(See the Guitar Distortion properties below.)
Distortion is a form of non-linear processing that alters the shape of the waveform and introduces frequency components not present in the original signal. The Guitar Distortion plug-in mimics the behavior of commonly encountered distortion 'stomp boxes' to obtain typical guitar distortion sounds.
The Guitar Distortion plug-in provides several flavors of distortion algorithms. The following transfer function figures show how different distortion types affect the signals. In these figures, when there is no distortion, the transfer function (on the left) shows that output amplitude is always the same as the input amplitude. The output of the algorithm when fed a sine wave (on the right) is not distorted.
Distortion type 'Clip' clamps the levels symmetrically for negative and positive values with a hard knee transition (that is, no transition) when the amplitude reaches the overload level.
Distortion type 'Overdrive' clamps the levels symmetrically for negative and positive values with a soft knee transition that slowly progresses towards total clipping when the amplitude reaches the overload level.
Distortion type 'Heavy' clamps the levels symmetrically for negative and positive values with a soft knee transition that slowly progresses towards total clipping when the amplitude reaches the overload level. The transfer function is more abrupt around zero values so that more sustain is achieved. This is typically used with higher values of drive parameter to get a heavy metal kind of distortion.
Distortion type 'Fuzz' clamps the levels asymmetrically for negative and positive values. It uses a soft knee transition that slowly progresses towards total clipping for negative amplitudes and a hard knee at higher level amplitude threshold for positive values. This type of distortion is more suited for monophonic solo type materials as it rapidly becomes very inharmonic when fed complex polyphonic tones. The additional tone parameter primarily controls the soft knee for negative amplitudes (figure uses a Tone parameter set to 10).
The rectification parameter can perform half-wave rectification for parameter values up to 50% and full-wave rectification for parameter values between 50% and 100%. Half Wave rectification prevents the negative portion of the signal from going lower than a certain amplitude; for example, changing from -1 to 0 based on rectification control with 0% applying no half-wave rectification and 50% not allowing completely clipping negative signals.
Full-wave rectification goes further and makes the negative portion of the input signal gradually more positive based on the rectification parameter value. At 100%, full-wave rectification is achieved and the negative portion of the signal is essentially flipped in polarity. This has the effect of doubling the fundamental frequency of the signal and can be used as an 'octaver' Effect.
Because distortion is a non-linear process (that is, applying a gain prior to the distortion is not equivalent to applying it after), it follows that frequency specific gains used when filtering also have a different effect when applied before or after the distortion algorithm. In fact, it is quite common to filter a signal in a way (for example, boost low frequencies) to get the distortion algorithm to behave in a desired way and then filter out the same frequency region afterwards to cancel the overall filtering effect that was applied prior to the distortion. For this reason, a fully fledged parametric EQ is provided before and after the distortion process to be able to customize the behavior of the distortion and obtain many different flavors of distortion.
The Guitar Distortion plug-in contains a series of properties, many of which can be edited in real time and can be mapped to specific Game Parameters using RTPCs.
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Interface Element |
Description | |||
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Name |
The name of the Effect instance. Effect instances are a group of effect property settings. They can be one of two types: custom instances or ShareSets. Custom instances can be used by only one object, whereas ShareSets can be shared across several objects. | |||
 |
Displays the object's color. Clicking the icon opens the color selector.  Select a color to apply it to the object. When you choose a color for an object, a palette icon appears on the selected square, as well as a yellow triangle in the lower-right corner, as shown. To inherit the parent object's color, select the square at the far left of the color selector. | |||
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Inclusion |
Determines whether the element is included in the SoundBanks when they are generated. When selected, the element is included. When unselected, the element is not included. To optimize your sound design for each platform, you might want to exclude certain elements on certain platforms. By default, this check box applies across all platforms. Use the Link indicator to the left of the check box to unlink the element. Then you can customize the state of the check box per platform. When this option is unselected, the property and behavior options in the editor become unavailable. Default value: true | |||
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Indicates the number of elements in your project that contain direct references to the object. The icon is displayed in orange when references to the object exist, and in gray when no references exist. Selecting the button opens the Reference View with the object's name in the References to: field. | |||
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Notes |
Additional information about the Effect. | |||
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Metering |
Indicates the name of the object currently being metered. | |||
 |
Allows you to browse for other objects to meter.
