JW,

Tis always a great pleasure to hear from you! Glad it works for you, overall.

The reason you don't hear a searing guitar is that my right hand was inmjured several months ago and is not healing well at all. I have significant troubke trying to grip a pick...or anything small. I tore the abductor muscle in my right thumb...that's under the fatty tissue on the palm side of the hand. I also sprained the ligamet that goes to the thumb...can't remember the name of that one. Also, it appears I have damaged the nerve as well. The therapist told me it's going to be a long recovery because I damaged the three most important components that figure in the use of my thumb. I can do slow lead guitar work and some of the faster work if it is not for a prolonged time. After 10 -12 seconds, I lose my grip on the pick when I'm doing the fast lead work. On the slowewr work, I use my fingers rather than a pick, so no problem there.

And yeah, a lot of my tracks have that "midi sound" to them. it's not truly midi, it's just the tracks that are proprietary and indigenious to my software. My software doesn't typically accept non-proprietary loops. I can use some VST plug-ins with Audacity. Those are the only non-proprietary I can use, other than live input.

To be honest, I had never thought of using live, complimentary percussions, such as the clave you mentioned. That's a great idea! I'll start working on that! Thanks! I do use the "humanize" effect on my non-soundtrack pieces.

Thanks for the kind words and great ideas for me to work on. As I mentioned to you previously, I have picked up something worthwhile from every review you have offered on my musical posts. Thanks a bunch!

Alan