Is downsizing a trend?



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Re: Is downsizing a trend?

Postby Benn Roe » Tue Jul 03, 2018 9:57 am

Downsizing is absolutely a trend, and--like all trends--it's made up of equal parts people who have come to legitimate realizations about themselves and people who are just following suit. There's a lot to be said for focusing more on instrumentation, but there's also a lot to be said for focusing on song-writing or on capturing the sounds you're after. The three are not mutually exclusive, nor are they each essential.

I have a reasonably big board, and for me song-writing and honing sounds are much more important than dazzling instrumentation. I'm always impressed by really great guitarists, but many of them make music that sounds awful to me because they're terrible song-writers and/or their rigs sound like garbage. I always cringe a bit at the association between big boards and talentless hacks, because it seems so baseless and reactionary. It's the sort of knee-jerking, out-of-touch garbage that BossManny would spew on here. Is it sometimes true? Obviously, but pedals are just paintbrushes, and the qualities that make art "good" are varied and context-dependent.
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Re: Is downsizing a trend?

Postby gnomethrone » Tue Jul 03, 2018 10:02 am

Everybody is selling their pedals to build bleep bloop rainbow spaghetti walls.
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Re: Is downsizing a trend?

Postby Psyre » Tue Jul 03, 2018 10:15 am

I recently "downsized" my pedals but it was a trend that had been continued since 2014. I now have an Algal Bloom and Muza M-ambience, that's it. For me it's the fact that I'm now out of school and pursuing music full time. This has resulted in 2 things: 1- more money now that I'm not paying for an education and being able to allocate that (slightly) incerased revenue in more powerful devices. 2- having far more time to develop vsig/max dsp skills to design my own effects. I don't need 4-5 flavors of delay when 1 unit can get into all that territory.

Also when you can buy cheap racks like roland DEP's and Yamaha SPX's for less than a DD7/REV5, not to mention $280 boutique stuff, I just find myself filling racks opposed to boards.
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Re: Is downsizing a trend?

Postby Jwar » Tue Jul 03, 2018 10:17 am

Ugly Nora wrote:People are starting to realize that a large amount of pedals wont make up for a small amount of talent and instead have started focusing on fundamentals like playing in tune.


Hahahahahahaha





I down sized out of mental necessity. It wasn't because I wanted to get rid of all my cool stuff. If it were up to me, I'd keep everything and never sell anything while buying more. Unfortunately, I don't have endless amounts of money and I found myself feeling creatively stagnant. This is my fault entirely however. I created that issue and it has very little to do with how many pedals and more to do with having a massive board instead of several smaller boards.

When you get into what I was doing, 24 plus pedals, you stop really playing. You are mostly making noise at that point and that can be an art in itself, but I was getting tired of that. I want more subtle nuances and textures than I used to. I turn the mix down now versus all the way up.

You could call it evolution. You could call it self realization. Or you could call it 8 years of OCD catching up with me. :)

At the end of the day, I love pedals. I love fuzz, but I'm not sure I need to buy them all. So, this is my attempt at wittling down to what I actually want versus what I think I want.

That being said, in the next few years when I'm more financially stable, I will be recollecting gear but with a different purpose. For application versus just owning something new.
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Re: Is downsizing a trend?

Postby Jwar » Tue Jul 03, 2018 10:18 am

gnomethrone wrote:Everybody is selling their pedals to build bleep bloop rainbow spaghetti walls.


Not me man. Not unless I find an actual need for that. Which, I haven't seen how I could need it. I'd love a small modular set up, but I feel like those would be the last words before I completely went ape shit. lol. Soooo, no thanks for now.
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Re: Is downsizing a trend?

Postby nogodsnobedtimes » Tue Jul 03, 2018 10:25 am

I haven't purposely downsized, but similar to Worra I bought tons of pedals, some were great, others got sold, and I've ended up with what I like and what I prefer. Turns out that's only a few pedals that fit nicely on a small board. I still think giant boards with all sorts of pedals are cool, but just doesn't fit my playing style I suppose.
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Re: Is downsizing a trend?

Postby MechaGodzilla » Tue Jul 03, 2018 11:03 am

voerking wrote:
MechaGodzilla wrote:(snip)The explosion of cheap delays and offsets has led to a lot of players sounding exactly the same. A tacky and tasteless overreliance on delay/verb to fill out the sound where some decent musicianship should be. (snip)


i am starting to think that this era of music is going to seem hilariously dated by shimmer reverb & POG octave sounds just like it was in the 80's with chorus & gated snare, etc

funny you should mention this. last gig i went to, the openers had 3-guitars+bass+drums, were dressed in 90s grunge fancy dress and tonnes of shimmer. headliners were deap vally, so heavy on the ol' octave fx :lol:
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Re: Is downsizing a trend?

