It’s one of the most ambitious undertakings in recent drumming history. Ten years in the making, and with over a dozen of the world’s most acclaimed drummers participating, John Wackerman has completed Drum Duets Vol. 1 — a thunderous-yet-melodic drum/percussion CD.

An accomplished drummer with a first-class list of credits, John assembled a Who’s Who list of collaborators for the project: Steve Gadd, Peter Erskine, Steve Smith, Josh Freese, Adrian Young, Clayton Cameron, Ricky Lawson, Ron Tutt, Gary Novak, Alex Acuna, John Ferraro, Marc Atkinson, and his own famous drumming relatives Chad, Brooks, and Chuck Wackerman.

“I’ve pretty much always listened to music from a drummer’s standpoint,” says Wackerman, “so this project was an attempt to take the other musicians out of the picture but still make it musical.” While acoustic drums played a central role, Roland’s award-winning TD-20S V-Drums® were prominently featured on the CD as well, as you’re about to read.

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What inspired the Drum Duets project?

I’ve had the idea for a long time, well over ten years. Then, two years ago, I finally decided to make it a priority and try to get it done — to see if I could get people interested in doing it. When you have a creative dream like this, it’s kind of hard to explain to people what it is, so early on, people thought I was pretty crazy. They couldn’t really grasp what I was trying to do, but this was a project that I was committed to doing no matter what.

My original approach was to do duets based on two drumsets, and to make compositions that would not just be solos but would actually have song structures. So it wasn’t just two guys soloing forever. We actually had song sections, and then on top of that I wanted to orchestrate the songs with drums — meaning that the bass lines would be done with low toms and bass drums, melodies would be doubled up with toms, etc.

How were you able to assemble such an impressive roster of artists?

It was tough [laughs]. I mean, it just kind of escalated. Early on I got my brothers involved, of course, then Ricky Lawson came onboard, then Clayton Cameron and Alex Acuna. And then we got Steve Gadd — credit to my wife for setting that one up. She did a lot of the groundwork with scheduling and so forth, so she was invaluable. Once Gadd was on the project, then the doors kinda flew wide open.

My goal was to get a good palette of drummers on the project. I didn’t want it to just be jazz guys or rock guys or fusion guys. I like playing different kinds of music, and it makes it more interesting to listen to an album of drummers from a variety of genres.

When did electronic drums come into the picture?

I definitely conceived of using electronics early on in the process. I didn’t want it to just be two drumset guys playing. I mean, there are a lot of great people who have done that, but I wanted it to be orchestrated and song based, and the best way to do that was through electronics and blending them with the acoustics. I thought it would make it a little more interesting and different. Like Gadd’s piece, “Manic Depression” … the tuned timpani from the V-Drums really draws you in, and the big toms are a combination of three or four V-Drum sounds with some acoustic toms on top.

What was it about V-Drums that made you choose them for this project?

I have friends that have V-Drums, and I’ve done sessions with V-Drums before, so I was pretty familiar with them. I like the ease of use, and I like the sounds. The cool thing about V-Drums is the flexibility. I could go from RotoToms to a maple set to a variety of other sounds so quickly. It offered a palette that was invaluable … I could just pull up any sound I wanted, tweak it, use the effects or not, and then combine it into the piece quickly.

Did you record your V-Drum tracks as audio, MIDI data, or both?

Strictly as audio.... I wanted to play everything. If you listen to the tracks, nothing is quantized. Everything was played live. I like electronic music, but for this, I wanted to keep the feel more human.

Of the songs on the album, which feature the V-Drums the most?

Every piece has V-Drums, but as far as standing out, I’d say “Manic Depression” is a good one. All of the melodies and background percussion is V-Drums. On the Peter Erskine tune, you can hear V-Drums throughout that piece as well. Most of it is tuned RotoTom-type sounds from the V-Drum kit. Ron Tutt’s piece, “Insane Train,” is heavy on V-Drums, the melody toms.

How were the V-Drum tracks recorded — as multi-channel splits or a submixed stereo pair?

It depends. There was so much going on. Some of it was stereo stuff, some of it was even mono. Like the big toms on “Manic Depression” … I actually spread those in mono sets across the stereo spectrum. So the left side would be, for example, hex drums. At 10 o’clock, I’d have a maple set combined. At 2 o’clock I’d have a ’90s power set. And then all the way over at the right I’d have congas. It gave the sound a nice spread.

Will you be performing any of these pieces live? If so, would you use V-Drums as part of the performance, or play along with them via recorded tracks?

It depends. If it turns into a concert thing, I’d definitely want to use V-Drums as part of the performance. The first clinic thing that DW Drums is sending us out on will be myself and my brothers Chad and Brooks.

Final thoughts about using V-Drums on this project?

From a compositional and practical standpoint, the V-Drums were great. I mean, it would have taken an additional three or four months to do this it if I had to change out all the instruments and mic everything up separately. It was amazing how convenient the V-Drums were, how easy they were to use, and natural everything sounded.

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To purchase a copy of Drum Duets Volume 1, look for it in your local music store or drum shop. More info can be found at dwdrums.com, the distributor. For current news and tour dates, bookmark John’s website at johnwackerman.com.