Music: "Crack Puppies" is a rock instrumental. Michael played the guitars and bass and handled the production, engineering and mixing chores. The monstrous drums were performed by Jeff Bowders.

Recording: Michael used a combination of home studio and world-class facility to put together this blistering tune. The basic tracks were laid down along with a click track on Michael's Pro Tools LE rig at his home studio. From there the scene shifted to the Musician's Institute Tommy Tedesco Studio, where the drums were tracked to Pro Tools HD through an SSL 4000G+. These files were then brought back to Michael's home where additional overdubs and mixing were done on the LE system.

The result is a superior recording. The drums have a world-class feel, the guitars are nicely recorded with rich tones. The bass and kick stay "married" throughout the track. The whole work has a sense of space and openness that we rarely find in a recording with this much low/mid-range information.

The fact that Michael was able to blend his home-recorded tracks seamlessly with his high-rent drums is a testament to his skill. Through the years, we have advocated the use of as many resources as possible to achieve the best results, whether it be renting gear, professional mastering, or hiring skilled players/producers. Michael certainly followed this advice (knowingly or not) when he decided to track his drums at the Musician's Institute. The results speak for themselves.

Suggestions: We have no suggestions for Michael. He seems to be doing quite well, thank you! We would however suggest to the rest of our loyal readers that they follow Michael's example and not limit themselves as recordists. It is perfectly viable to use commercial facilities to augment the home/project studio for "spot" work, if one has the resources to do so and does the right prep work beforehand.

Summary: One of the best we have heard in this genre.