Treasure chest

[dBlues]

So in lack of sleep, I came up with this: give me a list of three most valuable abstract or concrete things, that help you create killer music i.e. inspire you. You can say "Modplug" if you want, but I guess everyone knows that already so be creative .

I get to go first... lets see. Okay:
1. Other people with interest in music
2. My U.S. Stratocaster
3. Crystal VSTi

[Sam_Zen]

Hmm.. a quick guess :
1) Picking up everydays noise.
2) Monitoring how my brain reacts to sounds
3) Listening to the remarks of skillfull artists of whatever discipline.

[LPChip]

1. Listening to someone else's music
2. Listening to my old experiments
3. Using certain sample/instrument combinations

[Saga Musix]

1) Trying new sounds on my Synth
2) Open the tracker without anything in mind
3) participate in OHCs

[maleek]

1. New and fascinating music.
2. Art, primarily photography (both shooting and watching)
3. My new Vsti:s.

[bvanoudtshoorn]

OK, here goes...

1. Playing around on the piano
2. Playing with all those beautiful sounds in Kontakt. =)
3. Listening to some of my tracks with my girlfriend (especially the orchestral ones: she's classically trainined)

[seventhson]

1. listening to music
2. messing around with synth1
3. trying out new techniques/effects in Modplug
4. randomly putting in notes and then rearranging them till they create the feel and melody i want.

[Sam_Zen]

Nice list so far.
Come on seventhson, you'll have to choose 3 items ..

[seventhson]

three just wasn't enough and they're all equally important  

[residentgrey]

a beautiful women
a moving story
intuition/trial and deconstruct

[BooT-SectoR-ViruZ]

1. concerts/parties of other people
2. new softsynths => experimenting
3. a melancholic mood

and i always get some good ideas when i'm driving my car on the highway for some hours

[SoundCrafter]

There you go, Residentgrey! About time someone said that!

-Beautiful women/Love
-Playing around with my MIDI controller in Reason's factory presets
-Any sort of strong emotion: Love, Hatred, Jealousy, Sadness...

[MisterX]

Soundcrafter mentioned:

1. Beautiful women
2. Playing around with [Insert new toy here]
3. Any sort of strong emotion: Love, Hatred, Jealousy, Sadness...

I'd have to agree with all of them and mention that the best stuff comes out of "combos" of the above, especially 1 and 3.

[Waxhead]

1. Lack of sleep
2. Remixing other artist tracks in my head
3. Getting "high" on my own music

[rncekel]

1. Everyday noises: my breath, the train, the birds...
2. Walking around and looking at the rhythm things move, and the polyrhythms they made
3. Hearing other people's music