Musician 'The Sight Below' got EVERYTHING stolen from him:

  On 10/21/2014 at 7:11 AM, ghOsty said:

Fuck, that's a lot of very nice gear... I would be fucking livid, then devestated then alternate back and forth between that for a long time.

i would probably "ragequit'' music and take up painting or something.

whoever stole the stuff is scum. happy to see the fans giving something back via the indiegogo

  On 10/20/2014 at 5:24 PM, ussr said:

Sorry to be an asshole but who leaves their entire life in an unguarded truck overnight?

There is no way this guy deserved this but there it a strong component of stupidity or laziness here.

Right? It smelled like opportunity. Bada bing.

  On 10/21/2014 at 7:39 AM, bitroast said:

 

  On 10/21/2014 at 7:11 AM, ghOsty said:

Fuck, that's a lot of very nice gear... I would be fucking livid, then devestated then alternate back and forth between that for a long time.

 

i would probably "ragequit'' music and take up painting or something.

whoever stole the stuff is scum. happy to see the fans giving something back via the indiegogo

 

I'd probably completely change music styles to something like recording acoustic guitar and vocals into phone and chopping it up in audacity

hehe yeah.

all honestly, I think changing style/approach would be a necessity when losing the core chunk of your gear in one hit, regardless of how extreme the change in direction would be.

Maybe he will realize that he did not need that much gear. It would be really interesting to see how much of the gear was just gathering dust in his studio.

The backups and family stuff loss is really horrible, though.

I wouldn't even leave a toolbox with a few spanners in it overnight in a van, let alone a whole fucking studio's worth of gear. What a bellend

  On 10/22/2014 at 1:34 PM, Timothy Forward said:

I wouldn't even leave a toolbox with a few spanners in it overnight in a van, let alone a whole fucking studio's worth of gear. What a bellend

I also find it a bit irresponsible. I would at least rent a garage or something. Too risky to leave a whole household on the street.

  On 10/22/2014 at 1:20 PM, Jev said:

Maybe he will realize that he did not need that much gear. It would be really interesting to see how much of the gear was just gathering dust in his studio.

 

The backups and family stuff loss is really horrible, though.

hehe. bit presumptuous. collecting things is fun ..

if I had the money to collect a massive gear collection i'm sure I would absolutely start collecting a massive gear collection.

  On 10/22/2014 at 1:43 PM, bitroast said:

 

  On 10/22/2014 at 1:20 PM, Jev said:

Maybe he will realize that he did not need that much gear. It would be really interesting to see how much of the gear was just gathering dust in his studio.

 

The backups and family stuff loss is really horrible, though.

 

hehe. bit presumptuous. collecting things is fun ..

if I had the money to collect a massive gear collection i'm sure I would absolutely start collecting a massive gear collection.

 

Collecting gear is one of the things that make people believe that being a musician is an expensive job.

It is expensive when you pay for everything...

  On 10/22/2014 at 7:56 PM, Braintree said:

It is expensive when you pay for everything...

But for what exactly?

How much gear musicians really need? Most of the gear-lovers just tweak it endlessly in their free time without any track finished or they buy stuff because of audiophile myths spread across the internet. Same for the VSTs. There is tons of free VSTs for Windows and most of the commercial VSTs are just overpriced combinations (routing variations) of basic devices. You get the same functionality with a bit of a research and creative routing and automation. For the most demanding, there is Pure Data, Supercollider and other software. For free. You don't need fancy boxes today to make top-quality productions. Even acoustic treatment can be done efficiently and cheap in a DIY way. I cannot imagine myself throwing away 50 000 (fifty fucking thousand) dolars for gear. No freakin way.

A good computer will run you at least several hundred dollars. A good DAW (beyond FL Studio) is at least a couple hundred. This is assuming you as an artist feel comfortable with software rather than hardware. This is pretty expensive shit for a teenager with a minimum wage job.

The physical/digital dichotomy is very apparent with how people work, too. I prefer software (a combination of both, really), but I know plenty of people that can't stand it and go for hardware. Now, if you go for hardware, it's even more expensive.

You can run all the free plugins you want, but often aren't supported for long. Also, they tend to have a lot more problems running reliably, in my experience.

edit: This is coming from a guy that writes most of his patches with one synth in a cheap DAW.

In addendum, as someone who's been using the same software setup for years, I've really gotten bored with it and have started moving into the hardware world. It's pretty goddamn expensive, but it's something new and lets me express something in a new way. To me, it's worth the money.

Thank you for your opinion.

Apart from analog synths obviously, hardware boxes are only limited computers with a dedicated interface. You can buy MIDI controllers and do your own super-flexible setup with a single computer. And with Ableton Live, for example, you can be jamming very easily with even the most basic controllers.

I would not be able to work with hardware exclusively as it is a super-limiting way of doing music. I hate those moments when I want to do something with MPC or Blofeld only to find out it wasn't programmed in such way. Recording stuff from hardware to PC also sucks and kills flow.

However, I enjoy working without starring at the computer screen from time to time (when designing sounds with Blofeld). But most of the time, it is mainly endless tweaking with some sketches as a result. Serious work is done almost exclusively via PC.

So for me, Reaper (60 dolars), AudioBox (350 dolars), a notebook (1000 dolars), backup HDD (150 dolars), Sony D50 (750 dolars), monitors (750 dolars) and some 600 dolars in MIDI controllers + a friend with a guitar. That is cca 3650 (mostly) well-spent dolars in 7 years.

