Hello Composers! Mike here, with a quick guide on the Best Distortion VST Plugins. =)
The Distortion Effect (or Saturation Effect) is a fundamental tool in music production. And it comes in many shapes and forms, from analog and warm saturation and channel strips, to fat distortion modules, to dirty waveshapers.
VST 4 FREE - Free Audio Plug-ins and Archives Free audio plugins archive - Instruments and effects for audio software. Plugins for Cubase, FL studio, Reaper, Ableton and other VST/AU platforms. Distortion plugins, vst Distortion plugins, buy Distortion plugins online, Distortion effects, download Distortion plugin, free trial, rtas, aax, au at Pluginboutique.com. Misstortion 2 is a free distortion plugin for VST-based hosts. Does its best to be like Logic's Clip Distortion and adds a bunch of other great features, which makes it very useful for the Hardstyle genre. Symmetry: Make your waveform asymmetrical for more finetuned distortion. Hard clip: Simple hard clip distortion. If you’ve taken to Google to see what you can find about distortion plugins, Soundtoys Decapitator is a name you’ll see pop up again and again. There’s a good reason for that—it’s probably the number one distortion VST’s currently on the market. It’s able to produce a wide range of saturation tones. Second to last on our best vst plugins of 2021 list, we have the Piano category. We know that, finding great Piano emulations can be extremely difficult. So we decided to try and test the very best virtual instruments, in search of the most realistic emulations of Piano plugins available. Available for Download. Utility 10 Analog 8 Imaging 6 Modulators 6 Delay 5 Distortion 5 Filter 5 Chorus 4 Dynamics 4 EQ 4 Mid-Side 4 Stereo-Field 4 Synthesizer 4 Vintage 4 Algorithmic 3 Amp-Simulator 3 Bitcrusher 3 Mastering 3 Reverb 3 Subtractive 3. Top 20 Saturation & Distortion Plugins for Electronic Music In short, saturation is THE most effective way to add analogue edge and warmth to your music – often meaning the difference between sounding digital, flat, & dead, versus analogue, warm & alive.
They all change and boost the harmonics in any sound you add it to, from subtle to extreme, based on your creative choices. All in all, the distortion effect is almost like “hot sauce”…once you tasted it, you simply want to put it on everything.
But which Distortion VST Plugins should you choose? Well, here is my complete list of recommendations for you (in no particular order):
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When I first get started with music production, I wonder why some music producers would want to mess with a distortion effect in their tracks, perhaps, I initially have an understanding that there is a limit for how loud an audio signal can be, once this limit is reached, it would distort and produce an annoying, raspy, fuzzy loud sound that is unwanted for the hearing.
This is where I got it wrong, I was thinking in terms of digital clipping, although not bad as sometimes the DAW peak meter can be somewhat pretentious (use your ear for accurate judgment), but it gets worse when your sound is being cut off when the signal reaches 0 dBFS (full-scale) on a meter, which results in an unsmooth distortion.
Welcome to the world of analog distortion where it is more forgiving in how it distorts when compared to digital, the output waveforms are “rounded” when it reaches the limit. Analog distortion is used creatively by musicians and recording engineers all the time.
Does that mean, you need to buy analog hardware to use a distortion effect, hell no! There are lots of VST plugin emulations that can act as close as possible to the real thing, and honestly, how you use them is strictly a matter of choice, just don’t overdo and trust your ears.
For example, you can use them to warm up your sound, by giving them more character and not too harsh type of sound, and you can also go the other way round, e.g creating an in-your-face, crunchy type of effect. Anyways, it is up to you on how you use it, let’s go over the best free and paid distortion effect VST plugins of the year 2020.
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The first giant on our list is the Trash2 distortion plugin by renowned Izotope, this new version is built to feature an entirely new sonic architecture, with optimized performance, pristine sound quality, and better support for modern hosts & formats.
Let’s deep dive into Trash 2 main features:
The edge Trash 2 has over other distortion plugin is that it combines the power of multi-band, dual-stage distortions, and advanced post-filtering for immediate sonic transformation. If you want a warm crunch on the midrange or you want to spice your low end without sacrificing the quality of the sound, then Trash 2 is what you want, it does the job without little to no side effects.
Ideally, you’ll want to use distortion for your guitar or perhaps basses, well, that’s an old story, you can use it for your drums, synths, woodwinds and more as long as it musically connects the rest of the element in the mix.
What if you could design your distortion algorithms? With Izotope Trash 2, you can simply draw in, tweak, and create a plethora of distortions, if you are like me, I’ll go over the 60+ distortion algorithms and adjust to your heart desire.
Creating a distortion algorithm is one thing, morphing sound from one object with the Convolve module is another thing, with this module you can load any .wav or .aiff file into Trash 2, and create a powerful sonic characteristic of your wildest imagination onto any track or instrument., all done with a single mouse click. Also, the Convolve module includes over 100 impulse responses—a collection of amps, objects, animal sounds, and mouth shapes that are ready and waiting to transform your sound.
Another interesting thing about Trash 2 is that you can control the frequencies you want into distortion or tame the ones you don’t want. On top of that, you get over 20+ sweepable filters for tons of tonal options that range from clean and warm to fat and juicy to harsh and clipping.
What I do not like about Trash 2 is that there are lots of options to play with, just too many to count, so, if you are looking for an advance distortion plugin, then Trash 2 is the way to go, if you are looking for something simple and snappy, then I’ll recommend using either Ravage or Distortion Snapin, which are both covered on this list.
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Let’s get onto the next one…
Subvert comes bundled with a plethora of features to create a great distortion effect. It incorporates 5 effects: multimode distortion, FM ring modulator, digitizer, metallizer and multimode filter. Also, it offers three parallel channels of each effects chain as well as a rich modulation routing options.