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Sets the display of the Effect Editor's selected tabs. By default, there is one panel displaying only one selected tab. You can, however, click a splitter button to split the panel into two, either side by side or one on top of the other, for two different tabs. The currently selected option is highlighted with a background color.
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![[Note]](/images/2023.1.9_8628/?source=Help&id=note.png)
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Pre-Distortion EQ | ||||
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Pre-Distortion EQ Band Enable |
Enables the EQ band when selected. Default value: false | |||
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Pre-Distortion EQ Band Curve |
Determines the type of filtering that can be applied to the signal in a given EQ band. The following filters are available:
Default value: Low Shelf | |||
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Pre-Distortion EQ Band Gain |
The amount of the amplification of the audio signal for the selected frequency band. Increasing this value “boosts” the audio signal. Decreasing this value “cuts” or attenuates the audio signal.
Default value: 0 Range: -48 to 48 Units: dB | |||
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Pre-Distortion EQ Band Frequency |
The portion of the frequency spectrum that will be affected by the gain. Default value: 1000 Range: 20 to 20000 Units: Hz | |||
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Pre-Distortion EQ Band Quality Factor |
The area around the center frequency that will be affected by the change in gain. A low Q value means that the bandwidth range will be wide, and conversely a high Q value means that the bandwidth range will be narrow. This control is not available when the Low Pass, High Pass, Low Shelf, and High Shelf curves have been selected. Default value: 1 Range: 0.1 to 20 | |||
Distortion | ||||
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Type |
The type of distortion algorithm that will be applied. The following options are available:
Default value: None | |||
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Drive |
This parameter scales the input signal prior to the evaluation of the transfer function. It can be thought as the amount of distortion that will be applied. Default value: 50 Range: 0 to 100 Units: % | |||
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Tone |
Changes the transfer function as specified in the text above.
Default value: 50 Range: 0 to 100 Units: % | |||
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Distortion Rectification |
Amount of half-wave or full-wave rectification that will affect the negative portions of the input signal. Refer to Rectification for more details. Default value: 0 Range: 0 to 100 Units: % | |||
Output | ||||
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Output Gain |
The amount of gain applied to the output signal. Default value: 0 Range: -24 to 24 Units: dB | |||
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Wet/Dry Mix |
Controls the balance between the wet path (the output of the Effect) and the dry path (the input of the Effect). A value of 0 yields the original signal unaffected by the Effect while the a value of 100 outputs only the output of the Effect. Default value: 100 Range: 0 to 100 Units: % | |||
Post-Distortion EQ | ||||
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Post-Distortion EQ Band Enable |
Enables the EQ band when selected. Default value: false | |||
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Post-Distortion EQ Band Curve |
Determines the type of filtering that can be applied to the signal in a given EQ band. The following filters are available:
Default value: Low Shelf | |||
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Post-Distortion EQ Band Gain |
The amount of the amplification of the audio signal for the selected frequency band. Increasing this value “boosts” the audio signal. Decreasing this value “cuts” or attenuates the audio signal.
Default value: 0 Range: -48 to 48 Units: dB | |||
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Post-Distortion EQ Band Frequency |
The portion of the frequency spectrum that will be affected by the gain. Default value: 1000 Range: 20 to 20000 Units: Hz | |||
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Post-Distortion EQ Band Quality Factor |
The area around the center frequency that will be affected by the change in gain. A low Q value means that the bandwidth range will be wide, and conversely a high Q value means that the bandwidth range will be narrow. This control is not available when the Low Pass, High Pass, Low Shelf, and High Shelf curves have been selected. Default value: 1 Range: 0.1 to 20 | |||
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