I'm at an impasse.

It's made worse by the fact that I've changed my equipment and toolkit again. I purchased Drumkit from Hell 2, a drum sampler, because I just couldn't get the power and feel I wanted from another sampler I had - and using a drum machine just didn't cut it for me. (Besides, DFH2's samples rock. Ambient noise, left/right hand hits, and crossover from a sampled kit? Incredible.)

Even better is the discovery that I can use DFH2 through Sonar and get 10ms latency - so I can "write" drum parts by pounding on a keyboard (or other midi interface) which is pretty much exactly what I wanted. Every other sampler I've used has a best latency of about 40ms, which is pretty dadgum good, but...

Therefore, in addition to my general writing drought, I'm in that "how do I use my new toys" mode. It's frustrating, because I feel like now that I have all this power and I don't know what to do with it.

I think as soon as I figure out emotionally that I don't have to write THE most complex tracks right now, it'll come easier.