Like analog distortion, digital distortion can be purposeful or?

Many old-school producers still grit their teeth when the topic of Distortion comes up. This is because Distortion was a big problem back in the days. Volume levels would go beyond what a certain piece of hardware could handle and you’d end up with a tidal wave of unwanted noise that would kill your mix.

The Distortion of today is not that different, except for the fact that it has gone from undesirable effect to creative tool. Most Distortion tools – we should really say Distortion simulators – imitate certain forms of analog Distortion while giving it a spin of their own. Guitar amps are excellent examples of this, often used to give electric guitars their raw and rocky edge.

But Distortion is also a great weapon for dance music producers, not just for the people who like harsh guitar riffs. In its plug-in form, Distortion tools add large amounts of gain to your audio signal, causing the peaks of the signal/sound to compress or clip. This leads to various effects, such as added harmonics and a smaller dynamic range. But most importantly, the right amount of Distortion can make your audio signal sound warmer and more nasty. And that’s exactly what you wanted, right?

Explanation: