Distortion guide

Not many areas in audio processing have been evolved as much as distortion. Distortion originated in analogue history, being an unwanted side-effect of imperfect physical components, but later distortion devices have been exploited in many different ways from overdriving electric guitars to warming up audio materials during everyday mixing.

Table of contents


Saturation

Saturation basically simulates the non-linear response of analog components, whether these are tubes, transistors or magnetic tapes. When not pushed too hard, these processors can warm up your audio materials, brightening it up a little and providing some higher harmonics. They are often used during both mixing and mastering and can supply an analogue feel to just about any material.

MSaturatorMB is a multiband version of MSaturator, which is more like a saturator than limiter (the name needs to be kept for the sake of backward compatibility). MSaturatorMB also features the powerful modulators.

MSaturator

Free

A smooth saturation in a definitive tube-like way improving the clarity of the resulting sound.

MSaturatorMB

An extremely musical saturation plugin, combines the best from both the analogue and digital worlds.

Amp simulations

Amp Simulations attempt to simulate the good features of distorting analogue devices - amps, speakers etc. Our plugins do not simulate any specific analogue equipment, instead we specialize in generalized algorithms, that take the best from both the analogue and digital worlds and avoid the bad characteristics.

MAmp is a very easy-to-use but superb sounding amp simulator designed for everyday mixing.
MDistortionMB combines generalized guitar amp & speaker simulation with several purely digital algorithms. It is especially useful for guitars and bass, but can be creatively useful on any other instrument, such as drums.

MAmp

A great sounding vintage amp for saturation, harmonic content enhancement, creative distortion.

MDistortionMB

A unique distortion plugin combining an amp simulator with a digital distortion processor.

Wave-shapers

Wave-shapers do exactly what the name suggests - they change the shape of individual waves. That results in various degrees of creative distortion.

MWaveShaper and MWaveShaperMB let you literally draw the shape you'd like making the distortion an art on its own.
MWaveFolder and MWaveFolderMB are based on certain analogue devices, which create specific wave shapes and usually provide a huge amount of distortion and higher harmonics. These devices were mainly used for creative sound design, but our simulations seem to be very useful for all kinds of audio material.

MWaveFolder

Free

An analogue-inspired distortion module with a unique character ranging from mild harmonic enhancement to a complete sound destruction.

MWaveFolderMB

Powerful distortion module, inspired by analogue, taken to a new level using digital processing.

MWaveShaper

Free

A waveshaper that lets you construct your own shape and features lots of other goodiess.

MWaveShaperMB

The ultimate wave-shaper in which you can draw your own shapes in each of up to 6 bands!

Purely digital distortion

There are certainly many things that can be done only in the digital domain. These can result in extreme amounts of distortion with very specific character.

MBitFun

Free

A serious tool for extreme distortion lovers that lets you do all sorts of bad things to bits!

MBitFunMB

A serious tool for extreme distortion lovers that lets you do really bad things to your bits!

Frequency shifters

Frequency shifters, unlike most other distortion processors, do not produce higher-harmonics; instead they shift the whole spectrum up/down, which changes the harmonic relationship between individual frequencies and results in distortion-like sound. These are mainly useful for creative sound design.

MFreqShifter

Free

A powerful frequency shifter for everything from mild stereo expansion to complete destruction.

MFreqShifterMB

A powerful frequency shifter for everything from mild stereo expansion to complete destruction.

Ring-modulation

Ring-modulators are in principle similar to frequency shifters, but they produce richer and a more inharmonic spectrum. They are generally used in creative sound design, mainly on percussive material.

MRingModulator

Free

Classic ring-modulation effects using two oscillators with customizable shapes.

MRingModulatorMB

Extremely advanced ring-modulation effect with up to 6 bands, modulators and much more.