A little of both, don't have a full modular system because well that's a whole different money sink, but I have a bunch of semi modular stuff that I hook up together, a lot of desktop synths, few keyboards, rack modules, sequencers, effects pedals. I'd love to get into eurorack sometime but that time is not now haha.
I get that having analog stuff that you physically wire together, or purpose-built digital stuff with a nice interface, is "real" and tactile and fun and all, but have you considered the fact that there's nothing you can do with that stuff that can't be emulated with software?
IMO you should keep one MIDI controller keyboard and sell everything else until money is less tight. (And also get yourself a bicycle, BTW.)
I have considered that, I've been making music with computers since I was a kid starting with the Commodore 64 and the Kawasaki Synthesizers program, then to trackers on Amiga and PC (.MOD music), then to DAWs. Nowadays DAWs are just packed with so many options and there's literally millions of plugins that I get frozen with choice rather often or just end up fucking around, not that I don't just fuck around all the time with the hardware but it feels more satisfying. Emulation has come a long long way, as far as quality and even going to model circuit behaviour, but there is just a presence and tone of (some) hardware that is just not there yet, and still with certain types of frequency modulation you get nasty artifacts. Beyond the tactile usability and the sound quality there's also a bit of nostalgia factor to it as well. I like old hardware, I like talking about it to people and learning new tips and tricks and sharing what I know.
Modular synth modules, or just a bunch of different keyboards?
A little of both, don't have a full modular system because well that's a whole different money sink, but I have a bunch of semi modular stuff that I hook up together, a lot of desktop synths, few keyboards, rack modules, sequencers, effects pedals. I'd love to get into eurorack sometime but that time is not now haha.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXb0zcEM-rI
I get that having analog stuff that you physically wire together, or purpose-built digital stuff with a nice interface, is "real" and tactile and fun and all, but have you considered the fact that there's nothing you can do with that stuff that can't be emulated with software?
IMO you should keep one MIDI controller keyboard and sell everything else until money is less tight. (And also get yourself a bicycle, BTW.)
I have considered that, I've been making music with computers since I was a kid starting with the Commodore 64 and the Kawasaki Synthesizers program, then to trackers on Amiga and PC (.MOD music), then to DAWs. Nowadays DAWs are just packed with so many options and there's literally millions of plugins that I get frozen with choice rather often or just end up fucking around, not that I don't just fuck around all the time with the hardware but it feels more satisfying. Emulation has come a long long way, as far as quality and even going to model circuit behaviour, but there is just a presence and tone of (some) hardware that is just not there yet, and still with certain types of frequency modulation you get nasty artifacts. Beyond the tactile usability and the sound quality there's also a bit of nostalgia factor to it as well. I like old hardware, I like talking about it to people and learning new tips and tricks and sharing what I know.