[Is Malaise and Detachment Normal during Composition?]

re: Making Money

One of the distinctions between an amateur and a professional is the ability to really 'hunker down' and pull through a gig with almost no inspiration. To get the job done and hopefully get the job done well despite personal problems, hold-backs/delays, or creative block.

Exactly! I find myself from time to time getting hung up on some little perfectionist quirk, generally having to do with synth timbre, and wasting a disproportionately high amount of time when I could've been pushing ahead composition-wise. After the main song structure is complete, the rest is cake!

[Why is FL not popular?! I thought it was good!]

This is just a question out of curiosity. I was in WHSmith (do they have them in other places but england?) and was browsing the 'music' section of the magazine collection. They had stuff on Cubase, Pro Tools, Reason, all that lot but ZILCH on FL. Nothing. Not even the general music tech magazines covered the thing. I've used all those other DAWs and found FL to be the best. Why are they so damn popular? Even the course I'm doing at university has all the DAWs but FL (and Reaper, that's meant to be awesome too). Is it just not good in industry? And why?!

I'd have to disagree, there are several magazines that can be found in any given Barnes & Noble or what have you (i.e. Electronic Musician) that have a lot of Image-Line coverage.

Some claim FL's audio engine isn't up to par with its more "professional" counterparts, such as Cubase, but that's a little up in the air. Personally, FL's audio editing interface is a little clunky, and I'd like to see it more intuitive. For its purpose, though, which for me is to easily lay down piano roll programming, it excels.