“Distortion is a tool with real nuance and depth” Distortion is distortion, isn’t it? Pick a plugin – any plugin – then nudge the gain till you get warm saturation, crunchy drive or all-out cranium-crushing distorted mayhem. Job done! Or so I used to think…
Yet once I began to take music production seriously, I realised that distortion is a tool with serious nuance and depth – as much as any EQ, compressor or reverb, in fact, and with the potential to sound way worse than any of those if you get it wrong.
So, what’s the trick to using saturation to create mixes that are warm and classy, and not just cheap and, well, distorted? How do you get those grinding, chainsaw distortion tones to sound solid, controlled and…