MPC 1000 wasn't worth the price and is rarely used. Blofeld is a nice synth, but bugged and limiting. I cannot imagine buying another piece of hardware for serious music work. Only to please my inner child with a new toy. I cannot imagine spending 50 000 dolars on gear. It is simply too much and the results are questionable.

my personal list

roland d110 35 euros

roland jv1010 120 euros

yamaha sy22 67 euros

yamaha dx21 67 euros

volca bass 135 euros

yamaha qy10 60 euros

monotron 25 euros

monotron duo 40 euros

casio cz1000 100 euros

yamaha tx7 130 euros

+ computer

+ renoise 65 euros

it is a lot of money (i earn around 500 a month) but nowhere near 50000 dollars...

i'll admit it's extremely time-consuming to find bargains though. but then again most of the stuff I have i could've got for less money if i had been a bit more patient.

I personally wouldn't spend that kind of money on it, but I can see how people do. Especially when they make a lot of money from their music.

Here's my gear list just because I'm interested in figuring out how much i've actually spent

Peavy PV6 USB mixer- 120

Korg Microkorg- 150

Roland SP 303- 210

Lexicon Reflex- 20

Bass Big Muff pi- 60

Boss DD6- 75

Boss DD7- 100

Tascam DR 05-75

Korg Monotron Delay- 35

Guitar- 40

KRK Rokit 5- 185

So thats $1070 not including miscellaneous shit like power supplies and cables

Can't even imagine loosing that (not to mention how much he lost, 50 times what i have) but if i did I'd probably just rebuy the mixer, speakers and the tascam recorder and just fuck around with samples inside of a DAW. The gear is definitely fun but not much actual finished music comes out of it. I just like having them for messing around when i don't want to look at a computer screen

  On 10/23/2014 at 1:55 AM, Braintree said:

I personally wouldn't spend that kind of money on it, but I can see how people do. Especially when they make a lot of money from their music.

And then one go to his website and read his article "Why Buy Music?" where one can find out that he spends a lot of money to make an album. No shit...

I mean, if he manages to sell his music so successfully, then he, of course, fully deserves the money and he can, of course, buy whatever he wants. But I dislike the martyr-musician attitude of the whole situation and the whole poor-musicians attitude of the music industry.

  On 10/23/2014 at 2:30 AM, Danny O Flannagin said:

 

 

...but if i did I'd probably just rebuy the mixer, speakers and the tascam recorder and just fuck around with samples inside of a DAW. The gear is definitely fun but not much actual finished music comes out of it. I just like having them for messing around when i don't want to look at a computer screen

Exactly.

Most professional musicians acquire loads of gear as the years progress, and a lot seem to be hoarders/collectors so it's easy to see gear piling up in someone's house. They're like your children, hard to part with.

Oh come on, we all have a few pieces of gear that "fell off the back of a truck"

Just look at the gear list in SYRO. That shit is easily $50k.

  On 10/23/2014 at 11:35 AM, Jev said:

 

  On 10/23/2014 at 1:55 AM, Braintree said:

I personally wouldn't spend that kind of money on it, but I can see how people do. Especially when they make a lot of money from their music.

 

And then one go to his website and read his article "Why Buy Music?" where one can find out that he spends a lot of money to make an album. No shit...

 

I mean, if he manages to sell his music so successfully, then he, of course, fully deserves the money and he can, of course, buy whatever he wants. But I dislike the martyr-musician attitude of the whole situation and the whole poor-musicians attitude of the music industry.

 

  On 10/23/2014 at 2:30 AM, Danny O Flannagin said:

 

 

...but if i did I'd probably just rebuy the mixer, speakers and the tascam recorder and just fuck around with samples inside of a DAW. The gear is definitely fun but not much actual finished music comes out of it. I just like having them for messing around when i don't want to look at a computer screen

 

Exactly.

 

The sentiment of the "martyr-musician attitude" is your own extrapolation, as I don't see it the same way.

I think as a musician progresses in the artform, s/he will amass things over the years. Some of these things are acquired because of the way the tool itself helps them create. Other times, it's merely a polishing instrument. How helpful is it for polishing their music? That's a question of perspective, since the artist may see the end product as being a lot more polished than the consumer since the artist is trained to see such things. Anyhow, if a more expensive tool (the expense isn't really the point here) lets the artist express themselves in a more meaningful way (determined by the artist) then what's wrong with that?

I've gotten a lot out of little toys and such over the years, but if I had the extra money for a harmonizer or some rare synth, you bet your ass I'd get it.

If anything, just wait to see how it changes his music. If it's better than before, then that can reaffirm your opinions.

  On 10/23/2014 at 7:05 PM, Candiru said:

Oh come on, we all have a few pieces of gear that "fell off the back of a truck"

He also might have been given some of that stuff. A lot of famous artists get "deals" from retailers. Just look at Native Instruments.

  On 10/23/2014 at 7:11 PM, Braintree said:

He also might have been given some of that stuff. A lot of famous artists get "deals" from retailers. Just look at Native Instruments.

That is true.

prophet 08 - 900

soundcard - 500

ms2000 - 250

dw8000 - 300

virus b - 250

genelecs - 1000

verona kick machine - 180

machine drumUW - 900

shure earphones -150

qy700 - 300

technics - 300

novation midi controller - 50

akai midi think - 50

if i got robbed i would be devastated. having said that i only have a solid lock on my front door for the first time in a year from the last 2 weeks, so im also pretty stupid.