Topic for non-pro's: how do you convince yourself it's worth the money?

I remember growing up the Hobby for most was a perculiar attraction about trains called Hornby.

Many people had attics and they would make train tracks and buy engines and have a full working circuit. The thing about Hornby it was an expensive hobby to have. Although this could be lucrative to the Hobbyist, knowing that in a few years time it would reap the rewards for those who wanted to pack up their hobby and sell their designs.

I also noticed that some of the tracks and engines were specially designed or only lets say five engines made and scaled to detail.

The Musician who is an Hobbyist especially if he is only using softsynths and not particularly strong on the Hardware. Although softsynths are cheaper than their hardware counterparts. Due to registration and activating your account. It would be harder to sell your gear after a while and make money on what you have. Although if you do own keyboards I guess you can make some money on some of them. I remember a post where this certain individual listed all the things he sold and what money he doubled on and also how much money he lost.

However, you will never know if one of your tracks will be a one hit wonder I would say it could be worth your time as what you tend to put in you tend to get out eventually.

I know a few Hobbyists in different fields who have been dedicated only to be rewarded in later life.

Hobbies are good to have, they give you self worth and self Value, drive and confidence. Yes they can be expensive, but the satisfaction that you have created something with your own hands can be just the reward you need to get through daily life.

And if it was not music it would be something else like i don't know (the best gardening tools).

At best it keeps you out of trouble, its an excuse to get away from the family and best of all; it probably gets you out of some house hold chores. lol

maybe it is a thought how much money goes into it and are you being taken for a sucker because sometimes it can be based on hey look I have the latest sounds but overall the music and creativity has not increased. That is for the individual to decide.

But it is good to have a Hobby and if it becomes more than that then that is a Blessing!!

Convincing myself is easy. I love music. I'm not terrible at creating it (IMO). It keeps me 'off the streets'. It gives me hours and hours of enjoyment.

It's priceless.

When I had lots of little children running around, it wasn't practical to make a lot of noise. So, I took up deep-sea fishing as my hobby for several years. When I finally got back into creating music (with the help of Cakewalk), it dawned on me that music was a helluva lot cheaper than fishing. So, from an economic standpoint I feel ahead of the game.

From 1989 up until recently, I've used comparatively cheap equipment. I didn't need more expensive equipment to make good music. I still don't. However, I decided that I like this hobby too much to not spend a bit of money on it. Since I made that decision I've spend a small fortune on all sorts of equipment and I haven't regretted it one bit. There's no way that I'm ever gonna make that money back, but so what? This is the hobby I love more than any other hobby. What else should I spend my money on? A better house, a few vacations, conventional stuff like that? I find that this gives me more joy.

My wife doesn't quite see it that way, though.

It has to be said that I'm not broke, though. Not rich either, but definitely not broke. I would never take out loans to buy equipment. I only buy when I have the money in hand (or on a bank account).

I think it puts things into perspective having a hobby. I used to watch people with their hobbies smiling thinking they were nuts. Now I completely understand.

Its not about money. Though I have other outlets that make me happy. Really, its not about the product although now it makes it easier to create on Sonar I think, than on any other platform I had previously used before.

I know I posted twice. I better let some one else have a pop!

only you could know whether it's worth it or not. try HS and search for free plugins and samples on the net, there is alot out there.

F@KKER

ORIGINAL: F@KKER

only you could know whether it's worth it or not. try HS and search for free plugins and samples on the net, there is alot out there.

F@KKER

Hm, I should have said a bit more: I already own Sonar 6 PE (Sonar 4 before that and some HS version before that) and also have GPO (since 2004)Jamstix 2, Real Guitar 2L (both since 2005 or so) and Guitar Rig 2 (since last week, to use with Real Strat, which I am currently beta-testing). So I already spend some money here and there. The problem is I WANT MORE! But I can hardly justify it. THAT is my problem! It's about the extra's!

BTW My wife doesn't really mind what I spend as long as it has no consequences for the family. So I am lucky already! At least that is not something I have to worry about and that's certainly not the issue here.

ORIGINAL: aj

PS: EZDrummer is worth checking out before spending lots of money on drum software. It really is excellent and simple to use and sounds great. You may not need anything more... apart from Sonar, of course... and Session Drummer 2, truth be told, is perhaps Good Enough.....

Ha! Funny you say that, because I had EZD in my mind when I mentioned the drums. ;) I like to have the Nashville kit, but in order to use that I also need EZD itself: together they will cost me about 250 euro. But I already bought Guitar Rig. And Jamstix 2 is coming up soon (for cheap!!!). So to pay 250 euro just for some better sounds than I already have... And I'd like to have some really good horns, but they will cost me even more... You know what I mean? It never ends...

BTW This topic came up when I posted something about software piracy on this forum: it frustrates me to know there are people using Sonar 6 with Waves Platinum or whatever costly addon, and hardly know what audio or MIDI or whatever is... and here I am, with my tight budget and my dreaded knowledge of right and wrong...

<FORREST GUMP VOICE>
It's my boat.
</FGV>

Too funny Dave! That's always how I explain my studio, "Some people have big expensive boats, I have this ...". My wife likes to say, "If this is the extent of his midlife crisis, I'll take it!'. :-)

ORIGINAL: Greystorm ~ I justify everything I buy with the thought that all the money I save on not smoking anymore, 3 years now

I am totally glad I am not the only one that does that....lol.

Mine was drinking. I quit (can't remember) 12 or 14 years ago. Every time I want something I take it out of my virtual Jack Daniels fund.

