SPELLCASTER Studio Diary – Part 2

This is second part of studio diary dedicated to the recording of SPELLCASTER’s 2016 album. For part one, please click here.  Last time we checked in, we finished tracking and cleaning up the drum parts. Next on the list was to begin tracking the rhythm guitars. Let’s jump in!

SPELLCASTER Studio Day 4

Thursday, January 21st brought the first day of real guitar tracking. We started off by reviewing the drums to make sure we hadn’t missed anything – which is easy to do. Once we verified that everything was there, we tore down the drums and mics and rolled in our cabs.

Zack, it turned out, was very happy with how our scratch guitar tracks sounded, so it was decided that we would keep the same setup for tracking rhythm guitars. This pleased both Cory and I, as we really prefer to have the same sound live as we do on record. That being said, I was personally open to the idea of experimenting with the various amps around Sharkbite, and I couldn’t resist taking a Suhr SL-68 for a spin. It didn’t cut it for our sound, but that is definitely a fine sounding amp!

Cory was up first for tracking. He used his own EVH 5150 iii into a stock Marshall JCM 900 cabinet with 75 watt Celestions. Zack actually tracked him using two mics – one placed toward the center of the cone, the other just a bit off-axis. The center one sounded aggressive and mean, while the off-axis one was just a bit more smooth and refined. They both sounded killer, so I think Zack ended up blending the two mics for Cory’s parts. We also used just a bit of delay from Cory’s TC Electronic Flashback pedal – a trick I’ve used for years to thicken up my own rhythm parts. Everyone has told me I’m absolutely crazy for running a delay all the time, but here we were doing it in the studio. Oddly enough, I kind of didn’t want to do that for my tracks, but since Cory went first, I was somewhat obligated.

Since SPELLCASTER is a band that heavily uses the dual guitar sound – meaning we both play rhythm, lead, and counter-point melodies, and trade of a lot the same song – Zack decided we should track each song by trading off playing. So instead of Cory tracking rhythms for hours until he’s done, Cory would do a song, then I would come in and do my parts for the song, then I’d do a song, then Cory would come in and do his parts, and so on until the guitars were done. This took a lot of the guess work out of getting our parts synced, but also meant that we had absolutely no down time during the tracking process.

So there we were, tracking rhythm guitars bit by bit until it was time to go. I went back to the Vranizan’s and played more guitar before falling asleep.

SPELLCASTER Studio Day 5

Friday, January 22nd was dedicated to more rhythm guitar tracking. We hit the ground running on day 5, and really got into the nitty gritty of what we were doing. Cory and I both played guitar literally all day long. Day 4 started with us reviewing our work, setting up, and getting out feet wet, but day 5 was balls to the wall. Luckily we ended the day with most of our rhythm tracking done.

As we returned to the Vranimansion, we could smell the sweet, syrup-like stench of burning anti-freeze. This would come back to bite us in the ass in the morning.

SPELLCASTER Studio Day 6

We started Saturday, January 23rd off with a bang – almost as soon as we got on the highway headed to Oakland, our van overheated and lost all power. As luck would have it, we were very close to a highway shoulder, so we pulled over and let ol’ Bessy (as we like to call our van) cool off before hitting the road again. Unlucky for us, right as we pull onto the actual Bay Bridge part of the highway, we overheat and lose power again. This time there isn’t a shoulder. Cars and trucks are honking as they speed past us. Colin’s younger brother, Tristan, who had been coming with us to the studio to document everything, decided to hop out and get some footage and pictures. Crazy kids.

We were stopped for maybe about 10 minutes when one of SF’s finest police officers came to our aid. He stopped all east bound traffic, and physically pushed us with his heavy-duty bumper off the highway and onto Treasure Island. Our trailer hitch dented his bumper in the process, but he seemed only mildly bothered.

While on Treasure Island, I hopped out and got coffee and a pack of Pop-Tarts. Gabe and Colin got on the phone and made arrangements to get our van towed. Zack drove from Oakland and picked us up.  It was decided that Colin and Tyler would stay with the van while Cory, Gabe, Tristan and I would head to the studio.

After that short bit of fun, we started by reviewing rhythm guitar tracks and fixing or adding parts. Once we were done with that, we set up a massive Emperor cab connected to Gabe’s Ampeg and threw a mic on it. Gabe started tracking and, as is typical of bass players, banged all his parts out in half a day.

Zack later dropped us off at the Oakland BART station. Tristan showed us how to purchase tickets, and made sure we kept our street-smart wits about us. We rode back to the Vranimansion one step closer to having a new record.