Less And Less Distortion.. Options

[Ben Higgins]

Hey Guys, I've noticed over the years that my tastes towards distortion have changed a lot. I'm sure a lot of us were the same in that we used to want as much distortion as possible.. total saturation !! After a while, it soon gets old when you realise that it's not necessarily appropriate to a lot of the things we're playing (unless we're playing along to Ride The Lightning or something !)

But what I really mean is in the realm of recording. I've found myself paring away any excess that I don't need. Trimming the fat. That goes for the guitar sound too and I find that a guitar with less gain sits in the mix better and it also relate to the percussive elements much more clearly.. if you write stuff that uses Megadeth type guitar / rack tom interplay then I think the muscle of the rhythm section is allowed to provide a lot of the heaviness instead of relying on super distorted guitar.

I think that's why albums like Killing is my Business and Peace Sells.. or Powerslave by Maiden can sound so tight, chunky and.. yes, heavy. Everything sounds as tight as a drum and focused like a hammer rather than flabby and fizzy like a big pizza !

I just wondered if anyone else finds themselves using less and less of something ?

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This post has been edited by Ben Higgins: Aug 24 2012, 09:26 AM