My go to piano is Una Corda; It's just a really gorgeous instrument. Kinetic Metal is great for layering on top of percussion or on top of pads, and I find myself going for session strings and horns for schoolwork.

If you don't mind spending some money, you could sign up for Splice Sounds; for 8 dollars a month you get 100 credits per month to spend on any sample you want (and you can preview the samples before buying). There's a lot of vocal packs on there, I recommend the black octopus sound ones and the bright lights vocal pack.

If you don't wanna spend money, you could do some digging to find some on Acapellas4U. Pick a pop female vocalist and you'll probably find a few vocals to chop up and play with.

Adding a harmony of the vocal (use something like Soundtoys Little Altarboy or just duplicate it and pitch shift it) that's an octave down is also a nice way to help add some color if you only mix in a little bit.

Oh wow, these are great! Thanks for sharing!

Are you using KRK monitors? There was another thread that talked about a similar issue - it appears to be a problem with how the 2i2 draws power via USB. The only fix, it seems, is to buy a new interface.

All I'll say is the one thing you don't wanna do is become a Preset Junkie

• ]If you find yourself picking a particular sample from one of your sample packs a lot, create a new folder called "-Your Producer Name- Sample Pack" and put a copy of that sample in there. Start organizing your sample pack by the type of sample, and if you ever have a processed sample that you really like, bounce it and put it in there - now you have your own unique kick/snare/percussion that you always can go to when you need it. Eventually, you'll have an entire library of samples that you can use to really figure out what your style is, a bunch of your own sounds that you could sell or give away, and no more endless searching for that perfect snare in your massive sample library (though it's always good to go sample diving and looking for new sounds!).
• Even if you don't have a set way of making music, save project templates that let you get into making music without having to do any prep work. Have your favorite VSTs loaded and ready to go. Have certain groups pre-arranged that you know are in a ton of your tracks (a reverb bus, a sidechain submix, etc) that you can just remove if you know you're not gonna need. If you have outboard gear this is probably already common knowledge, but I see so many people open a completely barren FL Studio project or the initial Ableton Live Default Set and spend five minutes grabbing the same plugins they always use, start working, go set up the same mixer inserts or FX racks they have on every song, and it's such a stopgap between the artist and their creative flow.

This image is connected to dancing but you can substitute that word for literally any artistic skill that requires a lot of time and training:



Your ability to create good work is somewhat linear curve - the more time and effort you put in, the more you get out of it.

Your ability to understand what is good and bad is a fluctuating cycle of peaks and valleys surrounding your ability's growth. There will be times when your ability to know what is good is LESS than your current understanding of how to make what is good. These are the cherished moments of discovery and learning, when you're breaking through a lot of barriers and feeling like you might be onto something. There will also be times when your taste will be much HIGHER than your ability to make what is good for your tastes. This is the real challenge, and where most people stop.

It's important to keep in mind that EVERYONE encounters it, and the only way to get past it is to keep making work even IF you think it's not up to your own standards. The only way you'll know how to make things that sound good is by making a whole lot of stuff that sounds bad. Don't give up!