Distortion effect

[steve]

A simple distortion effect with 10 different types of distortion.

This is a "wave-shaping" effect. The waveform is shaped in various ways according to the settings.
Probably the best way to find what the settings do is simply to try it.

wsdistortion.ny

Updated version 27th Feb

(3.5 KiB) Downloaded 829 times

[Trebor]

"Peak-Invert" , that's a new one on me ...

Steve's distortion ''Peak Invert'' @ 50.gif (12.92 KiB) Viewed 6762 times

[steve]

Minor update. 2 more presets added. I think that'll be the final version now.

[Gale Andrews]

I have no personal interest in "distortion" as an effect, but as a general comment, the choices offered here do seem somewhat user-unfriendly, and don't bear much relation to the previously suggested choices.

Overdrive
Fuzz
Tube distortion
Walkie-Talkie
Crunch
Harmonic distortion
Inharmonic distortion
Hard clipping
Soft clipping
Cross-over distortion
Tape saturation

Which action choice should I choose for (most of) the above?



Gale

[steve]

"Killeringer" is an extremely popular plug-in for Audacity (see YouTube).
The name and control labels have little if any relation to what it does.
There is no documentation for Killeringer.
People, lots of people, are able to work out how to use it, and are so overjoyed that they make a YouTube video about it.

On my mixing desk there are 99 built in effects. I mostly use "25", or sometimes "13" if I want a lighter reverb. Those two effects are called "25" and "13".

I could have called the presets 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.
I could have called them: Overdrive, Fuzz, Tube distortion, Walkie-Talkie...
To be useful, users would still need to try them to hear what they sound like.

Would you know the difference between "Tube" distortion and "Even Mellow" distortion? If not, then what's in a name? Either the sound is appropriate for your needs or it's not. Whether it is called Tube, Even Mellow, 4, or Henry, is irrelevant really. If you know that you like "Number 5" then you will use "Number 5".

I was not attempting to model specific trademark effects, rather I have provided a wide selection of waveshaping distortions that can be used alone or in conjunction with other effects.

"Fuzz" is a marketing name for "Hard Clipping".

[Robert J. H.]

Here's a sample sound, very simply made:
- A C5 power chord (Nyquist prompt, mandolin, 1 s).
- Fade-in, 3 times repeated, Pitch shifted and softened with Paul stretch (1x and 4x at the end) and Pro Fade Out.
- 100 % "Peak Invert", mixed with the original in a stereo track, rotated 90 degrees.

peak-invert.mp3

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[Gale Andrews]

"Killeringer" is an extremely popular plug-in for Audacity (see YouTube).
The name and control labels have little if any relation to what it does.
There is no documentation for Killeringer.
People, lots of people, are able to work out how to use it

Because they already saw tutorials on YouTube that told them they needed Killerringer for a Dalek/Cyberman effect?

What control do I use in your effect for Dalek voice?

Would you know the difference between "Tube" distortion and "Even Mellow" distortion?

"Tube Distortion" seems to be a common guitar pedal effect. So I would be looking for "Tube Distortion" in the controls of a distortion effect. "Even Mellow" says nothing to me about what it is typically used for.

I was not attempting to model specific trademark effects, rather I have provided a wide selection of waveshaping distortions that can be used alone or in conjunction with other effects.

Then why change your mind about the features and label names you voted for? Or has this been discussed again since that Forum topic?

"Fuzz" is a marketing name for "Hard Clipping".

Google finds 3.5 million results for "Fuzz pedal", versus 19 for "Hard clipping pedal".

Perhaps some users will want to compensate for lost "warmth" when transferring tapes and records to computer. Wouldn't the two types of harmonic distortion and tape saturation have been useful for that?

Another example, where has "soft clipping" gone?

All I'm saying is that I'm surprised considering what you wrote before. To me, the effect sounded really "interesting" before.


Gale

[steve]

What control do I use in your effect for Dalek voice?

That'd be my "variable ring modulator" effect (aka "Dalek Voice..."

variringmod.ny

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)

"Tube Distortion" seems to be a common guitar pedal effect.

It is, but I'd be a bit hesitant to use the term for a simple waveshaper effect. "Tube distortion" is a thing of mythology - it's the holy grail of something or other.

"Fuzz" is an OK name I think - it's just hard clipping, but for connoisseurs it's probably not possible to get it quite right because digital does that aliasing thing whereas a simple diode just keeps going until it reaches its bandwidth limit - there is no "Nyquist frequency" to worry about.

Google finds 3.5 million results for "Fuzz pedal", versus 19 for "Hard clipping pedal".

Yes, "Fuzz" is the marketing name.

The "Even" presets could perhaps be named as "tube" because triode valve saturation distortion is typified by producing "even" harmonics.
The "Hard Limiting" preset could be called "fuzz".
The "Smooth Drive" could be called "overdrive".
The "Soft distortion" could be called "Blues warmth".
"Peak Invert" and "Rectifier" are technical descriptions but you could call them "Rat" and "Hardcore" if you prefer.

