Groove3 Creative Ways to Use Saturation and Distortion Explained

If you think you've heard it all when it comes to saturation and distortion, think again! Plugin expert Gary Hiebner shares a myriad of creative uses in this comprehensive video course that will have you rethinking everything you know about these tried-and-true, gritty friends of ours. From effect chain order to parallel and mid/side processing and more, the techniques demonstrated here will ignite your creativity and get you thinking outside the box for your next productions. You also get all the wav files Gary uses in the videos so you can apply your own distortion and saturation effects while following along to the videos. These videos are for users with a basic familiarity of distortion and saturation effects and routing.

After welcoming you to the course, Gary begins with an overview of saturation and distortion, explaining what exactly is going on with an audio signal that's distorted so you can better understand what you'll be working with. He talks about various types of distortion and saturation and shows how the waveform is changed and affected through various types of processing. Then, he discusses the difference between using the effect as a send or insert, explaining the advantages of each.

Next, explore the concept of effect chain order, which plays a vital role in how distortion affects the signal. Hear the difference in several different configurations with telling audio demonstrations that really elucidate the point. Gary then covers the various ways that EQ and compression can be used in conjunction with distortion with various results - an idea that's often overlooked and under-appreciated.

There's much more to come, including creating lo-fi effects with bit crushing and downsampling, parallel saturation on drums (both full drum set and individual drums), multi-band distortion on bass and synth, saturation/distortion on vocals and sound effects, adding extra harmonics with fuzz, chaining multiple distortion effects together, side-chain techniques with saturation, combining distortion with reverb, automating distortion effects, employing guitar pedals (stomp boxes) into your setup, mid/side processing, and more!

Throughout the videos Gary uses the following plugin effects, but you can use different distortion and saturation effects with similar results:

Native Instruments Dirt

Studio One Bitcrusher

Audiority Big Goat

Studio One RedLightDist

Waves J37

Audiority Green Reaper

iZotope Ozone

SoftTube Saturation Knob

Brainworx bx_Greenscreamer

Brainworx bx_Metal 2

Presonus Ampire

For more information on what these in-depth distortion and saturation video tutorials cover, see the individual saturation and distortion video descriptions. Don't settle for lackluster saturated sounds anymore... watch "Creative Ways to Use Saturation & Distortion Explained®" today!