Now I have a new booster fund. I too quit smoking. 72 days 12 hours and 7 minutes ago.

Justification is always easy to find... just keep looking.

There is always reverse justification.... "whuuul I can sell it on eBay if I don't like it".

ORIGINAL: trock8500

oh man, does that work dave? sweet i turn 40 in october and have been planning my mid life crisis with those exact 2 things in mind!

You always want to give a woman a question that she can say "Yes" to. And... rememeber to tell her everyday that she's pretty, and you love her.... and take the trash out without being told. That's the key to success with women.

Creativity is the stuff of life. An amateur creating music for the love of it is pure, and spending money with no expectation of making a financial return is art. Remember, god "created" the earth. So, spending to broaden and deepen one's creativity/art is a holy endeavor, therefore the more one spends, the holier one gets. I plan to spend my way into nirvana/heaven.

t

How do you convince yourself, as an amateur musician, all that gear and software is worth the money...?

I've only been back making music for a little over a year now, after a long hiatus during which I had abandoned every activity not directly related to work and money-generation. I was after the elusive American Dream, and determined to achieve it at any cost. My reward for all that hard work was a nice house, new cars, a boat -- and a heart attack. A near-death experience can have a profound effect on what you think is important. I realized that when people speak at my funeral, they won't comment on what a nice house I had, but my hope is that they'll play some of my music and say "yeh, that's pretty all right".

So I have no problem at all justifying the expense of my hobby. But a word of warning: the industry is selling you a dream, but all the gear in the world won't make a good song.

Ask yourself if you're really getting the most out of what you have. I've got lots of stuff that I've never even read the manual for, much less understood all their capabilities. I could stop buying gear now and it would be two years before I mastered everything I've currently got. I could stop buying products based solely on glowing catalog descriptions. Yes, I could stop any time I wanted to. Maybe next year.

great topic,

I am a pro so i supose this answer doesnt really count,
something is valuable to me if I can make money out of it (get a job i wouldn't normally get etc.), or work quicker, or just sound better in general, before i made any money out of being a musician then i would buy it if I could afford it-no kids , no wife etc. (hey still no kids,wife etc.) most things I have bought recently have been very thought through and researched. I am planning to move in with my GF at some point soon (shes cool she suggested looking for a 4 bedroom house-2 rooms for my studio:) and she understands gearlust so its good for me to have to justify any purchases. having said that a lot of the stuff i have bought in the past few years is now only really coming into use.
However i can't say the same for all the freebies plugs and synths that i downloaded most of them never see the light of day, maybe if you pay for it you use it more?

PS if you are looking for horns garritan jazz and big band is fantastic and not that expensive
I bought mine with birthday and xmas money if that helps.


Andy

It's easier for me to rationalize, in my mind, the purchase of a vintage guitar or analog gear or whatever, because it will actually appreciate in value over time. Wood Street has done better than Wall Street over the last ten years!

With software and computers it's sorta money down the black hole...

Yeah, well, with real instruments it's different. You can figure out what it's worth now and if it will be worth more in the future. With computer stuff, softsynths and so on, it's the other way around. You don't even have to figure anything out to know it will be worth nothing within no time and a far better, superior, cooler and probably cheaper similar plugin will be released within a week after your purchase. You KNOW that every dime you spend on software will be gone (almost) forever. Quite often you aren't even allowed to sell it again (right, amerikas? )

Something else that is making things hard, and I seem to be the only one, is the fact that I have an on and off going relation with music... When I make music it takes over my life. When I work on a tune I think about it ALL the time. Really. Every possible arrangement, change. idea, second voice, other instrument, repetition or not, fade in or out, two or three verses, intro or not, acoustic or electric, etc. etc. etc. passes my mind when I am NOT working in it. This can be very tiresome. I've had long periods of NOT making music at all. So... that's another problem, because imagine I buy that expensive thing today and decide to stop making music tomorrow...? Yeah, I know I may sound like a whining spoiled brat, but I know myself... Things like this make it even harder!

Although I have to say I've come to an age where I might settle for this hobby once and for all. My reasons for making music have changed also, and I think that will help too. So... maybe I will buy EZD and Nashville. Amongst others. Who knows, maybe I will be struck by lightning tomorrow and never have a change again to make music!

(Hope no one minds me throwing it all out here. I'm just in that midlife poor your heart out mood... )

ORIGINAL: aaronk
A performing musician needs one high-quality instrument and the time to master it. Tiger Woods doesn't spend his time shopping for golf clubs, he spends it practicing his game.

Well, I am not a performing musician, but someone who likes to be a one man band on the attic. For the fun of it. So it's not a matter of getting one high-quality instrument. I need all instruments a band may need. And since I only work with software, I want to have quality software. But they just keep on releasing more and more quality software. And I have to draw a line somewhere. I think. I could work with low class stuff, but that wouldn't be as satisfying. I want a certain level of quality (nothing really professionaly high btw) to make it all sounds as real as possible. A TT1 sax preset doesn't cut it for me: I'd rather use no sax then. But I would really like to use one! I can think of lot's of examples this way. It might be easier if I was a performing artist and if I could focus on mastering that. As a one man band you just have too many things to focus on!

Apart from it all: it's a hobby and I do not make music to become famous or anything. As I said, I do it for my own fun. And I simply don't have too much fun (anymore) if I spend a lot of time on something and it sounds like crap or when I know it could sound so much better if only I had this and that or that plugin...

In short: I'm just too greedy and should look for a job with a higher salary.