hmm, as technically distortion is always "wrong", i don't know what would be the "right" way to do it?

as a long-time distortion lover, i would say whatever sounds cool. if your looking for a more traditional or guitar-like sound, some filtering might be required. some lowpass after the distortion (maybe high-pass too), and maybe try a little (or more) middle boost before the distortion...

also, try some ring modulation to change the character. and i personally love the pseudo-octave-fuzz sound. anyone know how to achieve this in pd? ie. rectify the signal?

for example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Univox_Super-Fuzz#Sound

At first glance, I've had the best results with amp-simulator.pd above.

I added a wet/dry mixer to it, took out the EQ and spring verb, and I can get a huge range of sound qualities out of it, but things like keeping levels consistent relative to the source material aren't necessarily intuitive, and there are combinations of settings that look very different from each other but sound very similar.

I'd classify these sound qualities I can get out of it along a continuum ('less distored' to 'more distorted'?) that doesn't necessarily correspond directly to single parameter changes. I really want to be able to assign a knob or two on my control surface such that each one varies multiple parameters as I turn it, so the output can sound more distorted without my having to, for example, reduce the 'gain' setting on the compressor as I feed hotter input to increase the distortion effect.

So maybe I'd have a knob to control "brightness" as I perceive it... and maybe one to control "grunginess"... I to be able to intuitively change sounds on a dime in performance.

To restate/clarify, I love the range of sounds that this thing can produce, but it's counter-intuitive to operate, and I want to improve that aspect of it. Any help? Anyone dealt with this before?

Thanks!

posted some other distortions at:
<http://puredata.hurleur.com/sujet-2453-cubic-soft-clip-distortion>

Hi all

Heres a soft clipper and a distortion as suggested by Julius O Smith.

patch on

http://www.pdpatchrepo.info/hurleur/distortion~.pd

Hi all

Heres a soft clipper and a distortion as suggested by Julius O Smith.

patch on

http://www.pdpatchrepo.info/hurleur/distortion~.pd

Your logic may be a little cloudy here. Let's review two things:

A linear system introduces no distortion. If the instantaneous amplitude of the signal input is A and the instantaneous output is B then A=B for all values.

You can view the process as B = f(A). The f is some function that produces B as a result of A.

A non-distorting (linear) effect can be gain, a simple multiply, in which case the function f is a constant, like B = 0.5A to halve the amplitude.

A non-linear system distorts the signal. [clip~] is a non-linear function which clamps B at some level for all A above and below a value. So is [abs~], which changes the sign of negative A values.

A compressor is not an instantaneous function. It changes the average level of B in accordance with the average level of A, yet it preserves the linear instantaneous releationship.

What you seem to be describing is an effect that behaves as a linear compressor up to a threshold, and beyond that it behaves as a distortion.

There are a few ways to go about it, but none can be done as a single flow. You need to introduce a side chain. That means splitting off the signal and performing some averaging/low pass filtering (maybe using [env~]), and then applying the result of that to a linear gain stage. Finally you introduce a separate distortion stage such that once the input passes a threshold some clipped signal results (regardless of the compressor stage).

I hope I have understood your goals.

Hi. I'm still kind of a novice at pd, so what I'm trying to might not be a good idea. It doesn't seem to be working any how.

Anyways, I was trying to make a distortion type deal where you select a window in the signal, say .5 to .75 of the absolute value of the signal, or whatever you like, and have it so the signal below that window (say 0 to .5) isn't reduced in amplitude, the signal above that window (.75 to 1) is reduced by a factor of your choice, I'll call it a, a value between 1 and 0, and the signal within the window ramps steadily from no reduction to reduction by a factor of a, so it's smooth.

What I've been doing for this is multiplying the whole signal by a clipped version of the absolute value of the signal that's multiplied and added to such that instead of going from .5 to .75 it goes from 1 to a. So, anything below .5 is multiplied by 1, anything above .75 is multiplied by a, and everything in between is multiplied by something between 1 and a. I thought this would produce a smooth sort of distortion, depending on how much the amplitude is reduced by and the width of the window, but no matter what I do I get a harsher distortion, and there are little rectangular cuts in the peaks that shouldn't be there, unless my logic about all of this is wrong.

This is roughly what's going on.

Signal
|
abs~
|
clip~ .5 .75
|
-~ .5 ( 0 to .25)
|
/~ .25 (0 to 1)
|
*~ -(1 - a) (given a reduction factor of .6 this would be 0 to -.4)
|
+~ 1

And that would result in a range of 1 to .6. And I multiply that by the original signal. I'm just kinda messing around with pd trying to make stuff, so maybe this is just a bad way to do this. Is it just too many operations on the clip to multiply it at the right time?

I can put a patch on this later if you need.

Hi Crasse

Whats 'loud' beats? (i don't mean in a fuddy duddy old fart type of sense!)