Postby gnomethrone » Tue Jul 03, 2018 11:12 am

Me with a huge board in my room:
Transcendant waves of sonic bliss washing over the glistening shores of riffage

Me with a huge board in a band setting:
Squelching feedback and everybody holding their hands over their ears and frowning at me while i fumble to correct my mis-stomp
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Re: Is downsizing a trend?

Postby echorec » Tue Jul 03, 2018 11:32 am

PanicProne wrote:I feel like more and more people in general are getting into (and then quickly out of) the pedal game.


Who are these people---Reverb flippers, ILFers, IGers, gear bloggers? I ask, because whatever you're looking at, bear in mind that it's likely a modest sampling of total buyers.

PanicProne wrote:So to the question:
Is it just me going insane and (no necessarily owning but) using more gear and bigger rigs lately or is there a general downsizing-trend going on?
Whatever the answer is, is this good? Why is it happening?


You've got some people who are trimming the fat for several factors. In many cases, getting older means: playing less, having kids, focusing on a career, making housing payments, supporting a spouse, additional medical expenses, aiding parents, and investing in other things.

There will always be aging buyers who are downgrading due to boredom, fatigue, cash flow, or work/family reasons (in no particular order). There will also be other players who are aging and coming into more money, who will offset some of this shift.

Pro players tend to have much smaller rigs than obsessive hobbyists, so I don't think that demographic is changing much at all. If you want to make a living playing music, are you really scouring the forums and social media for the newest flavors? ---No. If you're actually established, then the gear will come to you (either through company reps or friendly recommendations).

I would also point out that tens of thousands of people who buy gear are not trying to be tastemakers on social media, so unless you have access to survey research from a marketing service (how much these people buy, how often, and their income/age specifications), then that's another segment that's hard to accurately gauge.

.....so is downsizing a trend? Downsizing will continue to happen as long as people get older and spend less time on their hobbies. Is it a trend that's reshaping the industry? I don't think so, because you've got other people who are spending more money than ever. You've also got people in more and more countries buying & building gear. And eventually you're going to see more female musicians become consumers, because they will have been raised by a generation of gear-obsessed fathers.
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Re: Is downsizing a trend?

Postby Dr. Sherman Sticks M.D. » Tue Jul 03, 2018 11:54 am

i still love me a gated snare
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Re: Is downsizing a trend?

Postby Seance » Tue Jul 03, 2018 12:38 pm

bennroe wrote:Downsizing is absolutely a trend, and--like all trends--it's made up of equal parts people who have come to legitimate realizations about themselves and people who are just following suit. There's a lot to be said for focusing more on instrumentation, but there's also a lot to be said for focusing on song-writing or on capturing the sounds you're after. The three are not mutually exclusive, nor are they each essential.

According to the internet, trends are trending.







Which is the truth. Every trend or counter-trend exists simultaneously and on the "level playing field" of
the internet. Even the teachings and "works" of religious groups that were opposed to procreation are out
there on the internet and can "spread" through the ideas/works of people who left no heirs (i.e. The Shakers).

The fact that you can go online and "bone up" on trivial trivia about the Kardashians as well as purchase a
super-expensive original piece of Shaker furniture as well as read up on the theological tenets of Mother Ann Lee
as well as buy wholesale sex toys from China, shows you where we are at as a world culture:
It is all going on.
It is all ongoing.





The wave of less pedals and the wave of more pedals also intersect at various points with the intersecting waves of
complex and minimalist music and the intersecting waves of "organic" and "automatic" music.
Last edited by Seance on Tue Jul 03, 2018 12:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Is downsizing a trend?

Postby tremolo3 » Tue Jul 03, 2018 12:41 pm

Nu-gaze.
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Re: Is downsizing a trend?

Postby Seance » Tue Jul 03, 2018 12:48 pm

tremolo3 wrote:Nu-gaze.

Nougat-glaze.
Image
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Re: Is downsizing a trend?

Postby friendship » Tue Jul 03, 2018 1:03 pm

man Rainbow Spaghetti Walls is a dope modular artist name
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Re: Is downsizing a trend?

Postby gnomethrone » Tue Jul 03, 2018 1:16 pm

Ha it's up for grabs. I bought my first synth and then returned it last month. Synthesis is hard.
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