I write all music; it depends on my mood. Sometimes I write on the guitar; sometimes I write on my music software. I usually am playing random chords on the guitar and find something that sounds cool so I go over to my software and give it a bass part and a drum part and whatever else sounds good with it.

I've written and recorded a good few albums in my time [I'm currently recording my 7th], but to this day no-one's really been able to class my music - but at a push, with a gun to my head, I'd say it's a crossover of Metal and Rock. Tool, Katatonia and Chevelle are huge influences to me. There's a few links to some of my stuff in my signature if anyones interested in checking it out.

I do all the instruments myself, with the exception of the drums, which I do write myself but I use Cakewalk Project 5 to sequence them up etc etc. I just don't have a drumkit, never have.

The program I use to record and mix my stuff is Adobe Audition [although when I first started, it was Cool Edit Pro]. I find that program fantastic.

Smoking ganja, using Ableton....

it started off for me as trial and error. some simple 4 on the floor drum programming. as time goes by, my work became a little more advanced (not by much though.) it also depends on what program you're using. i'm told acid yields the quickest results, though it's at the cost of these results being a track of solely prefabricated loops. i don't hate on people who compose solely by this method, (i used to do it that way, now i try to use <2 prefabs in my tracks at the most) but there is a growing number of people revolting against it. but hell, music software keeps getting more & more user friendly by the year. in good time none of it will matter, as some kid will purchase a copy of the latest, and become Mozart inside of a month. really i guess the most important thing is desire, then the compositions kind of materialize from it.

i write my music out straight to manuscript paper, sometimes with a keyboard in front of me if it's for a lot of instruments. i'll usually try to start intuitively, then analyze it and see what i'm doing be ear, and try to continue that. or i'll start with a complete plan. and occasionally i play around with max/msp, especially lately

blah, you're using Max/MSP? sweet...how's that going. I'm too lazy to learn any of that shit.

Bring out the patches, Blah...I want to see.

I'll probably post some once I have some free time again...maybe send some Jitter stuff to Quicktime too.

Anyway, right now my studio is this:

Kurzweil SP88X, Digital Performer 5, Max/MSP/Jitter 4.6, Reason 3.0, Kontakt 2

Digital Performer + Reason + Kontakt are my go-toes for scoring to picture right now. I've got a 100GB Vienna Symphonic sample library loaded into Kontakt and will be adding East West Ra & Symphonic Choirs sometime soon, I hope. Max/MSP/Jitter is more for my personal experimental shit.

If we're including my school's setup that I use every day, then I technically have a lot of Pro Tools HD3 Accel systems w/ Digi 192/Sync/MIDI I/Os w/ MOTU MIDI timepieces, some Nord G2s, Korg Triton Racks & a Korg Triton Extreme workstation, w/ Ableton Live as well. I think that's it.

That's it? geez

Did you actually pay for all of that?! If so, I am, to a certain degree, envious.

He goes to Savannah School of Arts/Fine Arts (whatever name it is). I'm sure they have all those programs/hardware within the confines of the school.