The one piece of gear that boosted creativity/production

Instruments. Amps. An old Wurli. If you buy an old Wurli and don't get a song out of it, you're broken.

I've never been inspired by recording gear. It's utility. The good stuff is just effective utility....means to an end.

Or if you can write of expense....take a great band into the studio--cut and EP of your fave songs of yours....why:

1- Fun
2- Might learn something
3- end up with a good recording and experience rather than a box that comes with some mental obligation
4- You might sell a million copies and it NOT be a write off!

Ok....well, there were three realistic reasons.

I've decided to convert my entire family room over to recording. Move the TV, turntable, home theater out, and make room for more gear and a semi-permanent vocal booth. I told my mates that I need to commit, totally, to the art of music production. Work, and Rock - nothing else. Buy a bigger console, add some more outboard, get serious. We have the music, and our egos tell us some of it is pretty good. We have written a schedule, which includes a fully packaged album in vinyl by the end of 2015.  Music, art, everything - there's a lot to do. Incorporate the studio. Start up a record label. Get busy.

It is a dream of mine to have a shelf of my music next to my Zeppelin albums (above them?) when I am an old man, sitting by the fire, having a medicinal smoke, spinning records. My records. I don't give a damn if it sells, that's not the point. (Well OK, it would be nice, I still believe in the Money for Nothing, Chicks for Free thing. Even in 2015).

God willing, we will make some noise. Maybe some of it will be good, perhaps even beautiful. So for me, it's not just the equipment, it's developing and sustaining the drive to record/mix/produce every day. That's the challenge.

I went guitar shopping today. The D-28 Marquis I had my eye on was gone...then went to one of the many pricey places here in Nashville and found a disgustingly beautiful sounding Collings D2HA...and it was amazing. But I just couldn't pull the trigger at that price tag. ($4500) I started thinking about all the other things I could do with $4500...and I already have a pretty killer J-45 TV...so I started getting buyer's remorse before I even bought the thing. Not a great sign.
So I think I've decided that what I should do is spend a third of that amount on really fine-tuning my studio. Extra pres to keep from having to patch and re-patch (oh! the horror!) Even extra mic stands so I don't have to borrow one when I record my amp and then have to set up again when I am recording acoustics. Little stuff like that. Whatever will allow me to work without dealing with the tedious things that honestly build up and take my mind off being creative. Maybe I should FINALLY sit down and create freaking templates - that's free - but I just haven't done it. I think settling on a couple of pres and maybe another compressor, setting my patchbay up once and for all. Having two mics dedicated to recording acoustic instruments. Just having all that stuff ready to go.

Yeah I just picked up an awesome 1974 Mark I Fender Rhodes and it's instant creativity. Have my eye on a vintage minimoog...

Boosted creativity? For me a big boost is the use of different drum loops to write vocal melodies to. Another is guitar pedals to create different sound textures. Another is DAW Software, which allowed easy movement of sections of music. We really live in a nice world if you're a composer. If I had more money, I'd have about 5 different electric guitars and 5 different amps along with an electric piano and an organ. I'd also have a great band that would listen to my compositions, interpret them and record them for free. LOL.

Good pot usually helps.

id have to triple down on this, a well thought out patchbay makes anything that comes to mind very quickly achievable with no distractions, of course you need to familiarize yourself with your patchbay layout, but once you have it down, it's super powerful in a maintaining "creative flow" regard.

I finally set up a patch bay per Tony's advice on the VP28 thread... it's just a basic setup with the Samson TRS bay, but I'm really glad I did. The idea of freeing up gear to switch easily between mixing and tracking is not only a big time saver, but also has me thinking about using my gear more creatively.

Of course I already want a second one to go with my second CAPI 500 rack that I'll be ordering once they come back in stock.

Really impressed with the build quality of the samson bay btw...

Yep...already got the patchbays, but for some reason 48v isn't passing through to my pencil mic when using it through the patchbay, so, when I use that mic, I have to go behind and patch directly into the pre - which defeats the purpose. I just need to probably have another pre so I can have that one set up permanently. I could use my Apollo pres, which are probably totally fine, but what's the fun in that?

I like the D-28 style Adderall; you ?

Hey, I meant to mention this in the other thread about your setting up for continence.....the extra ores, you'll find aren't as useful as you might think they would be--however, the extra stands, is completely solid and NOT expensive, grand scheme.

Get a "little" stand for the amp at least. Too many stands actually starts another issue-where to store them. then you end up having to set them up and tear them down anyway, else walk through a maze of cables and stands....but, having a little second one is a no brainier. If you shop well, you can get one that telescopes uo high enough to use for sitting acoustic guitar. Then it can sit by the amp normally....but, be pulled over into the middle of the room for acoustic as needed.