Taking a break from it helps.

I usually agonize over the process, piling up takes and doing versions after versions. Then, after a while, I'll go back to something I've recorded days or weeks before, and much to my surprise, I'm often pretty happy w/ it. 

That's the disadvantage of being a one man band + engineer + producer. You lose the perspective at some point.

Is Ooof a Norweigian guy? 

So on the solos thing.... reset the BPM to like 20.... play it as best yo can then use the time compression FX thingy to sped it up real faster and sudenly u r playing like ... uhhh whats that guy.... Vie or somthin...

worth a shot anyway...  That's how I do shredding..... when I'm not doing it like a Clinton whitehouse with documents.... 


man I need a beer or something....

@rain... Indeed. The nice thing is that the DAW doubles as an awesome gaming platform (in fact I think us DAW freaks need to thank the gamer community for keeping the desktop hardware advancing and affordable). Currently in the middle of a CoD session.

Something calming and therapeutic about blasting away at virtual fascists.

@guitarhacker... I hear ya but fast and slippery has been my playing style for a long time so it's actually easier to get things done at full speed for me. I do occasionally just stop and work on tidbits without playback but then I just get confused without the backing track.

I was reading an interview today and the guitarist said he like to start his lead
on the last note of the vocalist.
Don't know why I'm posting this because I don't even know if you're singing or have
a vocalist. If not you could just scream and start the lead off that for inspiration...?
I use to make my guitar laugh....

I tend to stick to short and sweet solos, because my problem is playing the damn thing without making a mistake. Stick me in front of a Bach fugue with no audience and I can get through to the end without a single glitch....but put me in front of an audience, or hit "record," and this annoying little voice starts saying "you're going to screw up any minute now....any minute now." And usually I do, like a bar before the end. 

As for composing guitar solos, I whistle them first nowadays. I've gotten to be a pretty good whistler and my philosophy is, if I can't whistle it, it's not worth playing. 

That's the disadvantage of being a one man band + engineer + producer. You lose the perspective at some point.

 
Exactly.