Hey Chef,
I listened to this last night and again today...the drums add so much energy to this (which isn't surprising I guess, as that is what drums do...), even moreso than I expected when I first heard the percussion-free version.
On my set-up the cymbals are overly loud and the kick drum sounds kind of muffled or like it is woofing (wtf?) rather than thumping if that helps describe it at all.
I just saw that you got a drum set - congratulations! That must be awesome. I still hope to get some kind of acoustic drum thing going some time...
Great job collaborating on this so far guys...still needs vocals or a lot more soloing or something...