Music production is now more accessible than ever; anyone with a laptop and some basic recording equipment has — with the right vision — the potential to make a hit record.

One thing that stops us from actually making these hits is our never-ending pursuit for better plugins, sample libraries, and synths. With plenty of great developers around like Native Instruments, Heavyocity, Output, FabFilter, it is easy to fall into a mindset of ‘if I had this plugin my music would be at the level I want it to be’.

Don’t get me wrong; there are plenty of amazing products out there, many of which I own. But sometimes this pursuit for products actually harms our creativity as we fall into a trap of browsing through forums and product websites when we should be making music. We spend hours looking at comparison videos of LA2A clones instead of installing the trials and seeing which one works best.

In my opinion, it is so much more valuable to work with a limited set of tools that you know your way around very well, rather than having an unnecessarily large collection of music gear that you have barely scratched the surface of.

A by-product of learning to use a limited set of tools very well is that you develop a sound and signature unique to you. Creating your own solutions and workflows rather than buying the most popular one creates longetivity in your music.

The point of this article isn’t to discourage buying new equipment. As someone who has invested about $10,000 into music equipment in the last 12 months, I can say that quality equipment yields quality results. If I see a product that I love or see a good use in I will generally buy it straight away and back to work.

The bottom line: it is important to spend time making music rather than searching endlessly about equipment.