Thanks guys. 
 
I always have the worst complexes when it comes to my playing - actually, I practically gave up playing altogether for almost 10 years, and focused on writing, as I do see myself more like a songwriter. 
 
It's also intimidating at times when you're surrounded by extremely talented and skilled people. A lot of the friends I've met through my wife just assumed that I was in the same league as them, and it's kind of lame to have to try and set things straight, you know. 
 
But I've been getting back to it, trying to improve a bit. I still feel the most comfortable just playing the blues but I'm learning to try different languages, and generally, just to let go and be myself. 
 
I'm 42, I can't really hold back from things much longer, and I'll never be Yngwie or Danzi. So I've started putting myself out a bit, if only to break that assumption my entourage has that I must be on the same type of level as my wife.
 
Here's a little 40 seconds snippet I did for fun last night - just me rehearsing and warming up to a back up track I made. To me it's just derivative of basic blues, only, w/ a lot of gain.
 

Wow, just think of how good you could be if you played the guitar with your correct hand! 
 

craigb
Wow, just think of how good you could be if you played the guitar with your correct hand! 
 

:P
 
I'm thinking that the big Marshall and the big Gibson Les Paul (which has just been okay-ed by my wife) should put some wind in my sail. Not that the Epiphone is bad, mind you. But some hotter, clearer pick ups would be nice, and playing through a POD is okay, but it doesn't give you that push that you get from a tube amp. 
 
 

Rain

Beepster
Oh don't get me wrong. Sounds brilliant, Rain and the bass is fine as is. With stuff that sounds so together like this my ear tends to drift toward minutia. I even do it with full production releases (even of my favorite albums/mixes). Ask Baps. I probably drove him nuts on that last CHC thing we did. lulz
 
Too bad I don't actually know what heck I'm doing. I might actually get my own mixes sounding proper otherwise.
 
;-)

I have tons of crappy mixes on my HD.
 
 
Mixing traditional type of music (drums, bass, guitars, keys and such) is the hardest thing for me - no matter what Dave Pensado says. From rock and roll to metal, it's always a big challenge to get something to sound even just half-decent.
 
But sometimes, a thingie like this just puts itself together, and kind of works because it's just so primitive, in a early 60's sort of way. When I finished this one, I was actually thinking of the first couple of Beatles records. Nothing fancy, you just record the sound you want, balance them a bit and push everything through the buss, hoping for the best. There's a sort of randomness in what stands out at what time, and which instrument cast shadows at a certain time over the rest of them, which I sometimes like.
 
Otherwise, my own weird stuff is just so out there, written with such very specific sounds that it has to work. The mix is in the actual arrangement. 
 
 

That's the issue I think. Today with so many choices, decisions about a sound is left too long before becoming defined, also with regard to arrangement, it's so easy to cut, move and paste after recording that not enough decision making is made before hand. Then once it in the box we fiddle and diddle.

If we concentrate on arrangement and sound first we can get a lot more into the box that doesn't need to fixed or edited in the mix.

 
There is a lot of to be said for basic presentation - like this one Rain.  Many times we squeeze the life out of stuff trying to make it perfect.
 
We did a blues song but the guitarist didn't want a click track.  I added 4 bars of drum machine as a skeleton afterwards for the 2 guitars and bass and vocals the thing was all over the place - the tempo slide back and forth.  Different elements sounded either behind or in front of the drums.  I finally dropped them out and voilà, the tracks came together and it sounds great and even most musicians can't tell the tempo is so close and natural.  Live stuff slides around, but that is anathema to the DAW generation.
 
Just because it looks wrong and hits a 32th beat late going into the chorus doesn't mean it is wrong.  Not everything needs to sound like precious pop, esp. surf etc.
 
@