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Jonathan F Dean (not logged in!) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.254.147.180 ( talk) 06:25, 21 October 2012 (UTC)
To-do list for Distortion (music):
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It's good that Punk's been added. Punk is underrepresented in gear demos and discussions. MichaelSHoffman 05:24, 30 August 2006 (UTC)
Well, the Sonics were doing it pretty early, possibly the first: "If our records sound distorted, it's because they are. My brother (Larry, guitar) was always fooling around with the amps. They were always overdriven. Or he was disconnecting the speakers and poking a hole in them with an ice pick. That's how we ended up sounding like a train wreck." - Andy Parypa If that helps.
From all evidence, Leo Fender was interested in maximum clean power, not distortion, and the majority of his circuit changes were in this direction. Given that his test pilots were primarily Country artists in Southern California, notably Bill Carson, he would not have received many requests for a dirtier sounding amp. None of these artists showed any interest in a distorted sound, the recordings they made would bear this out, too. Jjourard ( talk) 21:59, 4 February 2009 (UTC)Jeff Jourard
"In the world of electric guitar music and guitar amplification, distortion is actively sought, evaluated, and appreciatively discussed in its endless flavours."
Oh wow. Well, its gone now. Prepare to be Mezmerized ! :D 21:39, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
I would have thought that pedal steel players WERE asking Leo F for more distortion (Jonathan Dean) — Preceding
unsigned comment added by
80.254.147.180 (
talk) 06:45, 21 October 2012 (UTC)
I don't think that a picture of a stompbox represents the full breadth of this topic, as there are many forms of distortion that all deserve representation in whatever image we choose to depict this topic. Since we're dealing with a topic that's about audio, we should have some audio clips anyway, and I think that they would make a great main image for this article. I've been thinking about what these clips should be, and I think it would be best if we recorded a guitar direct through a DI unit and then re-amp it through each of the various distortion-producing methods (pedal, pre-amp, power amp, speaker, as well as combinations), without reverb or other effects so the listener can distinguish the contribution of each to the overall tone. Does anyone have the capability to do this? My Twin is too loud and doesn't generate much pre-amp distortion.... Steve Carlson Talk 02:34, 29 May 2008 (UTC)
I Love fuzz (dot com) has a large selection of exactly this - before and after waveforms from a whole selection of dirt boxes (Jonathan Dean) — Preceding
unsigned comment added by
80.254.147.180 (
talk) 06:47, 21 October 2012 (UTC)
Distortion, Overdrive and Fuzz are pretty different things. I'm not an expert, though i think the whole electronics system works different in these three. Would someone edit it the right way? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.139.1.5 ( talk) 17:13, 7 November 2008 (UTC)
Agree - overdrive, fuzz and distortion are all types of distortion. An overdrive pedal will sound like an overdriven amp as well as overdriving the amp. Fuzz is just one type of distortion (not always square wave) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.254.147.180 ( talk) 06:50, 21 October 2012 (UTC)
I recently removed an unreferenced section that discussed the way the word distortion was not quite correct in nomenclature. I pulled the section out because I couldn't make much sense of it. There most certainly is distortion between the input signal of a guitar amplifier or stomp box and its output signal. There isn't distortion of strings vibrating; by definition, the strings are the source and can't be distorted no matter what they sound like. Anyway, here's the section I deleted just in case anybody sees something work bringing back to the article:
In modern pop music the equal temperament is most commonly used tuning. When the sound of an instrument is enhanced by overdriving the amplifier however the natural overtones increase in volume and interfere with the fundamental tones of the 'out of tune' strings. This is the reason why the sound of heavily driven guitars becomes muddy and unclear. The word distortion is a bit poorly chosen, because it enhances the sound with its natural overtones instead of 'distorting' the sound. It is distorting the chords in fact. The overtones mainly have a consonant relation to the fundamental tone making the sound harmonically richer to a certain extend, if it is not overdriven too much. The enhancement of the volume equalisation up to the sixth harmonic is considered purely consonant. However this is in theory, because the seventh, eight and further harmonics are also present and interfering the consonant value. So it's a paradoxal system with no exact optimum. — User:Outdepth
The problems present here are legion. The first problem I have is that we begin talking about 'out of tune' strings without defining the term as used--clearly we're not talking about a string that is out of tune at root. I also don't see how overtones increase in volume and interfere with the fundamental. The assumption that muddy-sounding guitars have just this one reason is unprovable. I fail to understand how a chord can get distorted. What is "volume equalisation"? How can harmonics above the sixth interfere with the consonant value? What is "consonant value"? Binksternet ( talk) 20:15, 5 December 2008 (UTC)
