So, I have been thinking about possibly hitting a real studio to do my album. I am worried that it will take forever if I keep at it on my own. There are obstacles -- one is money, but my parents would like to invest in it, so that might not be so big an issue.

The biggest logistical challenge is that my bass player is in Nashville, and if I were to go do it for real, I would want him there. The thought of buying him a plane ticket doesn't bother me, but now we are getting pretty serious :)

I would have to pay my drummer to come back again, and gah - I don't know - it would just be extreme. But, it would be done so much faster, and I'm sure the quality would be superior to what I'm doing on my own.

I am thinking I can wait until my second album to self-produce -- maybe I will have more time (and better equipment) then.

At the end of the day, the album isn't an expression of my mad pro tools skillz, just my music, so I'm not heart broken if I don't engineer - in some ways it will make my performances better to only have to think about the music and let someone else concentrate on the technical stuff.

What do people think? Am I giving up to easily? Is self-producing worth enough to have the album take another year and a half to be completed?