Distortion

Creative Signal Processing

Hey anybody ever tried to get a signal distorted on purpose as the basis of building a new sound?

Like sample a wah guitar at +40, low pass filter it and then turn the volume down while slowing the tempo, you could get some new aural textures like that. (The trick is getting just enough distortion but not too much coaxing chit into your gear

Mess with it enough and trim it down, you could even be flowers with some bass or other sounds.

Anybody let their sh!t clip on purpose so they can do this?

What are some other ways to play with distortion?

I turn my gain up on my mixer so it's clipping and then a little bit more. Then I slowly move the fader up from the bottom till it's at a decent sampleable level.

Obvious but it works.

Yeah I used to overdrive the desk inputs as well. And overdrive tape. Now I have a Sherman Filterbank which gives me all the distortion/overdrive I need.