Dan Dupuis' Overdrive
VST plugin
Design
This plugin is an overdrive effect that is most effective on an
audio file that contains a single instrument playing a single line of
music. It will work for any audio file, but when there are more than 2 notes
being played at the same time, the overdrive muddles the sound, making the
music sound pretty bad.
The goal was to model a basic guitar amplifier that has a preamp before the
main amplifier. Traditionally, overdrive (distortion) occurs in hardware when
the hardware cannot handle the amplitude of the sound wave. The sound
wave is then clipped at a certain value, which changes the shape of the wave,
created distortion of the original sound.
This plugin achieves distortion by simulating a clipping value in
software. If the amplitude of the sound wave exceeds the user-defined
clipping value, the amplitude at the particular instance of time is set to the
clipping value. This allows you to create distortion at low volumes,
which is ideal if you don't want to destroy your speakers. Since the can
make the audio file quieter, a post gain parameter is provided so the user can
recreate or exceed the initial volume of the original audio clip.
User Manual
NOTE: This plugin was tested in Ableton Live 7
PARAMETERS
Pre Clip Gain
Clip Value
Post Clip Gain
USAGE
To achieve the overdrive, start with the Post Clip Gain at a low volume. Increase the Pre Clip Gain and decrease the Clip Value until you achieve the desired distortion, then adjust the Post Clip Gain.
Downloads
Download plugin: test.zip
Original Mp3 files are taken from Tales from the