the Best Sounding Digital Distortion

ashcat_lt · Post by **ashcat_lt** » Tue Jan 16, 2007 9:46 pm

This is a weird thing for a first post, I guess. I thought it might be fun to see if anybody has any serious answers to the question, though.

The topic is digital distortion of the "All bits on" type, and which software produces the best, or most useful sound in this state.

I've used this technique a few times. Mostly in noise projects, but I can think of several other applications. The way I've done it successfully in the past (that is, when I liked what I heard) I was using SoundForge and would destructively increase the volume of the wave, over and over again if necessary till it had clipped off half or more of the wave form. "Carefully" used and creatively treated, this can be great.

SoundForge's output would end up sounding almost like you would expect - a REALLY NASTY distortion, but somewhat similar to a guitar pedal without the tone shaping.

When I did this in Opcode Vision (RIP, my favorite DAW ever) the sound came out really weird (you can download tooloud.mp3 to find out what I mean by really weird, I think that was a guitar)

I have had less happy results come out of pumping the level in a DAW mixer to the point that it clips.

Has anybody out there had any reason to come up with an opinion, or some tips or tricks, on this issue.

effector · Post by **effector** » Tue Jan 16, 2007 11:23 pm

i like using turbosynth for weird, gross digital distortion. anything you feed it comes out disgusting and unbearable, like botched bathtub lsd.....which is probably why trent reznor is supposed to have been a pretty big fan

joel hamilton · Post by **joel hamilton** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 6:25 am

I am way into this kind of thing. I LOVE the "soft clip" function on certain converters. It is by no means "soft." I also have loved the sound of using a DAT machine as an interfece just to really, really destroy the inputs. The support circuitry in some of those machines really sounds great (killed) when being hit hard. I also like the sound of re-applying a basic gain plug offline. Process the gain change at "all the way up" like 10 times. Insane things emerge in the sound. I am using protools, btw... I also love the sound of time stretched insanity like this. The aliasing REALLY starts to get crazy if you gain, then stretch, then gain.... Starts to sound like a buffer overrun coupled with all out doomsday distortion. I have played guitar into a dat machine turned all the way up for distortion... I like the combinatiopn of input distortion and "way over gained up" sounds.

The sound of something giving up....

Kitana_One · Post by **Kitana_One** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 7:28 am

I'm a huge fan of Izotope "Trash".

It's by far the most esoteric and musical sounding distortion I've ever used. You can get tones and harmonics out of it that i've never been able to get out of any hardware or software ever. It is probably most definitely possible, but you'd have to (physically) destroy a shitload of gear to get some of the results Trash produces.

Ohmboys has some good stuff that produces good distortion, but it's far less precise and specific as Trash.

I'm sure some brilliant stuff can be done with a Kyma system, however, not really as affordable as most available options and probably a bit more programming intensive for the user as well. I'm all about good results and intuitive useability... not to mention good pricing.

apropos of nothing · Post by **apropos of nothing** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 7:31 am

I use the digital compressor in my ASR-10 for this. Turn main volume all the way down, crank all parameters, pull main volume up about a 16th of an inch. kashonka! (resample.)

ashcat_lt · Post by **ashcat_lt** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 10:06 am

I used an old sony DAT for guitar distortion one time, but wasn't really happy with the results. It was impossible to tell how much of the distortion was coming from the tube pre I had in front of it, how much from the analog input circuitry of the DAT, and how much from ADC itself. Not a big deal, i guess, as long as it sounds cool.

More disturbing, it had this completely unpredictable filter type thing going on. The sound would just randomly thin out. Still sounded good and nasty, but all the meat went away. This effect didn't seem to have any correlation to what I was playing. It had nothing to do with dynamics or pitch/chord or anything. Just came and went as it pleased.

It ended up working out in the final mix, but in other contexts would be completely unacceptable.

I like extreme time stretches too, sometimes. Results vary depending on the algorithm used. I really like to use a not so extreme time stretch on things like crash cymbals.

BTW - I guess it wasn't my first post. I meant to say "first thread."

flanneljammies · Post by **flanneljammies** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 10:21 am

I LOVE me some E-Phonic LoFi.

And it's FREE.

kayagum · Post by **kayagum** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 10:56 am

I know it's not digital, but I'm still haven't tried this:

brad laner of medicine

On the digital realm, the lofi setting on the SP202 sampler is a lot of fun.

Knights Who Say Neve · Post by **Knights Who Say Neve** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 12:35 pm

The good ol' Alesis Bitrman is worth trying.

dirk_v · Post by **dirk_v** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 2:50 pm

The distortion circuit on the Electrix MoFX. It's so nasty and digital.

-dv

philbo · Post by **philbo** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 3:49 pm

Sort of like asking which color of Dumpster has the best tasting garbage, isn't it?
________
Fix ps3

eeldip · Post by **eeldip** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 4:59 pm

here abouts: http://www.soundhack.com/freeware.php

you can get two really cool free distortion effects,

the +chebyshev is particularly cool digital distortion. its very mathy, and does unexpected stuff. some of it sounds oddly analog, some sounds totally weird and digital. nothing too outlandishly HARSH. pretty natural actually.

the +decimate does the harsh stuff.

combine the two.

Message Board

the Best Sounding Digital Distortion

the Best Sounding Digital Distortion

Who is online