So far as advertising strategies go, this is one of the strangest I’ve seen in a while. Telling people about a product and then telling them not to buy the item you’ve just been yapping on about seems an odd strategy.

Is it reverse psychology at work? I don’t know, but maybe I should try it to promote my next release.

Anyway, I’m not remotely ashamed to admit that I have used MIDI packs in the past. I do own a small collection of them, and I do use them for inspiration whenever I’m struggling. I’m far from the only one who does – many of the professionals do the same thing.

The key is to use them to guide you. Don’t just meekly chuck them into your productions. Move the chords around, try changing some of the chords, shorten some, lengthen some – play around with them. You can even use these pre-prepared MIDI files to learn a bit about how certain chords work or the theory behind them.

They can enable people to be lazy, most definitely. But that’ll only get you so far. People used to say the same thing about presets on synthesisers…