Dirk Schlächter has been a member of Gamma Ray since 1990 and, after Kai Hansen, the longest-serving in the band. Born in 1965, he joined as a guitarist and moved to bass in 1997, when Henjo Richter's arrival reorganised the line-up — a change of instrument he made without leaving his place. His most decisive role, though, is not on stage. Schlächter is also a sound engineer and producer, responsible for recording and mixing a large part of the group's catalogue, work done in the band's own studio. That gives Gamma Ray something rare in the genre: full control over its own sound, with no outside producer deciding how the records come out. The recognisable texture of the classic phase — dense layered guitars, wide choirs, dry drums — is as much a studio decision as a compositional one, and it passes through him. As a bassist he holds the supporting function in a repertoire where two harmonised guitars dominate the foreground, foundation work that rarely draws attention and is the condition for the rest to work. He is on the whole discography from Sigh No More (1991) onward, crossing the band's three line-ups to the present one.
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