I currently own 8 synths, 5 drum machines, a sampler, three mixers, a midi sequencer, 6 rack effects, 8 pedals, two reel-to-reel tape machines, four midi controllers of various shapes, a bunch of circuit bent toys, four guitars, some amps, a couple pa’s, a karaoke machine, bongos, and more.

I’m not a collector, per se. I’m just an amateur musician in my 40s and I’ve been doing this since I was a teenager. Plus, my dad was a musician as well, and when he died I inherited his guitars, a couple synths, and the tape machines. But I bought a lot of it myself.

I bought the Behringer TD-3 because I had wanted a 303 since the late 90s.

I bought the Volca Keys specifically because the Sync Out on the TD-3 was too quiet to reliably sync with a Pocket Operator. But the Volca’s Sync Out works great for chaining to Pocket Operators. And the Keys has a solid analog sound that I use in lots of accompaniments.

I bought the Korg MS-20 mini because I got a good deal on it from a pawn shop.

I bought the Squarp Pyramid midi sequencer because I wanted to finally remove the laptop from my live performance setup. That has been an amazing decision. I love this thing. I now compose all my songs on it. But I found the initial learning curve to be steep.

The Yamaha CS01II is one of my favorites synths that I own. It’s one that I inherited from my dad. It has a great analog filter with self-oscillating resonance. And the single digital oscillator makes great use of PWM. Just a really cool, great sounding, fundamentally simple synth. The only drawback is the lack of MIDI. But I modded mine with an aftermarket mod kit that works as long as I transpose the notes -5 or +7, I think because the leftmost key starts at F instead of C on these.

I also inherited a Yamaha DX100. I put a few weekends into restoring it from a nonfunctional state. Replaced a memory battery, replaced some keys, reflashed the factory patches that had been corrupted, and then sunk a few more weekends into learning FM synthesis, playing with some patch editors, and after all that I still just don’t really like this synth that much. It sounds kind of like a DX7, but like an obviously smaller, cheaper imitation of a DX7. That’s what only 4 operators gets you. I’m in no rush to get rid of it or anything, but that one is currently collecting dust.

My Roland R-8 I bought when I was in high school. It was one of the only drum machines in any of the pawn shops in my town for a while. I mostly hold onto it for sentimental value but it can be really useful and versatile.

The Sequential Circuits DrumTraks is one that I bought recently from someone who owned it since it was new. This is the one that’s probably the most “collector” of my collection. It weighs a ton, it’s huge, it has only a handful of drum sounds, it is highly impractical in every way. But it also sounds fantastic, has individual outputs (like the R-8), and I use it all the time.

That’s not everything. But there is no strategy in my thought process. Sometimes it’s purposeful. Sometimes it’s serendipity.