If you mean overdriven MAXIMIZED then you need some kind of distortion thing going on. Followed by a compressor...

If you have pd-extended try [compressor~] [overdrive~] or [clip~] or [tanh~]

distortion is quite a big area. Do a search on this forum and there are some table lookup distortions where you can draw your own waveforms

s

patches using osc~ and some wavetable distortion to mix the timbre up, lowpass it, then into a reverb... what i'll do is play on one synth, then crank up the reverb feedback on it and kill the input, then play with the other one, and vice versa...

Additive + waveshaping, it's a damn fine "organ" sound, and like I said I think you did
a splendid job picking the reverb params for the timing, the flow is just right.

the ending of this song drives me wild... when i recorded it, i had actually intended for the ending to be the first buildup (around 7-8 minutes), but when i played that melody on top of everything, i realized i had to do it again, so i did, and i'm SO glad i did... i basically distort the beat to white noise too, it's just this huge emotional moment, the epitome of where i want to go with Pd.

<opinion> Your first plan was right, overall it's too long as a piece for the instrumentation. The buildup is very cool, and that's what I wanted to hear featured up front, the "collapse" of the rythmn track into noise. I haven't heard that device much before, amybe in some early hard trance tunes, but it really works </opinion>

i need to work on some better distortion methods but i did throw a kick sample in there to help out the low end of the beat...

Have a play with [pow~] and [wrap~], most useful for distortions

when used in conjunction with some trig functions you can take a small amount
of it, say [*~ 0.01] and add [+~ 0.25] and take the [cos~] , and mix that back in with the original signal. By changing the offset you can get odd or even harmonic distortion. Try making really fucked up waveshapers by drawing directly into tables on the fly too, that can sound awesome.

this song was composed and performed entirely in Pd,

Those are the magic words I was waiting to hear! I am so happy. Thanks for
sharing it.

but is more of a crazy patching mess than a complete .pd file..

yeah, had to abandon some of my first compositions as write only code, check out
"moon over pokesdown station" - I think there's amybe five or sxi synths in there -
anyway I wrote a page about it recently on my site under "music", comparing it
with a remix I did just recently to celebrate one year of working entirely in Pd.
I guess you develop your own ways of keeping tidy code in Pd, but it comes quickly enough with having to read your own code, like with any language. But keeping things together in one file is important imho. I sort of went through three stages in Pd, working with loads of separate patch windows with everything talking by global variables, then doing everything with abstractions, then finally with doing everything in one file. It's funny I sort of fight with Frank B about this, I think abstractions are sirens luring fresh Pders into insanity, they are powerful and trick you with their magic Now I know how to use them properly I employ them lots in more serious research and dev with Pd, but for composing music I find a single big file full of subpatches works out best. And avoiding using plugins or externs and sticking to
Miller vanilla objects means you can just pass the file around as "Pd music" to other people

**anyways, glad you guys enjoyed! hopefully i do some more music soon (since i've been working mostly on more sound/gem patches, not really composing at all) **

Nice. Well I really want to big up your tune and the fact you did it in Pd, do more soon

this is all live except for a minimal amount of sequencing... specifically, the chord progression that comes in after a few seconds, the sequencing of the breakbeats (they both share the same sequencing, i just crossfade them), and the sequencing of the granulizing on the breakbeats that come in later (which i also change a bit as it goes on). i'm basically alternating between two "lead" synths, controlled via oxygen8... they're just patches using osc~ and some wavetable distortion to mix the timbre up, lowpass it, then into a reverb... what i'll do is play on one synth, then crank up the reverb feedback on it and kill the input, then play with the other one, and vice versa... this is a method i never really played around with until i got into Pd, and i only started using it because of the lack of objects i had made really! it's a good way to get a nice big background sound, like a huge pad that looms over it...
the ending of this song drives me wild... when i recorded it, i had actually intended for the ending to be the first buildup (around 7-8 minutes), but when i played that melody on top of everything, i realized i had to do it again, so i did, and i'm SO glad i did... i basically distort the beat to white noise too, it's just this huge emotional moment, the epitome of where i want to go with Pd.
obi, the drums are a bit in the back, i need to work on some better distortion methods but i did throw a kick sample in there to help out the low end of the beat... this song was composed and performed entirely in Pd, but is more of a crazy patching mess than a complete .pd file... i've only implemented save/load for my sequencer as of late, so a lot of songs up until now i had no way to save them other than a .wav and a screenshot! (i usually save the huge performance patch and take a screenshot, because when i reopen the patch all the abstractions go to default values! but i'm starting to implement save/load in most patches, so hopefully soon i'll be able to have patches you can load right up and listen to)
anyways, glad you guys enjoyed! hopefully i do some more music soon (since i've been working mostly on more sound/gem patches, not really composing at all)
cheers! -ian