Analog Synths and Luxury Beliefs
Luxury equipment and luxury beliefs
Hey friend,
I hope you've been well!
Lately I have been getting more fascinated with analog synthesizers. I find myself casually watching videos of people playing synths and listening to ambient mixes of Prophet’s, Moog’s and lots of other classic synths. There is something a little bit nostalgic about listening to someone play a Roland Juno 106, that classic 80’s synth sound is magical to me.
I own a Moog Minitaur which is a monosynth, designed to make earth shattering bass and lead sounds. I found that I was lacking the ability to play chords, so I rented a Korg MinilogueXD, a 4 voice polysynth that is a ton of fun to play! I already used the Korg in a new song and I’ve only had it for a week.
I feel like I will probably collect a few more interesting synths over the years as they all have their own style and sound. There is something truly different about designing sounds with knobs rather than clicking a mouse on a screen. There is a connection with the music that feels more organic when I can record automations in with knobs. It also has taught me a lot about sound design in a short time, because everything is laid out so intuitively that I find I learn quicker with less options.
I think my dream set up is a Moog Sub 37, a Sequential Prophet Rev 2, and a couple smaller more boutique synths like the Korg MinilogueXD and the Yamaha VSS-30 for interesting sampling.
I will say though that I have spent hours trying to figure out how to connect things properly, trouble shooting why I have no sound coming out of the speakers, getting a DI box to cut down on noise interference, etc. There is definitely a learning curve like anything else, but it is one that I find rewarding nonetheless.
1 Cool Insight on Creativity and Psychology
This week I have been learning about an idea in Psychology developed by Yale alumni Rob Henderson called Luxury Beliefs.
His idea is that the upper class can hold ideas that give them social status and clout, while the lower class feels the impacts of said beliefs. A few examples of luxury beliefs are drug legalization, climate change, defund the police, etc. Essentially these are interesting things to say, debate, etc, but most often it is the lower class individuals who will feel the impact of these things.
Defunding the police is something that rich people say whilst having private security. It is not the upper class that feels the impact of a defunded police force, but the lower class families living in troubled areas that are now lacking a police presence. Rich kids experimenting with drugs in college don’t often end up unhinging their life, but kids growing up in poverty who experiment with drugs are much more likely to have their lives derailed by their drug use.
With climate change it is easy for more affluent people to say that we just need to cut all carbon emissions, but the poorer nations that are just coming online still need to use dirtier forms of power like coal. Do we really expect them to sacrifice their coal use, or do we have the empathy to understand that it is our luxury beliefs that expect everyone to meet our current standards?
This idea I find really interesting, how we can believe something that doesn’t affect us, yet gives us brownie points in the social arena. I find myself looking inward and asking “what luxury beliefs I might believe, that I am privileged enough to not need to worry about?”
I think having some introspection when we are lucky enough to be doing well is important. Not everyone is on the same path or trajectory we are on, and being humble enough to know that is key, rather than holding everyone to our high standards.
1 Cool Thing I Learned This Week
So this week a friend and I were debating how AI was going to impact creative fields like music, film, etc. We were both blown away by the recent news around Sora, the new AI video creation developed by Open AI. If you haven’t seen it, it is equally impressive as it is terrifying. The ability to create a video with nothing more than a text prompt opens up the question, how will this affect visual FX teams, movie studio and commercial houses? Is this the end of creative fields, or is this just a new tool that will speed up how teams work?
I worry that AI music creation may take the need for music producers to write music for film, tv, or even releasing music to the public. My stance is that no one will want to pay to see an AI perform live, or watch a movie created only with AI, or read a book written by AI, etc. Maybe I am naive? I think there is something inherently human that we relate with when we listen to music or watch a movie. Stories told by humans for humans. How will we react to a movie score written by AI? What if we can’t tell at all? Is there an ethical issue there? Personally I think so, but I’m not so sure future generations will care.
Book Recommendation
Why I love this book
This is one of the easiest and most profound books I have read for helping deal with common stresses from life. The idea is that we can not choose what happens to us, but we do have the ability to choose how we react. When we realize that this obstacle that is in front of us has a lesson for us to learn from, we can use the obstacle as the stepping stone for our growth.
The obstacle that is in our way, becomes the way. This is the message behind the stoic phrase “Amor Fati” which means a love of fate. The idea isn’t that your life is necessarily predetermined, but that whatever has happened to you made you the person you are today, and to love it. When you take that further, you realize that when something doesn’t go our way, we can use that as an opportunity to learn, to become more patient, to be humbled, etc. We are not meant to get everything we want all the time, sometimes we need to learn humility and temperance. If you look at the obstacles that come up in life as a stepping stone and not a road block, life becomes easier.
Key Takeaways
Perception - How we react to a situation is a matter of how we perceive it. We do not have to react with anger or frustration when something doesn’t go our way.
Action - Focus on finding solutions instead of dwelling on problems.
Embracing Adversity - Things will not always go our way, and to think they will is naive. Putting ourselves in hard situations makes us better at dealing with hard situations. Teach yourself that you can deal with hard situations. This is where I am a big fan of Jiu-Jitsu, hot yoga, lifting weights, running, etc.
Resilience - Knowing that you can deal with hard things makes you stronger and better able to deal with problems when they arise.
Embracing Challenges - Life will inevitably send us challenges, and it is up to us to turn those challenges into triumphs. You hear countless stories of people who overcame hardships and became much stronger because of it.
Amor Fati - If you live your life as if there are lessons for you to learn when things go wrong, you will be better equipped when they eventually do.
If you want to check out this book, i’ll leave a link below!
The Obstacle Is the Way - Ryan Holiday
Take care my friend,
- Niko
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