Are You A Gear Copycat?

A gear copycat is someone who has to get the EXACT same gears that his or her idol are using. Or at least that’s just a term I coined up to write this article.

Recently I’ve been getting lots of inquiries that sounds like this; ‘Hey Reuben, you know that microphone that MR XXXXX is using for his covers on YouTube? Here’s the link, can you see what it is?’. So I’ve met many people who are well, gear copycats. And that got me thinking. They absolutely have to get whatever they see on the screen. Whichever gear that is used by someone they like, it has to be the best equipment out there right? Or perhaps it’s the feel good feeling that they get being ‘similar’ to someone they really admire.

Well, not necessarily.

What if I told you that there are many other interesting (and better) gears out there, sometimes cheaper too, compared to the ones you see. The joy of having music gears is experimenting with them and hopefully experimenting on as many gears as you can get your hands on!

The problem with being a gear copycat is believing everything you see on screen. Many people want to get what they see on screen especially ones used by their favorite people, believing that obtaining those gears would improve their art. But again it falls back to your skills and not any particular gear. Successful musicians and producers didn’t get successful because they picked a correct gear but because of the hours and hours they spent honing their craft.

Yes we all do fall into being a gear copycat from time to time. I watched a Hans Zimmer interview recently and noticed that he used Cubase to write music. Next thing I know is I felt a little sense of joy in my heart, because like Zimmer, I happened to be writing music with Cubase too.

Anyway the point is to stop being a gear copycat. Give yourself a chance and allow yourself to try different gears & equipment, learning the difference between them. Then maybe when you have your followers, you’ll probably receive emails & tweets from your followers asking you what sort of gears you use.

So are you a gear copycat? Comment below