In the first part of the series I introduced distortion, its types and categories. I also showed you the Ableton plugins and examples on several intrument types.
In this lesson I'll give some examples and additional tips and tricks.
Piano1
I made a heavy sound with a lot of distortion. I cut the low end with an EQ to focus the mid range.
Piano1 before
Piano1 after
Saturator: curve type analog clip, drive 18 dB, freq 1 kHz, base 0, width 30%, depth 0, output -16 dB, dry wet 100%
EQ Three: low -2 dB, mid 0 dB, high 0 dB
Piano2
This is a complex distortion, strange and very textured. Weak but still interesting.
Piano2 before
Piano2 after
Saturator: curve type waveshaper, drive 9 dB, freq 1 kHz, base 0, width 30%, depth 0, output -8.5 dB, dry wet 73%, drive 100%, curve 40%, depth 0%, lin 50%, damp 0, period 0%
Piano3
With the bit reduction I made the piano a bit synth bell like.
Piano3 before
Piano3 after
Redux: downsample soft, 5.83
Piano4
This is a heavier version of the previous one. Sounds very ringy and metallic.
Piano4 before
Piano4 after
Redux: downsample soft, 14.4
Piano5
I applied a medium distortion with a different character than then Overdrive plugin.
Piano5 before
Piano5 after
Dynamic tube: dry wet 41%, output 6.4 dB, drive 15 dB, tone 0.22, bias 26%, tube mode A
Piano6
I made the sound to be more grainy, textured and unfocused. It is like a carpet covering a wall.
Piano6 before
Piano6 after
Dynamic tube: dry wet 79%, output 15 dB, drive 15 dB, tone 0.51, bias 91%, tube mode C
GuitarX1
I made this guitar very pointy and weak sounding with an interesting texture. I cut out the mid range with EQ.
GuitarX1 before
GuitarX1 after
Amp: amp type boost, volume 3.81, dry wet 33%, others are default
EQ Three: mid range killed
GuitarX2
This is a bright sound with a focused top end. I modified further with EQ Eight low and high shelves and a mid range boost.
GuitarX2 before
GuitarX2 after
Amp: amp type clean, volume 5.9, dry wet 42%, others are default
EQ Eight: -6 dB cut at 200 Hz (low shelf), +1.8 dB boost at 601 Hz, -8.3 dB cut at 7.4 kHz (high shelf)
GuitarX3
I made a thick and dense distorted guitar sound with Amp, then I colored it with EQ to focus on the mid range with a low cut and a mid boost. I also cut 2 decibels on the top end.
GuitarX3 before
GuitarX3 after
Amp: amp type heavy, volume 3.97, dry wet 34%, others are default
EQ Three: low -11 dB, mid +2 dB, high -2 dB
Creative Use
This means using distortion creatively within a specific sound or musical style.
For example, a rock band uses a different distortion than a metal band. This is also different from an electronic musician spicing up the drum group with a bit of saturation.
You can do anything you want in this method, but make sure you stay in the musical genre.
Corrective Use
This method is in harmony with enhancing. For example I can add top end to a dull piano track.
Using Equalizers Together With Distortion
It is an old trick to use EQ with distortion. There are three ways to do that:
1. Pre EQ
Put an EQ before the distortion to control what goes in.
2. Post EQ
Put an EQ after the distortion to control the output sound.
3. Pre and Post EQ
Use both Pre and Post EQ to shape the input and output sound. You will shape the sound with more control in this version compared to the previous ones.
Parallel Distortion
Basically, parallel processing for distortion is a simple dry-wet knob. With dry-wet I can set the ratio of the clean and effected signals.
It is a nice trick to use heavy processing then blending it in with a very little ratio, like 10% or 20%. This is like creating a balance of them. You also do the opposite: using a high dry wet with a subtle distortion.
Psychoacoustics
Be careful when doing distortion.! Our ears can get very tired if listening to a distorted sound in isolation, or one that is not balanced with other instruments.
Two important aspects are:
- loudness level can cause hearing loss and fatigue
- distortion character can cause fatigue
Extreme distortion can pierce through the mental sensation of it. Ears get hurt by spiky and metallic sounds. It is a good tip to set distortion settings and then dial back a bit after some break.
Effect Rack for Distortion
A quick way to simplify Saturator's complexity is to create an effect rack from it.
Creating a rack in six steps:
- Load an empty Audio Effect Rack from the Audio Effects section
- Enable Macros and Chains List
- Add Saturator to the chain
- Seconday-click on Curve Type, Map to Macro 1
- Seconday-click on Drive, Map to Macro 2
- Seconday-click on Drive Wet, Map to Macro 3
You can do this with any effect and there are more settings for detailed parameter handling. For more settings click on the Map button in the title of the rack.
Summary
In this tutorial I demonstrated more distortion plugins and gave you some tips on using distortion effectively.
Finally, I gave an example on creating a distortion rack. This is the second and last part of this tutorial series.
