So, tomorrow, when Day 5 takes place, I'm going to challenge myself to complete that day's challenge. On time!!

That was written three days ago. So we can see how well that little challenge of mine went. I can make the usual excuses (work, chores around the house) and the not-so-usual excuses (holiday shopping, holiday parties), which are all true. But I could have found a half-hour here and there to complete - or at least work on - these challenges.

To that end, this morning, while still in my pajamas, I sat down with my coffee in hand, to work on the next challenge. I started working on a solo instrument, got a lick down, and then brought in the rest of the tracks to listen. And... something was off. Investigating what the discordance might be, I realized I'd recorded my lead in a different key. Whoops! Easy enough to fix. Then I took another listen, and while it was better, something was still off.

Turns out I had not one, but two other tracks in the wrong key. What the heck! So I fixed that up, made sure everything was in the right key, listened to my track and... wait. Why is the second note on my pluck bass not playing on the beat? And same with some other notes down the line?

After about 20 minutes or more, I finally realized I had STFU sitting on the Bass Group, which was ducking the pluck enough that it was very noticeable. Once that was removed and placed on the individual Glide Bass and Sub Bass tracks, everything sounded better!

Or did it? Everything sounded like it worked together, but now I didn't like my piano chords. Or my synth lead. Or... well, much of anything at all.

OK, well...

Shit.

At this point, I'd been working on all this for just over an hour. The wife and I had plans, so I went downstairs to get ready for the day. We were going to breakfast, and then a cute little town about 45 minutes away to do some holiday shopping. I told her I wanted to get moving, as I wanted to get back to my challenge (I've been telling her all about this, so she's aware of what I was referring to).

The day itself is cold and gloomy, with rain coming and going. And after breakfast, while we were sitting in the car, we decided we'd rather just stay home. The wife had some things she wanted to do, and, well, I wanted to get back to music.

Once I listened to the tracks again, I realized that I liked the bass line, and the percussion was OK. So I fixed up the pads and the pluck synth to be more inline with the bass. I removed one of the instruments and I think I'm slowly getting back on track. Originally this piece was in a minor key, and the notes I'd come up with worked within that minor key. Once I reworked the key signature, it was in a major key (B-flat major to be specific), but the old notes now didn't sound like the "correct" notes. So those were reconstructed and now the notes along with the rhythms are more upbeat and peppy, and much more keeping in step with the major key.

And now on to Day 6, which in reality, will be a continuation of Day 5. We're doing vocals now. And I don't sing. So thank goodness for the Liina-recommended Emvoice Virtual Singer. And if that doesn't work, I can maybe try to find something within Loopcloud for my vocal needs.