thanks for the feedback and kind words I appreciate it
Dvst, I have been writing on ableton 8 for about 5 years now and used ableton 7 for a couple years before that... i really like ableton 8 and havent found any need to upgrade to 9.. some of the changes I found undesireable
the only real vst I use these days is sylenth1 and I mainly use that for bass.. I use a couple ableton pads here and there for ambience but for the most part my sound is made up of both recorded samples, a few midi samples and lately i've been using audio capture to grab a few cool percussive sounds off movies and tv shows and then running them through ableton..
i usually just mess around with samples and keep splicing them into new audio tracks and working off those.. eventually I will end up with like 10 different samples all made from the one sample .. all through audio splicing. i find it a pretty quick approach to writing and since most of the samples are somehow made out of each other it kind of gives a unique harmony to everything
the guitar I record is unfortunately usually done straight through the interface as I don't have a good guitar amp to record with the mic.. so I feel at times the sound can be a bit tacky. i really didnt like the chorus on the guitar motif in the first half of the track
inspiration-wise a lot of things have contributed to my inspiration.. psychedelics definitely being one of the stronger candidates as well as heaps of the music within the psytrance scene has changed my way of looking at music.. mother nature plays her role as the natural beauty around me often is what makes me feel the most inspired.. and also being a bit heartbroken plays its part too!