A random selection of distortion "pedal" effects:
Silicon Fuzz Face® http://www.jimdunlop.com/product/FFM1-silicon
East River Drive® http://www.ehx.com/products/east-river-drive
Blackstar LTDS2® http://www.thelaboratory.com/p-42526-bl ... pedal.aspx
Big Muff Pi® http://www.ehx.com/products/big-muff-pi
Worm Burner® http://dogsbodyvintageaudio.weebly.com/ ... edals.html
Tube Screamer® http://www.ibanez.co.jp/products/u_effe ... 4&cat_id=6

Those names don't really mean anything - they are just names.
If we had a marketing department I'd leave the names up to them - I'm just making the effects, but I think we really do need to replace the "Leveler" with a self confessed "distortion" effect, and preferably have a simple dynamics reduction effect as well.

My strong objection is tying one improvement to another. If we make each improvement dependent on other improvements then we won't get anywhere. Goldwave certainly did not wait for perfection before releasing anything, they release the best that they have at the time, and if they can improve on it then it's a reason for users to upgrade to the new version.

Audacity does have issues that need to be addressed before we implement some other things. The lack of an effect manager is a big issue because we can't have an ever growing list of effects all in one long list. We don't even have a "chorus" effect, which is one of the basic effects in every musician and sound engineers toolkit, but we all agree that the effect list has reached its maximum practical size (and well over its maximum size for users that already have lots of effects installed).

Graphics acceleration and command line options are all very good, but I think we (Audacity) need to prioritise those things that inhibit progression. I'm not involved with transferring vinyl to CD, but I'd love to see a suite of vinyl restoration tools in Audacity. I am into making music and I'd love to see tools for music production. We all know that Audacity is by far the best open source audio editing program, but we need to keep the vitality for it is to survive. Unlike commercial products we can't rely on paying people and we can't sit back and just polish the rough edges. Stability IS important, but so is innovation and progression.

[Gale Andrews]

"Tube Distortion" seems to be a common guitar pedal effect.

It is, but I'd be a bit hesitant to use the term for a simple waveshaper effect. "Tube distortion" is a thing of mythology - it's the holy grail of something or other.

You seemed previously in favour of the word "tube" ( http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 09#p196109 ):

Something more like a "tube overdrive" type distortion would probably be more useful and suitable for a greater range of material (including vocals and guitar).

That comment was in comparison to fuzz/hard clipping.

"Peak Invert" and "Rectifier" are technical descriptions but you could call them "Rat" and "Hardcore" if you prefer.

I don't have strong views on that, especially if the name is a precise description.

Also I don't want to get involved in great detail about names. I would like you to consider if it may still be best to tie some labels to commonly used effect names.

If we go for a "Hard Clip" then it seems logical to me there should be a corresponding "soft clip".

You've said elsewhere that two of the presets add "even harmonics", but I don't know how a naive user guesses that from the names. Does "even harmonics" mean "an integer of the fundamental", or something else?

I thought the previously suggested names were excellent.

My strong objection is tying one improvement to another.

If we don't "tie", then your "improvement" involves removing a helpful, simple shipped tool that does something fundamental - compress dynamic range. That's still true even if the simple shipped tool has a (mostly unwanted) by-product.

It's even more true since the users it helps don't seem to be worried about it.

If Leveler distorts, they undo, then choose a lower degree of leveling. The effect is "simple" enough that they can see how to do it.


Gale

[Robert J. H.]

Regarding even harmonics:
It is also a myth that even harmonics are good and odd ones bad. Both harmonics sound bad with higher order.
They are both a multiple of the fundamental. Inharmonic overtones are therefore rather called partials. And they can sound nice as well because the ear constructs sometimes a missing harmonic from those partials (e.g. like with church bells, where the fundamental does actually not sound).

Harmonic number one is the fundamental - odd.
The nice even harmonics are only those that are 2^x, e.g. 2 4 8 16 etc. since those are all octaves. Those are also the only ones that do not clash with equal tempered instruments.
The pitches evolve as follows (for A4=440 Hz):
1. A4
2. A5
3. E6 +2 Cents
4. A6
5. C#7 -14 Cents
6. E7 +2 Cents
7. G7 -31 Cents
8. A7
9. B7 +4 Cents
10. C#8 -14 Cents
11. D#8 -49 Cents
12. E8 +2 Cents
13. F8 +40 Cents
14. G8 -31 Cents
15. G#8 -12 Cents
16. A8

No. 5 and 7 give a bluesy touch, however, minor and major tonality gets fuzzy.
In general, harmonics over the 10th order should be avoided. Speaker cabinets tend to roll off at about 4 kHz, sure a good thing for our sample tone (10th= 4400 Hz).