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I've never really got my head around using distortion effectively. Even when removing the low-end and applying subtle amounts I usually end up with muddy harsh mess.

How do you really overdrive a sound without it becoming harsh to listen to, or lack clarity?

Example, Kahn @ 0:28:



Is it a case of cutting certain frequencies? As simply rolling off some of the highs ain't really doing it for me.

Removing the mids tends to work a lot. Just make a dip, about -2-3db, and a q of about .2-.6, somewhere between 400-1k, and that should remove most of the mud that you get when distorting.

sofarmusic wrote:Removing the mids tends to work a lot. Just make a dip, about -2-3db, and a q of about .2-.6, somewhere between 400-1k, and that should remove most of the mud that you get when distorting.

Yep that's been my experience too. Its ok to do crazy amounts of distortion, btw. Its all about the signal you're distorting and what it calls for

OK so since most of my midrange basses tend to sit in that 400-850hz range, are you saying it's better to only distort frequencies above around 1khz?

You can do whatever you want, but it's easier to just leave your lows clean, and distort your mids/highs (optional on the highs), just if you want to remove the muddyness after distorting, just make the dip.

claudedefaren wrote:

sofarmusic wrote:Removing the mids tends to work a lot. Just make a dip, about -2-3db, and a q of about .2-.6, somewhere between 400-1k, and that should remove most of the mud that you get when distorting.

Yep that's been my experience too. Its ok to do crazy amounts of distortion, btw. Its all about the signal you're distorting and what it calls for

tbh im not really into those huge sweeping, modulating basses. I just want to add some presence to my midrange without muddying it up.

Like I said, just make a dip in the mids. Just a few db's. You don't have to sweep it, because it isn't that great of an idea. It just takes the mud out and makes the bass/synth sound so much cleaner and thick.

i generally EQ, distort then EQ again. if your still having trouble getting it clear then send the dry signal to the master and then set up a channel to send the EQ and distortion.
also multi band distortion is another option, i prefer to freq split but Kombinat and Fabfilter Saturn are good tools.

EQ before and after definitely helps (sharp surgical notches can help if you have some ugly harmonics), as does stacking distos (i.e. use two instances @ 5% wet in serial, with slightly different settings, instead of one at 10% wet).

Just distort the higher frequencies, use a parrallel EQ and fiddle with the crossover and distortion until you find something that works.

Asymmetric distortion also sounds nicer as it generates even- as well as odd-order harmonics.

test recordings wrote:Just distort the higher frequencies, use a parrallel EQ and fiddle with the crossover and distortion until you find something that works.

Asymmetric distortion also sounds nicer as it generates even- as well as odd-order harmonics.

FL waveshaper is amazing for this plus it has a DC offset button which is important when doing asymmetric waveshaping.

You do understand how distortion works, right? If not, go look it up and come back...



Ok, so if you want distortion to not sound horrible there is a few things what are important to note and consider.

Playing big notes or wide-frequency sounds will always make distortion sound more intense than something of a single note and less harmonic.

Putting distortion straight onto a channel will always be hard to handle.. Imagine your guitar had a built in distortion peddle - you wouldn't be able to place it on a rack with EQs and amps etc, etc.. Meaning its just going to be intense all the time!

Put distortion on sends and bleed small amounts of signal through, band reject filter will go after the distortion and then roll off with some finer EQing. Add snappy, short reverb to give that 'guitar' feel and enjoy..


...........Or just buy Amplitube and never complain about not getting distortion how you want it EVER again

I love Trash 2 - you can do everything everyone has mentioned in this thread, all inside the plugin. It's got convolution reverb, waveshapers, overdrive, eq's before and after, multiband processing, wet/dry controls at every stage, it's awesome.

Lucifa wrote:

claudedefaren wrote:

sofarmusic wrote:Removing the mids tends to work a lot. Just make a dip, about -2-3db, and a q of about .2-.6, somewhere between 400-1k, and that should remove most of the mud that you get when distorting.

Yep that's been my experience too. Its ok to do crazy amounts of distortion, btw. Its all about the signal you're distorting and what it calls for

tbh im not really into those huge sweeping, modulating basses. I just want to add some presence to my midrange without muddying it up.

Send to a filtered distortion, and blend that in.

I never actually use distortion - if you're using it for presence just use a nice warm light overdrive (the Logic inbuilt overdrive is actually pretty nice, otherwise I tend to use CamelPhat). Using it on midrange instruments like Rhodes can really add character to what might be a bland sound without it.

Obviously eq'ing out nasty harmonics that get created as well, but I'd be inclined to overdrive in such a way that it doesn't create these, i.e. if your getting frequency spikes change the overdrive setting and check you haven't got a resonance on a filter or something.

Most of the time you want to use distortion in parallel e.g. less then 100% wet. Subtlety is key, unless you have sounds with little harmonic content in which case you can go a bit heavier.

well if you are saying you like the kahn example, well he is probably just distorting a 909/808 kick drum or some sort of sine wave, so he is distorting something with no harmonics. You are talking about midrange bass though, so if you already have a slightly grating bass sound with harmonics, and then distort it to add more, then that may be overkill.

but yeah if you distort on a send, then you can send however much you want to the distortion and then EQ the harshness out of it without affecting the original sound

legend4ry wrote:
Put distortion on sends and bleed small amounts of signal through, band reject filter will go after the distortion and then roll off with some finer EQing. Add snappy, short reverb to give that 'guitar' feel and enjoy..

This!!!

If I really want to trash a sound with distrotion or saturation I would normaly do it befor the filter, if your going for some dubstep wobbles or sweeps. You can get some FM like sounds like that. Then I would use light distortion after the filter just to shapen the sound and compresss it a little. After that I might distort some fequencys to give them more grunt, like small quality bans of fequencys. Some distrotion units will let you select the fequecys you want to distort but if you dont have one you can use a send and EQ.

For some crazt sounds you could try putting large amounts of distortion on a sound befor you make it and create the sound into the distortion unit.

Also that sound in the track is a pitch bent square wave (done with a envelope) that has been distorted. It could also be done with a kick drum like someone said.

skimpi wrote:well if you are saying you like the kahn example, well he is probably just distorting a 909/808 kick drum or some sort of sine wave, so he is distorting something with no harmonics. You are talking about midrange bass though, so if you already have a slightly grating bass sound with harmonics, and then distort it to add more, then that may be overkill.

but yeah if you distort on a send, then you can send however much you want to the distortion and then EQ the harshness out of it without affecting the original sound

oh ok so the mids in the example are a result of the overdrive, rather then simply being accentuated by it?