Drumming at the Edge of Madness ...

... to playfully misquote a real drummer, Mickey Hart. I did it: 60 individual drum tracks in total were laboriously recorded, and in the process I gained a new-found respect for those pound the skins simultaneously, in perfect time, with style and flair to boot. You won't hear any drummer jokes coming from this corner.

Oddly enough, after meticulous time-correcting, mixing and panning, my tracks do sound like a real drummer playing a full kit. Not a great one, mind, but he's solid in a no-frills, meat-and-potatoes way and might on occasion impress with an offbeat cymbal or nifty little fill. In one song, I pasted a chorus in the wrong place and accidentally wound up with bizarre little snare accent I decided to keep. Another tune somehow acquired a mid-'70s L.A. feel, sounding like a Jackson Browne or Carole King outtake. Move over, Russ Kunkel!

Next comes adding reverb to the new drum tracks. Oh, and remixing the eight songs I'd previously considered done. Ah, well. But this month of intensive work that nearly drove me mad was worth it. My drums, and as a result my songs, sound a whole lot better now.