I'm happy to report that I'm finally poking my toe back in the musical waters, although I have yet to really get back into the swing of practicing guitar and such. This year really got off to a bad start for me and so I'm now trying to 'right the ship', as they say, and slowly get my head back in the game.
I did do some mixing at long last this past weekend. Peele, the professional guy that was going to mix "The Effects of Connection" for me, completely flaked out and apparently has decided that it wasn't worth his time in the end. I must say that my experience thus far with "professionals" hasn't really been much better than with amateurs; in fact, I think it's been worse, at least on the follow-through. So, I guess I'm going to be mixing that track after all, and I did quite a bit of work trying to get the drums to sound decent for that's really the weak link on the song right now. By midday Sunday, I felt like I may have made some real progress with the drum triggers, and I actually had purchased a new plugin to try back in February for this very purpose that I finally got to try out.
Apart from that, I just need to keep at it. I have a week off coming up very soon, only a month a way, where I was going to start recording the new Jazz Machine album but it's quickly becoming a bit in jeopardy, especially if I don't start playing regularly. I'm also having a lot of issues with my left hand due to trigger finger mainly in my pinky which so far does not want to give up. I had it originally in my middle finger a couple years ago and it more or less just went away after awhile, maybe after a year or so? My pinky doesn't seem to want to give in and it slightly affects my third finger as well. If this continues, I may have to go to a hand specialist and get it worked on because it's really challenging to play sometimes. I also cracked up the jazz guitar books this weekend, tried out a couple chords, and the wacky and sometimes ridiculous jazz chord fingering is nearly impossible when 2 of your fingers won't cooperate.
I'll try to write a bit more later in the week, perhaps non-music related. I've had a lot of ideas but just not a ton of time. The TV in the family room also finally completely crapped out and so I had to plunk down the funds for a new one; ah, unexpected expenses, let me tell ya.