Ilias (Recording both toasters & hi-gain)

[tamere]

Hi,

I'm a longtime member & lurker of this forum, I have just released my 2nd album ALL THE WAY UP:

http://itunes.com/ilias
http://loudr.fm/release/all-the-way-up/pfEr8
http://ilias.bandcamp.com

I wanted to share it with you all since I think most will find interesting sas it fuels the never ending fun debate of toasters vs hi-gains: I USED BOTH. During the recording sessions, I started working with hi-gains and towards the middle switched to toasters exclusively, using the same guitar, a 2008 360/12:

-'SHE'S SOMEONE ELSE'S PROBLEM NOW' is ALL high-gains with a Gretsch overdubbing certain lines.
-'MY GIRL WITH BLUE EYES'' is ALL toasters.

As you can hear both songs jangle quite a bit, I'd say the toasters sound smoother & softer but the hi-gains sound rougher, more aggressive/edgy which is not a bad thing at all depending on the material.

The interesting part is that I also recorded a purely ambient piece with the toasters as well, something completely left-field, called 'JET GLOW'. For that particular case, the toasters provided a degree of expression, nuance, harmonics, mystery & quality that I never expected in my Rickenbacker.

My conclusion? Use both, if you can, if I was going to record an edgy, maybe rockier track, I would go for high-gains. If I was going for something softer, rounder, poppier, or exposed in a mix, definitely toasters.