Vicente- thank you for the comment. I always enjoy your guitar pieces.
Tom-Thank you. This was sort of outside my typical genre so glad it turned out.
Pat-Thanks. I don't know if my mixing technique is right or not, but here's how I do my mixes. First I start with something I know is going to sound great, my Superior Drum track and Trillian Bass lines. (I make sure that these parts combined to not exceed -6db at their peaks and average about -9db). Then I mix everything else around it making sure all the other pieces fit with the bass and drums, and sound as good, and as big. If there are vocals, I will do vocals right after getting the bass and drums right, if it is a guitar piece I will do guitar after the bass/drums and then fill in everything else. Seems to work ok. Of course, I have read some mixing books and learned a lot from this forum, but, I find that if I don't start with a really good baseline, my mixes don't work so well...
James-Thx. There were a couple cut-and-paste jobs in the heavy solo section, I think I broke it into 3 sections. I am glad to hear that you are using a similar technique with recording guitar. Your guitars always sounds great in your mixes. I wasn't sure if I was doing something wrong with the FX bin insert technique because the parts always sounded so thin and weak and I wasted a ton of time trying to work it out. Finally stumbled across the direct recoding process after beating my head against the wall.
Mark-Appreciate your comments. The tone took a little tweaking but is basically a canned Guitar Rig sound with a few minor enhancements. I started with the finger-picking a while ago trying to learn a few Mark Knopfler songs. I find it opens a lot of options. I hope to learn a few Jerry Reed songs, like Jerry's Breakdown, to take finger picking to the next level. Thx again.