Have you ever felt stuck with no idea what to do next? Perhaps you’re paralysed by the sheer number of directions you could take with whatever production you’re working on? INSPIR is here to help.

Based on a similar concept to Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies but far less oblique and much more direct, INSPIR helps you overcome creative hurdles by presenting you with explicit musical ideas to implement in your work.

INSPIR is a MaxForLive device so it works directly inside Ableton Live – you can drop it on the Master Track of your project then simply click on the interface to generate a random musical inspiration – you don’t even have to leave your DAW. The inspirations range from distinctly musical terms like:

“RETROGRADE : Reverse the order of a phrase”

“MAJOR : Use only major chords”

To terms that are slightly more open-ended like:

“PERCUSSION : Use only percussion, even for melody”

“SAMPLE : Use a sample”

I’ve found INSPIR incredibly useful in my own work. It’s helped me countless times to get out of a creative block and keep making music, I hope it helps you just as much.