functionality + playability + estimated usage
vs. desirability / ergonomics / cool
?
Yesterday I sold my tascam dp32sd, a wonderful workhorse and to be honest…it’s left a massive blackhole in the room. Bought for £400, sold for £250. I defiantly got my five years of joyful value out of it. It never broke down, always did want I wanted it to do, and it never got bored of me sinking countless hours of absolute shite music into it. The reason I decided to sell it is, I guess, the reason most folk sell gear…to simplify! (ok, that as we all know is a joke, the correct answer is to buy more crap).
t’s so damn easy to lose perspective of just how much gear costs. You can start with a £100 Volca and quickly end up wanting a £600 op-1. Once you’ve justified that expense, everything else doesn’t seem so insane. But that was 6 years ago. Now a £500 device that feels cheaper than a TV remote is alright because you use it more and it fuels your ideas.
music instruments are incredibly expensive. A Boutique tr-08 is the same price as a Roberts cd/radio. It’s two month’s of food/drink (for one person). Or enough petrol to get one to the closest petrol station.
and I don’t think I will ever get out of that rabbit hole. I’m a sucker for beauty over practicality. superficiality isn’t built to last.
TE are obviously different.
Field of Dreams different.
Ideas sometimes come for free. Some need a little narcotic buzz boogie free them along. sometimes.
we may have once been a child but why still desire childish things? a little velcro £1.50 wallet for your mini-mixer £60? Why? How can anyone justify that expenditure when they must surely know the actual production cost must be under £10?
but we sometimes do. we just buy shit because of branding. old diatribe.
TE make insanely desirable instruments. Childlike-looking devices that are ingenious in so many ways. As a company, their morals are bloody dodgy at best (in my opinion anyway). it’s so damn easy to lose perspective of just how much gear costs. You can start with a £100 Volca, end up with 4, sell them to get something else and then before you know it you have a £600 op-1. Once you have justified that everything else seems value and realistic. A £500 device that feels cheaper than you TV remote is alright because you use it more and it fuels your ideas.
Since it came out I’ve always wanted the Roland tr-08. I’ve never need it. My op-z with 808/909/606/ drum packs will always be more functional, portable, flexible…but common sense has long left the building. I know it could end up being another cute dust catcher. (Does anybody still use their Ikea TE gear/semi-mod series?) Ditto the OB-4. Another unnecessary desire/buy. I mean, I could buy two white t-shirts instead!
I’m selling my mpc live. In terms of value & functionality I really don’t think there is much competition. It’s an incredible machine. By the time the TE ‘field series’ is done my guess is the footprint will be the same…just with shitload more cables and a whopping £4,000. budget hole (pure speculation). Yet I hate using it. It’s one constant battle that I’ve never been able to grasp. Less options work in my favour because I’m not bright enough. My perfect machine, the one bit of gear I adore is the Sp-16. It’s pure joy. And it was built for a simpleton like me to use.
the formula to overcome desire is ultimately a pointless exercise.
what I would like to know, and understand more, is other hobby users/buyers relationship to justifying expenditure, and the realistic economics/practicality.
actually, I’m still drunk from last night, so apologies (as usual). still curious though. x