what an ass, I have a serious gear issue...

[James R. Coplin]

> that gear... But it is so hard to even think about selling. Every
> piece of gear has it's own story...

And therein lies the problem.  It's not really an issue in the sense that it
causes any kind of a financial burden.  I'm in control enough not to do
that.  At least, ever since I've been married.  Prior to that, I often would
have the discussion with myself, "Do you need that piece or do you want to
live on pork and beans for a month?"  Typically, I would eat the pork and
beans but that was when my decisions only effected me. My wife won't blow a
gasket or anything like that.  She'll roll her eye a lot and I won't even
begin trying to justify it.  I'll just hook it up and shrug.

I used to have way *more* gear which is the really scary part.  I've
stripped down now to the point where everything either has a story which
makes it impossible to part with or is too cheap to bother selling.  My boy
may want that emu audity and jd-990 for his first setup.  The couple of
hundred they would raise isn't worth the effort.  I do have some excess
outboard that I probably could live without but the problem is they get
used.  Ever since I went completely mixerless and purchased a stack of MOTU
interfaces, all my effects get a ton more use.  They are hardwired into the
interfaces so that all I have to do is drag and drop one on the Cubase
insert and everything is hooked up.  Super slick.  Really.  Totally, and
completely effortless.  This alone keeps me from ever going back to a mixer.
The synths are largely the same way.  I just click the track and whatever it
is, is hooked up and armed for recording.  This includes the modular gear.

Scanning through my studio pile as I write this, I'm almost getting misty
with all the stories sitting here.  One thing I've noticed, over the years I
don't think I've bought that much more than most folks, I just tend to never
sell.  When I purchase a piece, I typically know exactly why I'm buying, how
it is going to be used, and where it is going.  Maybe not for the last
purchase (although I do know the where and how, it's going into the modular
desk) but that's a little atypical.  Most of my gear is the old vintage
stuff purchased in odd scenarios, interesting people, and departed friends.
It would take something seriously effecting hearth and home to make me part
with them.  It would be a last resort.  Probably the only thing I would hold
on to longer would be my books.

I have been trying an exercise lately.  I have been forcing myself to
deliberately use all the stuff that has been sitting around unused (things
like the audity, wavestation, jd-990).  Surprisingly, I'm finding that much
of it is getting used in really surprising ways.  That seems to be the one
advantage for having taken an extended break from serious writing and
playing.

James R. Coplin

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Work is the Curse of the Drinking Class
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