computer of unused plugins yesterday for the same reason.

[Automatic Gainsay]

I struggled with modulars for a long time, thinking I really needed one and was always trying to find something to use it for.

At one point I had a 44-space dotcom system worth about $5000 and was just staring at it one day wondering why I had it, so I sold it.

I was just purging my computer of unused plugins yesterday for the same reason.

I had a similar experience with a 44-space dotcom system. I sold mine to afford an ARP 2600.
But I'm at a point where I have a different perception of modular synthesis... so I'm going to build one back up.

[Kenneth]

I know the feeling. I can't count off the top of my head the number of musical instruments I have sold over the years, the only reason being that I felt guilty looking at them everyday and not playing them. I try to maintain a healthy creative space by surrounding myself only with instruments I WANT to play.

[Hybrid88]

It doesn't usually bother me, but I guess sometimes I think, 'c**p, all this stuff and I haven't been using it', plan to change that though in the new year with my new space.

Also price has something to do with it, like a VCS3 or JP8 for example, I know I wouldn't use them that much if I had them which would kinda make me feel guilty 'cause so many people pine after them.

I guess the real key is not worrying about what other people think. Still working on that one...

[Aaron2]

All. The. Time. Yes, I experience this a lot. I've got a lot of machines sitting around, and sometimes I feel like, "wow, I really should be playing that one." But you only have so much time to play these things. Life gets in the way of our hobby, no matter how much we love it.

But the guilt you feel is a natural by-product of GAS, I think. You want it -- no, you MUST have it -- then you have it; then it isn't so mysterious; then maybe you don't want it...and so, you don't use it; and then, well, you sell it. And then -- and you know you've done this -- you wish you hadn't sold it. So you hunt down the same machine.... Well, you get the idea. The cycle repeats. Lather, rinse, repeat.

That's because we're chasing a feeling, really. It reminds me of something the late, great Lou Reed once said about heroin: "Even when I have it, I don't have it." Let that one sink in.

[Big Gnome]

No. They're mine, I paid for them, I get to dictate how I use them and not the other way around. Although if I really don't ever find myself using one I'll generally sell it cause I can always use the space and the money.

[Ned Bouhalassa]

All the time! Lucky problem...

[zoomtheline]

Yep, me too. I have sold a lot of stuff and all the stuff I have I use regularly. Well, except the Octatrack but I know that it's time will come so i'll hang on to it.

[Cumulus]

Interesting concept.

I can honestly say no. I have never felt ps sure to use any instrument that I did not want to use.

I fell in love with analog synths as a kid in the 70's and I started buying them in the late 80's/early 90's when the pawn shops were basically giving them away

I loved them then and I love them now.

When the crazies over (and I think it will be one day...) I will probably still love them.

Just use what works for you. I would say that if you aren't using a particular synth then perhaps you should sell it. Put that money in an investment account of some sort and buy something fantastic with it one day.

[Solderman]

Pressured with no compulsion? Maybe the Polivoks, but only because it is a rickety piece of c**p that happens to sound great.

Only one I felt bad about neglecting was when I had a JP8. The only cure was to sell it.

[syntheticsolutions]

Simply... NO!

I understand what you are saying and in my previous creative space, I absolutely would have agreed. It used to make me sick to know how long I had lusted over any given board, worked my arse off to afford it and then bought it to sit upright next to my bed simply because I had no space to set it up amongst the rest of them.

Now I am in a bigger space, I have everything set up on Jasper's stands and into patch bays at all times. This means I can give all 20+ boards a running in an hour or so. It keeps them healthy and me happy. I have specific crushes on each board I own and the only thing that ever kept me from them was space and time.
Fortunately, neither of those problems currently stand

[ppg_wavecomputer]

All the time! Lucky problem...

Same here. Not so much of a problem, more of a bad conscience... if you have that many instruments, you ought to play them more often and record more music with them in order to distinguish yourself from the mere collectors...

Stephen