Pro Tools does indeed have a drum replacement tool. In fact it has a few. One of the first was called "tab to transient" where a copy of a drum sound is stored on the clipboard and the tab key is used to find the leading edge of the of the drum hit transient and when located the copied drum sound is pasted at that spot. Tedious by anyone's definition. Easier still is a small add on offered by the designers for Pro Tools called "SoundReplacer" which essentially performs an automated version the same thing I formerly described. There are more "built in" tools for sound replacement. The number of "tools" available to accomplish the task of attempting to bring life to an otherwise lifeless performance is only limited to the imagination, ingenuity and desperation of the Pro Tools operator.

For what it is worth. Pro Tools was indeed used at various times on Axl's folly along with many Pro Tools operators (many of whom made most if not all their income managing the Pro Tools work associated with this project). And contrary to what some might suggest, Pro Tools is by far and away the most widely used Digital Audio Workstation technology used in professional music production for all media, (music, films, television). It is not even close.

I'd say the author's descriptions of the production techniques used for ChDem is pretty spot on.

Something tells me the author has spent a bit of time on some serious "turd polishing" of his own.

I have lived through the technological revolution in music production. I still have all the skills needed to do a project without the aid of anything invented after 1980. I am also considered a Pro Tools Ninja by many of my young Producer/Engineer colleagues. That said, I thank you for your description of the mind numbing and soul destroying process of attempting to use Pro Tools as a means of giving credibility to something that would otherwise be un-listenable. I take it from your article, Axl's album proves once and for all the futility of that pursuit. I have cut some selections from your article and will give them to a few folks I feel really need to see their work described for what it is. Thanks for that.

As someone with a multi platinum award for "Appetite" hanging in his office, I can say without reservation that Axl's new album is guaranteed to be a waste of time. GnR's contribution to pop culture has always been wildly overstated, and Axl has always been given WAY more credit than his due.

Unfortunately, Kayne West is NOT this generation's Lennon-McCartney, I wish he were. We will have to wait a bit longer for that, I'm afraid. But I give him credit for trying. At least he and his collaborators are working with the tools to create something as opposed to using the tools in an attempt to fool the listener into believing they have created something.

Just a few weeks ago, I would have seriously considered a response to this article a sure way to come under increased government scrutiny and surveillance. I remember feeling exactly the same way in 1968 while attending anti war planning meetings in Los Angeles.

One thing William Ayers described in this interview is the absolute pain, desperation and terror many of us felt in 1968 as the war expanded and two of our nation’s most important voices were silenced by assassination. A lot of that pain and grief has faded over the years, but anytime it gets mentioned I remember the feeling of helplessness and rage mixed with a strong dose of, “hope I die before I get old”; a dangerous combination.

Although I refused to give voice to it, I know a lot of folks that were reliving some of that panic as this election cycle started to give legs to the dream of Barack Obama’s election.

Extreme pain, desperation, depression and moral outrage can cause people to justify a lot of things. 9/11 is one example where killing thousands of innocent people in a far away land finds justification in the warped and twisted minds of Islamic extremists. Another is the Weather Underground where citizens target institutions of their own government taking as much care as their morally challenged minds can muster to avoid injury to their fellow citizens as a protest against the mass killing of innocent people in a far away land. There is a difference.

Aside from whatever his personal regrets are, in my book, William Ayers has nothing to apologize for.

From the beginning this was my biggest fear about a Bush presidency, but his actual performance proved my initial fears had misunderestimated him. U.S. presidents have executive authority to do very real and permanent damage to the environment. Many executive orders can be undone by a future administration by a simple stroke of the pen, but those that result in the clearing, mining, drilling of sensitive lands, opening previously protected areas to development and road construction take generations, if ever, to repair. Perhaps the single worst case of Bush’s environmental crimes is the repeal of the executive branch’s authority to designate federally protected land. While Bush and Cheney worked tirelessly to expand executive power to include the ability to authorize the systematic dismantling of basic civil liberties and to give the president powers to authorize unimaginable horrors against human beings they, with a wink and a nod to all things anti-environment, surrendered the executive branch right to designate federally protected lands. No longer can a president, declare and designate a National Park by executive order, something every president since Teddy Roosevelt has enjoyed if not exercised. The story of how and why the Bush administration did this is a study in a cynical use of power and the anti environment stance the Bush administration has taken from his first day in office. One of his legacies will surely be his environmental record which is a tragedy and national disgrace.