Sound FX

Distortion 4

″You can tell me the world is round, and I′ll prove to you its squareYou can keep your feet on the ground, but I′ll be walking on airYou′re pretty good at waiting, while I go running around Well that′s just the way it is, you know.″

— ″HOLE IN MY POCKET,″ SHERYL CROW, C′MON, C′MON (A&M RECORDS, 2002)

Those waveforms appearing on the computer screen of any digital audio workstation sketch amplitude versus time. This chapter leaves the time axis well alone and focuses on the sometimes accidental and sometimes deliberate manipulation of the amplitude axis. Amplitude axis distortion represents a family of effects common in many styles of multitrack production. As many decades of rock and roll have shown, distortion is often sought out, ...