Applying Distortion and Saturation

[Daniel Carroll]

Do you guys apply distortion and saturation to EVERYTHING? kick, cymbals, snare, synths? I read distortion is for low end and saturation for high end. If you do how to go about applying it? On the send channel or individual tracks? Is the distortion set to 100% then you higher the volume on the send till you get a desired effect?

 

[Adrian-MarQ]

I don't really use distortion on a lot of high frequency sounds just because it can become really harsh very easily. When I do, it is to make something sound brighter and I use it subtly. For the low end, I may use it to compress the signal a bit along long with adding in audible harmonics to it (can't hear sub bass on some monitors and headphones). You can technically use it on whatever you want, however, I suggest that you determine the purpose for using saturation and assess whether it ix the best tool for the job. Things can get quite messy if you just distort and saturate everything.

 

[rhythmgj]

Yes, I would not apply distortion too liberally until you have spent some time studying and understanding the affects (slight pun intended). But in small to medium amounts, it can do cool things that don't involve the traditional "distorted" sounds. One use is for surgical audio repair, believe it or not. Adding small amounts of analog or analog-modeled distortion can smooth out digital distortion or slight clipping on tracks that cannot be addressed in other ways (like editing, for instance). Adding slight amounts until you can actually hear it, then backing off, can also beef up some tracks. But like compression, EQ, reverb, limiting, and other effects and signal processing, "easy does it" and "less is more" are the operative phrases. And when working "in the box," "undo" can be a great friend.

GJ

 

[PrinceSatyrn]

I usually sprinkle a little overdrive on things. Turn the wet to like 10% or something and then filter it very carefully so its more spare, then I'll be alot more liberal with the saturation. I love saturation for warming up things that are thing or recorded with condenser mics that capture too much high end and lack that mid beefiness.

 

[labeat]

There are no rules for using distortion and saturation, really. I'm using both in many different ways for all kinds of instruments. Parallel distortion can be great on fatten your drums. Distorting bass that has no mid and high frequencies, like sine wave booms, to make them audible on small speakers. It all depends on the sounds I have and the overall sound I want to accomplish.
If you want to really distort sounds badly, go for it. If you just want to add a subtle amount of warmth or add some harmonics to a sub bass, do that.
Just play with both, saturation and distortion. Experiment and trust your own judgement.

 

[DarkRed]

I agree with some of the comments above.

Want to add that you don't have to use saturation/distortion to add harmonics, just simply a great tuning combined with a great recording room can introduce the kind of harmonics you want and can allow you to stay more gentle about the overdrive and can sometimes give you more options of what gear you can use, or how to distribute that gear among the sound sources during recording. With pitch shifters you can add harmonics without some of the noise you get from the saturation and when combined with saturators/exciters/enhancers it can help you lower the audible noise that saturation provides at more wet settings.

Also remember that saturation and the pitch shifting you can add to particular frequency ranges of sound sources, it does not necessarily need to be the whole frequency spectrum of sound sources and you can even focus it in the stereo image as well. This can produce a certain degree of additional impact due to the changes in harmonic characteristics and stereo image based on what sound sources play what. And it can create a more subtle foot print, which can work great on more sensitive sound sources such as for instance vocals. Sometimes you can also make saturation a secondary effect on top of another effect, for instance harmonically enrich the sound prior to a reverb in parallel or maybe even both before and after a reverb in parallel.