Understanding distortion effects
Distortion is an audio effect created by overloading audio. It changes the waveform and compresses sound in a way often described as “warm or dirty” sounding.
There are several types of distortion:
- CLIPPING occurs when your audio is louder than the sound system can handle. Unintended clipping is an unpleasant sound to the ear. You’ve heard clipping whenever you hear audio feedback from phone or video calls. This type of audio can occur when the audio gain is turned above 0 dB. Unintended clipping distortion is undesirable; however, there are many kinds of desirable distortion that can be used in creative effects for your music to add unique character to your sounds. For the purposes of this chapter, we will be talking about intended distortion being used as a creative effect, rather than unintended clipping distortion.
- SATURATION adds harmonic frequencies to your sound. It adds some compression and smooths...
