Distortion question

muscleman · 23rd January 2012

There is a unique pedal that I am trying to remember.

It claimed to distort the wave nearer to the zero crossing instead of folding the peaks.

My question is whether this is less noticeable due to it happening in the lower amplitude regions of the wave?

Just want to know if it is effective.

Ethan Winer · 24th January 2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by muscleman

My question is whether this is less noticeable due to it happening in the lower amplitude regions of the wave?

I assume you're talking about the difference as shown in the attached image. What matters most for audibility is the magnitude of the wave disruption.

--Ethan

acreil · 25th January 2012

In typical distortion circuits, the THD increases as level increases. If it distorts near the zero crossing, the THD increases as level decreases.

It usually sounds like shit, for one thing because it suggests either malfunctioning or low quality electronics, but also because it's not really intuitively expressive. You typically want complexity of timbre (distortion, higher harmonics) to coincide with higher amplitudes, not the other way around.

JohnRoberts · 25th January 2012

Hypotheticals like this are impossible to answer without making ASSumptions. There are different kinds of low level distortion.. One common one AKA crossover distortion is peculiar to pure class B circuits where there is a dead time between one device turning off and the other turning on... This particular type of distortion has relatively HF content (since rate of change for a sine wave is max at 0V). OTOH, the image Ethan provided looks a little more like the starved distortion tubes make when overloaded, so it doesn't have the same HF sonic signature as class B crossover distortion.

As Ethan said how noticeable is a simple matter of how much energy and spectral content.

Doesn't sound like anything remarkable..

If it sounds good it is.. if not it's not.

JR

JakeAC5253 · 26th January 2012

Assuming you mean that it uses some form of clipping diodes with a very low threshold, then as R.G. Keen would say, all square waves sound alike. As he maintains, diodes and gain staging nuances may make a difference when talking about soft clipping, but once square wave clipping has been reached, it doesn't matter if you use a $400 NOS Germanium Russian Military spec transistor can... it won't make any notable improvement over any other part.

From my own experience, the harder you drive a signal into diode clippers once square wave has been reached, the higher the resonant peak goes. If you turn a gain trimmer knob before the clippers, you can actually hear the frequency change in real time. Not sure if that answers your question or I am just rambling...

23rd January 2012	#1
muscleman Gear nut Joined: Jan 2012 Posts: 101 Thread Starter	Distortion question There is a unique pedal that I am trying to remember. It claimed to distort the wave nearer to the zero crossing instead of folding the peaks. My question is whether this is less noticeable due to it happening in the lower amplitude regions of the wave? Just want to know if it is effective. __________________ upup unun eveneven steps and talkingtalkings hard

25th January 2012	#3
acreil Lives for gear Joined: May 2010 Posts: 723	In typical distortion circuits, the THD increases as level increases. If it distorts near the zero crossing, the THD increases as level decreases. It usually sounds like shit, for one thing because it suggests either malfunctioning or low quality electronics, but also because it's not really intuitively expressive. You typically want complexity of timbre (distortion, higher harmonics) to coincide with higher amplitudes, not the other way around. __________________ New 53-EDO algorithmic composition Wanted: Kurzweil K250 power pod, Motorola MC68B09E, Korg Polysix keys. youtube, soundcloud(1), soundcloud(2), bandcamp, last.fm

25th January 2012	#4
JohnRoberts Lives for gear Joined: Nov 2006 Location: Hickory, MS Posts: 2,047	Hypotheticals like this are impossible to answer without making ASSumptions. There are different kinds of low level distortion.. One common one AKA crossover distortion is peculiar to pure class B circuits where there is a dead time between one device turning off and the other turning on... This particular type of distortion has relatively HF content (since rate of change for a sine wave is max at 0V). OTOH, the image Ethan provided looks a little more like the starved distortion tubes make when overloaded, so it doesn't have the same HF sonic signature as class B crossover distortion. As Ethan said how noticeable is a simple matter of how much energy and spectral content. Doesn't sound like anything remarkable.. If it sounds good it is.. if not it's not. JR __________________ John Roberts www.CircularScience.com

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26th January 2012	#5
JakeAC5253 Gear interested Joined: Jan 2012 Posts: 3	Assuming you mean that it uses some form of clipping diodes with a very low threshold, then as R.G. Keen would say, all square waves sound alike. As he maintains, diodes and gain staging nuances may make a difference when talking about soft clipping, but once square wave clipping has been reached, it doesn't matter if you use a $400 NOS Germanium Russian Military spec transistor can... it won't make any notable improvement over any other part. From my own experience, the harder you drive a signal into diode clippers once square wave has been reached, the higher the resonant peak goes. If you turn a gain trimmer knob before the clippers, you can actually hear the frequency change in real time. Not sure if that answers your question or I am just rambling...