The Trials and Tribulations of Cross-Country Recording

I got this neat recording software recently and I've been recording a couple of songs. It's tricky, though. I have to essentially record riffs and sequence them in a way that doesn't sound "choppy" and use a drum machine that can only do so much in order to record anything that could be considered a song. I can free record without limits, but that particular program requires me to create my own drum beats using the keyboard on the computer and that is ridiculously time consuming and difficult. So I use a program that uses pre-set drum tracks, but the drawback is I can only record a something for so many bars at a time. This also limits effects I can use because if an effect from one riff ends at a point where the next riff begins there is almost an audible click. So I've got to either use the same effect throughout the song or change the riff entirely to where the effect can fit. 

All of this requires some ingenuity and some self-sacrifice. I can't really record the songs (or the guitar parts for the songs... which is probably the more accurate way to put it) the way I feel they should be heard. 

But I am a step ahead of where I was before I'd gotten this software. 

I have this buddy who lives in California and he sends me tracks that I can record over. I have to use the same guitar settings he does or it'll sound like shit, but it's kind of cool to piece together a song from across the country like that. 

He's asked me if I am planning to go to California and actually play in his band that he's trying to form and this is something that is sort of difficult to answer and to contemplate. And certainly expensive for a minimum wage guy like me. 

It'd be something interesting, for sure. But... I'm not quite sure how viable this option is. I can think of nothing worse than moving to California while completely broke (I consider a thousand bucks almost completely broke in the grand scheme of things, don't you?), having this band idea not work out, and then being forced to work my way home. All the while being stuck in freakin' California, home of the Raiders, Chargers, and Niners. Also home to USC and a bunch of other crummy self-righteous college teams. As well as Korn and Limp Bizkit fans. 

I'd die. 

In the meantime, I'm recording stuff.