'Distortion' refers to the alteration of something from it's original form. In audio, distortion refers to the warping of a waveform. When done accidentally, distortion can sound pretty hideous in your mix. But, it can also be used for creative purposes. Listen below for an example of distortion used creatively on the guitar.
In this blog, I will give you a run down on how to create vocal distortion. This technique breakdown was influenced by my 1 Hr Mix Challenge, where I struggled with creating a distortion effect on the guitars that emulated the reference track.
In the Moment or In the Box?
The first step when creating vocal distortion is deciding whether you want to make it happen live in the studio or through editing in post production. Getting this sound live can be done by tweaking the settings on the amp that is being used - turning up the gain and overdrive knobs should help you to achieve a overdriven, fuzzy, "distorted" sound, especially on guitar. Author Michael Ross explains that "when amplifiers receive too powerful a signal, the character of the signal changes", which is what we hear as distortion (Getting Great Guitar Sounds, 1998). So when you overdrive the signal going into an amp, its going to distort. There is also the option to use guitar pedals, which warp the signal before it gets to the amplifier.
Other ways to create distortion in the studio is by re-amping the signal, which is achieved by recording a dry signal and then replaying it back through your am (Radial Engineering, 2018). The more you reamp your signal, the more it will gradually distort.
But you can create distortion in the box too. This can be done by layering different takes of the instrument, for example through the re-amping example shown earlier, and then blending the tracks. You can also just re-amp the signal once, and then blend a mix of the two tracks, a similar technique to parallel compression, where you affect only one signal through the use of plugins.
Plugins are additional software to a DAW. Pro Tools has a large range of plugins specifically designed for modulating a sound signal.
The digital age has made it much easier to add creative distortion to a signal - one just needs to familiarise themselves with the names of specific distortion parameters and what they mean, so that you can tune them with confidence in a plugin.
Some Distortion Terms
Tube Distortion - A sound characteristic associated with a vaccuum tube amplifier. Gives off a warm tone.
Fuzz/Growl/Gritt - terms referring to the texture of the distortion.
Overdrive - drive refers to the amount of signal going into a processor. Overdrive is putting too much signal in.
Harmonic/Inharmonic - the type of overtones that are greater than the fundamental frequency.
I'm definitely new to distortion myself and did not know a lot of these things before researching them! I would be keen to try these theories out in practise in the future. If you would like to read more about distortion, especially plugins, there is a list of some resources below!
Further Reading
Albano, J. (2015, June 15). Exploring Pro Tools Distortion Effects. Retrieved Aug 21, 2018, from Ask Audio: https://ask.audio/articles/exploring-pro-tools-distortion-effects
Avid Technology. (2018). EFFECTS, FILTERS, AND SOUND PROCESSORS. Retrieved Aug 21, 2018, from Avid.com: https://www.avid.com/pro-tools/included-plug-ins#Effects-filters-and-sound-processors
Lynda. (2012, April 9). Pro Tools: Building distortion and saturation. Retrieved Aug 21, 2018, from Lynda.com: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsl1UC_Ctkg
Radial Engineering. (2018). Reamp Basics. Retrieved Aug 20, 2018, from Radial Engineering: http://www.radialeng.com/reamp-basics/
Ross, M. (1998). Getting Great Guitar Sounds. United States: Hal Leonard Corporation.
White, P. (2010, April). Distortion In The Studio. Retrieved Aug 21, 2018, from Sound On Sound: https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/distortion-studio
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