Just got home from Walter's house, where Tony and I were given the opportunity to listen to what's been recorded so far for Hexlust's first album (meaning all drums, bass, and rhythm guitars). After giving five of the songs a listen, on quality speakers instead of the grainy floor monitors in the studio space, it pleases me to report to you folks that so far I am quite the happy camper!
See, our true purpose was to troubleshoot the tracks to see if there were any horrifying mistakes that may have escaped us up to this point. From what we listened to tonight there are just a few sloppy hammer-ons or painful dead notes from the guitars, so Tony and JT will both have a little extra rhythm work to do when they go in for the leads next week. Granted, we know that little mistakes add "character" to a recording, give it that "human element" and whatnot, and we accounted for that; what we were searching for tonight were the extra bad flubs that could reach out and slap us in the face after it's too late to do anything about it.
As for the recording of the rhythm tracks themselves, I was present for one day of recording for each guitarist. Tony's was an inspiring but rather frustrating day, his last of maybe three sessions. At one point he was having trouble with a riff where, when recording drums, I had suddenly and inexplicably slowed down (oops), which threw his concentration off and badly affected his playing. Walter tried omitting my drums, then tried phasing out Tarzan's bass, even tried telling Tony to just continue playing in spite of what he was hearing, all to no avail.
Finally, it was suggested that Tony simplify his picking style for that section, which did the trick stupendously. He was now able to just go with the flow, and the best part was that him matching my sudden slow-down made it sound deliberate and even gave the whole thing a kind of eerie feel. It's truly amazing what magic can happen when creativity is applied to a mistake!
As for the J-Tizzle, the one day I was there turned out to be the only day that mattered. How so? Because this fool somehow pumped out all his rhythm tracks in one seven-hour session! Were we letting him get away with first takes and sloppy runs? Hells to the no, JT was very good about policing himself but we also let him know when we spotted something he needed to do over again. It got a little tense in some places, and at one point he even asked that Tony and I leave on account of how scrutinizing we were. He got it done, though, and so far it all sounds great.
I also just want to say real quick that I love the sound of two different guitars from two different players. It may not be as perfect as the time-honored method of having one player track all the rhythms, but what matters is that the parts mesh well and they get the point of the song across. As long as that goal is attained, then it's a lot of fun listening in for the little stylistic ticks and foibles that distinguish each contributor. Some good examples of this are Cannibal Corpse's first two albums, before it was decided that Jack Owen would record all the rhythms for "Tomb of the Mutilated." I think Megadeth's early albums are the same way, though I have no proof of this and am surprised those dudes got anything done considering how constantly blitzed they were.
