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The different methods used to achieve it can give different sonic results, but I’ll get into that later! No matter what term you use, distortion all comes from the same process of waveform clipping. When used this way, distortion comes in a gentler form that engineers call saturation.īut don’t let the terminology trip you up-the word distortion itself includes all styles of saturation, overdrive or even fuzz. And in some situations, like with DAWs and digital systems, it still is.īut today, engineers acknowledge the importance of distortion in mixing and music production when applied tastefully. In the early days of audio, distortion was almost always considered a negative outcome. It’s called clipping because the tops of the waveforms get chopped off abruptly at the maximum. This happens when the signal level goes above the maximum a system can handle.
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The most common type of change is called clipping. In this article I’ll break down every way the term is commonly used and suggest ways to work with distortion in your music.ĭistortion refers to change or deformation of an audio signal’s waveform. There’s a lot to unpack here, but don’t worry-distortion is a simple concept if you know the basics of how it works. It can refer to an effect type, a mixing technique and a quality of signals.īut what is distortion exactly? When do you want it and when should you avoid it? What gear can you use to get it and where should you apply it in your workflow? Distortion is a term that gets used a lot in music production.