Inspiration...

cryptowen: insightful stuff. i go through the same sort of cycles.

I might be late but I'm happy I found this thread...

I tend to go through periods where I am unhappy with everything I've made/am working on, and end up thinking that I will never get to the level i want to get

When this happens to me, I like to watch videos of other people making music... for some reason watching other people inspires me to be creative, maybe try new methods.

I started this ambient blog to really make myself do music everyday. It's working so far.

Check out the Daily Ambient thread in ylc if you're curious.

I am pretty dried out from using DAWs and computers for everything. I find that some good old limitations really help me to actually think about what I want to do. I feel like computers and plugins can make things sound good so easily that you cut too quickly to making something that sounds good instead of something that is informed and stemming from some actual idea. With hardware (even the simplest and cheapest stuff) you really have to think about how to solver certain issues, and it also gives you chances for strange things to happen. LIke feedback through a ring modulator on a $80 sampler or cheap crappy guitar effects.

Also the ambient thing was to give me a platform to make music without any sequencing at all. Lots can be done just with an arpeggiator and motion sequencer. Or even just recording loops into the sampler and letting them play over each other. Good fun. :)