zzzzzzzzzzzzz...*

Post 29 of 90.

Up too late again.

I spent several hours getting my ProTools software and plugins authorized. Amplitube took forever because I had a demo version already on my hard drive that I had forgotten about, so naturally none of the codes were working. Once I figured this out, I got the correct version loaded. What an amazing sound! I think I'm going to upgrade to the full version, though. The LE version actually has fewer features and options than the old version that was hanging around on my hard drive. There's also going to be a special Hendrix edition, so it would be nice to pick that up, too, maybe along with a Native Instruments rig.

It kind of surprised me to discover that an audio track I'm using the Amplitube with doesn't automatically print the guitar sound to the track. If I take the plug-in out, you get the weedy little plinky sound that comes straight of the pickups. Weird. But nice, too, because you can re-amp and try different sounds later on. Bad in the sense that each plug-in is taking up processer power and you have to print your tone to another track as a separate time-consuming step if you want to free up processer space for something else, and sometimes it's useful to go ahead and commit to a tone from the start. Maybe there's a way I haven't discovered yet to go ahead and print a sound as you lay down a track.

I think I'll need to get some kind of a different mastering suite, though. Maxim is bare bones. I can get the levels I want, but without discrete bands of compression, it's exaggerating prominent harmonics to a point that is unpleasant. I think I can probably put an eq in line before Maxim to roll back trouble spots, but I think some extra power is in order. In some ways, I liked the mastered sound I got with my Roland recorder better, except that system had no headroom to work with and it was hard to tell exactly where your peaks were.

Last night, I also totally rearranged the studio. In the process, I took the opportunity to sweep areas of the carpet that had been inaccessible for almost three years.

In practicing guitar lately, I've suddenly noticed notice my middle finger and the habitual tensions it contains. In the context of the gap that tends to open up between the first and second finger (which supposedly is something to be avoided), I've realized the middle finger plays a role in that.

I may also need to get in the gym and beef up my right forearm. I'm so skinny that I wind up breaking the elbow-thru-wrist-thru-hand line a bit in order to clear the bridge. This wasn't a problem with my old Ovation since I had the luthier take the bridge off and sand it down, but the bridge on my new one is a lot fatter. If I had some more meat on my arm, the extra elevation versus the soundboard would bring things back into alignment.

Some of it may also be Strat induced. I've found I'm forced to bend the wrist a bit when playing that instrument, and there's no wood there to support the elbow, so the forearm rests against the top of the guitar. I love the sound, but that guitar is clearly not designed for this technique.

During a big right hand session on my Level 2, Curt noticed the bend from several feet away and reached out to move my hand and forearm back into alignment. This was on my old Ovation, too, where it was competely unnecessary, so I had developed a habit on the Strat that was carrying over.