This article is pretty disappointing considering the mass of people who play guitar with some form of distortion. It looks like a lot of it is written by musicians rather than technicians, which unfortunately means it has a lot of incorrect oversimplifications of things that get passed around on guitar forums. It also makes a lot of assumptions, I corrected one assumption that all poweramps are class AB push-pull amps, but I'm not going to proof-read and re-write the whole article. A lot of it's also written in poor English with one paragraph starting every sentence with "because". I'll probably do some editing soon on it and I encourage anyone else with some technical knowledge, especially of how valve amplifiers and semiconductors (or as the article calls them "computer chips") distort AC voltages, to do the same.-- KX36 ( talk) 21:09, 9 November 2010 (UTC)
Distortion by itself does not add "warmth". It adds high frequency content, making the sound shrill and fizzy compared to the clean signal (even mild, soft clipping does this). Warmth is achieved (i.e. restored) by low-pass filtering the distortion electronically as well as by the use of an instrument speaker whose frequency response tapers off after around 5 Khz or so. Distortion requires careful management of high-frequency content, and tone shaping, in order to sound good. The problem with solid state distortion (or at least bad solid state distortion) is that the high-frequency content cannot be subdued without turning the signal muddy instead of warm. Tube distortion can have its annoying high frequency content removed, such that a clear, warm signal remains which can be clearly heard in a mix of instruments. 192.139.122.42 ( talk) 20:29, 26 April 2011 (UTC)
I've added a Todo template to this page and populated it with things I noticed during my recent edits. Feel free to add more stuff. If anything on the list strikes you as controversial, feel free to discuss it here. -- Kvng ( talk) 18:18, 10 May 2011 (UTC)
I've been reading this type of stuff for years, but I still struggle with things like
"warmth" ... in technical terms, when is a sound "warm"? "muddy" ... ditto ... is this distorted low frequencies? and a bit less so "bright" ... is this high frequency? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.254.158.36 ( talk) 07:03, 21 October 2012 (UTC)
I really don't think there is any need to refer to company names (Ibanez etc) as this just makes the article an advert. Tube Screamers and Big Muffs are now such copied and cloned circuit designs (and were hardly original when first introduced in any case) that the brand name owner is irrelevant. I would give an exception to "Maestro" for the Fuzz Tone though, as that is now as univeral as Hoover
(Jonathan Dean - not logged on) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.254.158.36 ( talk) 07:10, 21 October 2012 (UTC)
"Harmonic distortion adds frequencies that are whole number multiples of the input frequencies, while intermodulation distortion produces frequencies that are sums and differences of the signal's frequency components."
The section was getting a bit bogged down in “the physics of clipping”, and I figure if people want this information they can click on the links to harmonic distortion and intermodulation distortion's respective articles.-- Atlantictire ( talk) 08:29, 12 May 2011 (UTC)
i don't know where it would fit in the article, but i think it would make sense to mention power chords even though the article is essentially (and rightly) based on physics. because distortion is non-linear, combinations of notes produce more harmonics than the individual notes separately. so, many chords generate harmonics that spoil their non-distorted character (e.g. sounding muddy or unpleasant). power chords are simplified (generally three-note) chords that work well with large amounts of distortion. the complexity that is normally produced by having six or more notes in a chord is replaced by the complexity added by the distortion harmonics
This section, and the reference (number 40), is wrong. It's such an oft repeated myth that many believe it.
The symmetry/asymmetry of clipping (and of amp topology) decides whether odd or even harmonics are created by distortion, not the hardness of the clip.
Also the tube/transistor difference is also bogus. A transistor topology, and a tube topology, can be made which clips symmetrically or asymmetrically. It's just that typical tube circuits happen to clip more asymmetrically (so even harmonics), by virtue of their topology, not because of the properties of tubes. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mongreilf ( talk • contribs) 10:27, December 29, 2012
Clipping is a non-linear process that produces frequencies not originally present in the audio signal. These frequencies can either be "harmonic", meaning they are whole number multiples of the signal's original frequencies, or "'inharmonic", meaning dissonant odd-order overtones
440Hz and its (odd-order) third harmonic 1320Hz are far from dissonant. 1320Hz is in fact one octave above the perfect fifth - hardly dissonant! 78.102.146.20 ( talk) 07:40, 21 January 2013 (UTC)
I don't want to pick a fight by changing a sentence out of hand, so:
"Distortion effects are used with electric guitars, electric basses (fuzz bass), electronic keyboards, and in some cases with vocals."
I'm a cellist. I don't own an electric cello (even though even that wouldn't be included in the above statement), but I have certainly had cause to use discortion effects, using analog and digital implements, in my own work. A body or bridge mic and a distortion pedal makes everything good to go, and just about any acoustic stringed instrument can use it. Acoustic wind or brass intstruments can route a mic signal through a pedal as well, though it requires some tweaking through a mixer for optimal effect.
So no, distortion effects are not the sole domain of electric guitars and basses, or even only electric instruments.
Please provide audio files as Examples for different kinds of distortions. Best will be, if wave-form of original-sound , and its distorted form, also shown.
RIT RAJARSHI ( talk) 08:21, 14 April 2016 (UTC)
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