From: Scott Peterson
Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2003 19:22:30 -0500

Brian,
I am a guitarist/songwriter/arranger/engineer/producer that spends a lot of my time creating music. Popular music needs drums and percussion and I have been using Acid and Live to do my drum tracks for years, because I needed that "real" feel and groove that loops played by real players offer over midi programming. I even put out an instrumental CD built upon high quality drum loops that I painstakingly arranged and mixed to sound like a real drummer¹s performance. It worked fine, the results were good. The drawback is that it often took me 8-10 hours to create and craft the parts for one song; time I could have spent writing, recording, and... well, creating.

But even after all that, even using the best loop collections on the market, there is compromise. The part you want, the one you hear, isn¹t there and you need to make do with what you have. Some of the loop collections I own cost upwards of $600 each for a set. I have well in excess of $3500 just in loop collections In the end the problem is that you are literally stuck with what you have; even with clever edits you still have a grafted part that often falls short of the Œmagic" take.

I know and have worked with extremely talented drummers. More than a few. But to take them into a studio to work on my material -even if they work for free - I need to pay for the studio and hope the engineer has the sounds dialed in. Every drummer has their own thing, their own kit and not every studio sounds killer.

Enter Brian McRae. I saw his ad in the back of Electronic Musician and checked out his site; one of the projects he worked on was somewhat similar to my own taste in music and I listened and *liked* what I heard. Inspiring drum parts, that fit the song, with fills and the flair that only a real drummer can add to a track. Most intriguing was a section of clips that played the original demo and then Brian¹s drum part. Taste, groove, chops, tone and attitude - all the things you would want to have in a drummer for your material. Except, unlike some drummers I know, he doesn¹t raid your fridge and drink all your beer.

Brian offers ideas, takes direction and delivers the *magic* take every time. Brian has the ear, the gear and the room. The sounds he gets are fantastic; with the different kits he has and the styles he is fluent in his finished tracks are never anything but excellent.

I am blown away and very excited by the results. It is exhilarating to create music and craft songs without the mantle of doing the drums with loops; or hunting for drummers and booking studio time. Hours that used to spent getting the loops to fit my songs are now hours of my crafting songs with the secure and happy feeling that Brian will nail what I hope to hear - or exceed them - on my tracks. The results speak for themselves.

Truly top notch and killer drum parts, sounds and attitude. Brian is fun to work with. He turns material around as fast as you need. The price he charges is exceptionally affordable; it is a tremendous value for the money spent. I have my time to create, record and do my thing.

And I still have my beer in the fridge.