Controllers? What controllers? 
Yeah, that’s right, byte doesn’t use controllers.
I think having a setup with which you can improvise (jam) with can give fresh ideas… but the hard part for the perfectionist persona will be to finish this track…
What is your setup, Byte?
Please get some controllers, Byte. Anything will do to start. Have you ever messed around with them? You dont even have to use the automation you record but they dramatically speed up how quickly you come across sounds you like. Do you/ would you play a physical instrument? You should definitely give it and the singing a go. Also, if your getting that mic you can record melodies etc as they occur to you, then key them in later. This works a charm.
While renoise is amazing, and absolutely my favourite program, bashing a keyboard all day or night can become a little stifling.
Also don’t loop your patterns if you’re in a rut; there’s probably a metaphor in there somewhere 
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Hahaha! I’ve had the same setup for years 
But no midi-controllers, synths, plugins, monitors…?
Recently I had a friend over who is just getting into the whole music making deal. I explained him possibilities with different software available. His attitude was really infectious, having me excited about stuff (midicontroller hardware controlling vst(i) for example) I was maybe taking for granted / unconsciously developed apathy for and not utilizing much 
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We have so many options to mangle sound it is easy to loose that spark of inspiration, especially if you’re doing this for years. For me it was an eyeopener how having some newby ears in the studio can shift awareness in a positive direction.
Also, am I the only one that is positively affected by the patternmatrix on this whole writersblock thing?
$$$
I can somewhat play guitar… my guitar (a cheap fender strat) needs to be noise shielded, and I have no decent audio interface to plug it in with. I’ve also played keyboard/piano (by ear) since I was a kid… but I don’t have room in my apartment to set up gear. Lack of $$$ sucks.
I don’t simply loop patterns… that’s half the problem. I try to make all my tracks evolve…and often times, I just have no idea where to take them. I end up stuck in a melodic hook I can’t get out of… or with a chord progression that sounds like shit if I change it at all… or with intricate multi-track beats that have so many parts that it takes me forever to vary them from pattern to pattern, so I get frustrated with how difficult it is to do what I’m trying to do. I’m also in love with the idea of nondestructive editing, as I always like to tweak things at the most fundamental level after I’m done composing, so I rarely render beats to sample and slice them. This is one of the reasons I keep hoping they’re going to implement clips or instrument patterns… so I can mess with rhythmic phrases nondestructively and quickly.
No, it helps quite a bit. I finished 4 tracks in December, and I can attribute that quite a lot to the pattern matrix.
I have a Korg Poly61m and a midi->usb cord that works great… but the Korg is way too huge to be using all the time in my tiny apartment. My apartment’s really cramping my style, truth be told. I just can’t afford anything better atm.
You can get a midi-controller for less than 100 euros! Also, not sure if you already have 'em, but GET MONITOR SPEAKERS ASAP. It will be the best investment in your music ever. I promise. Yes, I know that means cutting somewhere else. I ate eggs and sausage for 2 weeks to be able to pay for my KRK’s, but it was soooo worth it.
I don’t have monitors… I want some indeed. I want to get a set of Tannoy Reveal 6D … but again, apartment living sucks. I’m really working with limited space. I guess I could set shit up at my office at work and come in on the weekends or something, but I’m not sure how OK my employer would be with that 
And yeh… the cashflow issue is pretty tight right now. $100 is quite a bit for me. I avoided paying $20 for a new pair of earbuds the other day and opted to solder a new plug onto my current pair. I’ve only eaten at a restaurant once in the past 2 months.
I haven’t seen the inside of a restaurant for… what… damn… forget it… €100 is a lot for me too, but sacrifices must be made for the greater good and I deem my music a greater good, haha! Anyway, I came to find that monitor speakers are mandatory for “our” kind of music. Especially since you’re into sounddesign, you really can’t go without, unless there are methods I never heard of. Apart from that, monitor speakers prolly what made me ‘move on’ from botb to vivace, so talk about inspirational surge, haha!
Again, this is me wishing I had money and proper space to work 
With regard to lack of space in your appartment, maybe you should try and move your furniture around and set up a new living space if possible.
Moving without moving if you like, it could freshen up your living space and help a bit.
With regard to monitors, yeah, I wish I had 300 € to spend in a pair of Mackie monitors.
I work with earbuds too, not even as good as my cellphone ones… that’s a pain, for sure.
So what I do for now is focusing on writing, even though I’m sure the track will probably sound like shit, and I keep the mixing and sound finetuning for later, when I can handle it.
A bit frustrating, but on the other hand, I know/hope that I’ll have enough material to work on when I get my monitors.
Positive thinking or what?
About the “chord progression that sounds like shit if (you) change it at all,” I often experience that.
When it happens, I switch to “pattern loop indigestion mode” and imprint the progression in my brains.
Then I go out, walk the dog, cook, whatever… and let my brains play melodies on that progression.
And it’s often the melody that will bring new chords or change the progression in a surprising (rarely) or self-evident (more often) way and I get unstuck… at least for a while.
Not sure if that can help you but I hope it will a bit
same happened here !
buying monitors was the best decision ever 
but it also needs some time before you know how your monitors are working. it`s a step backward first, but then 1000 steps forward
so, good luck byte, hope you can manage to get some monitors soon.
Well, the apartment: it’s a shared space as well 
You don’t want to know how much I’ve spent on audio equipment in the last year! (Although very little production related there probably are a few bits that just fall within a year.)
Hope you get past your mental barriers though. Enjoyed the stuff I’ve heard you upload and would like to hear more.
Ask your mom for money? Just go puppy eyes. 
Oh yeah you guys are all old folks…that doesn’t work anymore…does it? 
Best advice men can get! Quite too often the goal hinders the way.
Agree with that about non-destructive editing. I didn’t mean looping in the final composition, I meant more using loop while you’re tweakin/editing. I used to havethis problem where I’d end up loosing more than I’d gained by looping single patterns somehow it tends to restrict progressions to the pattern length or multiples thereof… You know all of this though… you’ve been at it longer than I.
On the controller front I got a crappy but quite functional midi controller for €30. Fame make cheap but decent looking weighted controllers. I would agree that monitors ought to be first port of call.
The new korg nanocontrol with all the vertical faders looks good! (and small/cheap).