Thanks, Gentlemen!
Johnny, I'd love to do more tunes based on your fabulous lyrics!
Gary: Actually the
sound of the drums is
really great IMO. Real drums (recorded in a home studio) can never
sound half as good,
but: MIDI drums can
never sound
real in terms of performance. No way - even the most professionally recorded/programmed MIDI drums will always sound like MIDI, but it's really just the performance, not the sound
The performance is quite ok for a pop/rock song, but it's just not real. A human drummer would play different patterns and make mistakes that provide a more organic feel which would do the song good. It's not really essential for the song to work, but it would take it to the next level.
As for that synth sound/FX you mentioned: That's actually an essential part of the song. It was designed that way, and I love it.
Matter of taste, obviously, but I'm afraid you'd have to pay me a billion dollars to mute it!
I know, producers can be stubborn.