In the interim, many things have entered to distract me from the music. Mostly Motorcycles. However, there have also been changes underway to improve the writing and recording facility affectionately known as the Garbage Dump. I started to really notice the noise and lack of resolution in my earlier recordings. This really wasn't a problem in that the whole idea was to write music so that it could be played. The quality of the recordings took a back seat as the primary function of the recording gear was to act as a scratch pad for the songs we were writing.
For me this has been very effective as my attention span is limited. Also, things happen spontaneously that would likely get lost otherwise. More than once I have listened to something and said "wow, did I really play that" just being in the moment and letting the music take its own form.
Still, as I listened to the tunes and knowing the amount of time I was spending assembling these works I felt like it was a waste not to upgrade at least my soundcard and capture devices.
This is hard to do while spending no money. Fact is, good soundcards are relatively cheap and it would be stupid not to upgrade, so I did. It was less than $100.00.
Now, with new software and deeper mixer controls the learning starts again. The benefits, I believe, will be well worth it though.