With its multi-channel layout and per-effect bypass option, you can readjust the order of effects in each chain in a variety of creative ways. On top of that, there are 15 effects processors, global EQ, numerous modulation options, and global randomizer.
Lastly, it has a multi-mode filter which gives you the possibility to set up multi-band effects patches where each channel is processing a different frequency range of the incoming signal. Bypassing certain effects within a chain allows you to globally reconfigure the order of effects, thereby giving you many options in setting up parallel and serial processing patches.
Unfortunately, there are way too many options in this plugin and a little hard on the eye, so, if you need something really simple, you might want to check other plugins on this list, other than that, it is a powerful plugin and gives you the flexibility to create an advanced distortion effect.
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Ravage is one of the most renowned and simple distortion plugins out there, it features six modeled distortion algorithms: Tube, Digital, Diode, Linear Fold, Zero Sq and Rectify, each with a different personality for adding grit and dirt to audio.
It also has a Drive control for pushing the signal harder, and depending on the level you aiming for, you can also experiment with the Destroy parameter for achieving an in-your-face type of distortion, just don’t overdo. There is also a high and low pass filter, as well as a Dark/Bright slider to weight the distortion’s energy.
One of my favorite features of this plugin is the Ravage’s Movement panel, which lets you assign modulators to one of eight destinations including Drive and Pan. You also can customize an LFO’s movement using nodes and curves to whip up customized patterns. To take your modulation further, Ravage offers playhead reversal, waveform smoothing, and pulse width manipulation.
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Screamo is an intuitive distortion plugin that features a few numbers of knobs to get a superb distortion effect, let’s get to know some of its features:
Smear: This is two resonant shelving filters that producers a talk-box-like effect when used with restraint or full-on screamer when pushed hard. matrix path of neo crack free download You have the option to play with 3 different styles of smear effect: upward, downward or two-way frequency modulation.
Up next is the Drive control which makes your drum loops or synth cut through the mix, this won’t work for all synth or percussion loop for sure, you just have to pay careful attention to details when applying the control. For example, you can push your signal from subtle saturation to extreme overdrive.
Also, you don’t have to worry about syncing, the Smear, Drive, and Makeup controls are all synced together allowing you to create tempo-synced scream effects that would normally be very complex to achieve with normal plugin routing.
Free mpc style vst. I also love the way you can add more control to the distortion, for example, Screamo features the Shape, Speed and Smooth knobs for controlling and designing how you want the waveform to look like, It’s possible to create a slowly evolving talk-box effect or crazy fluttering overdrive – and everything in between.
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Devastor 2 is a plugin by the D16 Group, and it is built with multiband distortion unit in mind, it has full control over multiband processing, which can greatly enhance your sound,
The way Devastor work is that it has nine different connection topologies between its filters and diode-clipper. So, you can either process the signal before or after it gets fed into the diode-clipper, but some of the configurations even allow the filters to work alongside the clipper, which greatly increases the possible sonic palette.
Whether you plan on using it on a percussion loop, guitar, synth and whatever you can think, it can be used to improve the character of the sounds, just make sure you are gently applying it, this way, you can achieve more of a warmth and detail in your sound without introducing unwanted distortions, but if you are looking for something rugged and jagged, you can also push up the knobs accordingly.
Another great thing about Devastor is that D16 Group has built special antialiasing techniques to the output signal to make sure it was devoid of aliasing, this way, it sounds more interesting, warm, and musical, enjoy away.
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The next distortion plugin on our list is the Saturn Distortion Unit by Fabfilter, it offers a range of numerous high-quality distortion models, which are inspired by the vintage sound of tubes, tape, and guitar amps. To top that, you get three creative distortion styles, with which you can smudge, stretch, crush, rectify, and clip your sounds in weird and unimaginable ways.
There is also a multiband design and per-band feedback module, which can help you narrow down on how you want the distortion applied to your track, on top of all this, you also have the ability to blend in modulation for a great warm and superb distortion effect.
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Every kiloHearts plugin I have tried always have a form of simplicity, and to be honest, they are good and straight to the point. Distortion Snapin is one of their product and offers 5 different distortion shapes, which can be used to add a tinge of edge or rip things apart.
It is as simple as that, if you need something complex, then you can check one of the distortion plugins above.
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Temper is a modern digital distortion plugin by the Team at Creative Intent, it features a rich saturation stage and a unique phase distortion. You can use the variable saturation curve to add warmth and edge to your sound and let the phase distortion bring character and clarity through your mix.
It also features a simple resonant lowpass filter and a feedback path to drive the intensity of the tone.
If you are a plugin developer, I would want you to know that the open source is widely available, you can contribute and glance through the code, you can even the tweak it to your use cases, that is the beauty of open-sourcing.
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When it comes to emulating distortion effects, I give Distorque Audio 90% rating, and now they present Rangebastard which is an emulation of a Dallas Rangemaster with added controls for tweaking or for use as a full-range booster, an overdrive, and more. Also, it supports both mono, and stereo, and has 2x oversampling.
About Rangematser Free syth vst plugins.
The Rangemaster was a Germanium transistor treble boost developed in the 1960s. It and similar effects have been used by Eric Claption, Brian May, and many more great guitarists. It’s most often used to drive a distorted tube amp into more distortion, while boosting the upper-mids for a screaming lead sound.
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TAL-DAC is a free bit crusher and sample rate reducer by TAL Software.
It is based on the TAL-Sampler sound engine, and emulates a sample recorded on a low sample rate with reduced bit depth, and upsamples it to the desired host sample rate.
Also, it is possible to choose different algorithms for the upsampling process to emulate the characteristics of different samplers.
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