Hello and welcome to this week's article! Today we're going to talk about VST guitar distortions!
Let's start with the typical question "what is a distortion"?
The distortion is a tool used by musicians to add bite and aggressiveness to a sound that can be usually guitar or bass, but it can also be used on vocals, drums and anything else (noise and industrial music experimented a lot in this sense).
A distortion takes the raw incoming signal and intentionally boosts it to the point where the top and bottom of the sound wave "clips", causing the sound to distort.
This operation deliberately degrades the signal, but if handled carefully this distorted signal can sound pleasing, and today it is an essential requirement for many modern music genres.
As for the overdrive and the fuzz, pedal distortions were created because in the sixties and seventies guitar amps were usually not able to deliver a distorted signal, they were only able to give a saturated sound if the power amp was cranked to the limit, and this was not enough for the young bands of the time that were searching for more harsh and gritty tones.
Since a guitar distortion is more strong than an overdrive, many guitarists of the eighties, especially in the heavy metal scene (for example Judas Priest and Steve Vai), were used to plug a Boss Ds-1 distortion in the clean channel of an amp and use only the distortion generated from the stompbox, but in the last two decades we have seen an increasing of the popularity of amplifier distortion (that in the meantime have become very strong) ad its digital simulations, to the point that an overdrive is today often used just to tame some frequency of an already distorted guitar amp tone, instead of adding gain.
Guitar distortions are still today very popular, nevertheless, and every guitar and bass effect producer has some in their catalogue.
Here are some of the best free Guitar and Bass Vst distortions, try them out and let us know what do you think!
Ignite Amps PROF.E.T: a preamp stompbox that sounds extremely well, maybe one of the best free metal preamps around.
Mercuriall Audio Metal Area: A simulation of the Boss Metal zone, extremely realistic and with an interface even better than the original.
Softamp GT: The simulation of the Sansamp GT2 stompbox, really suggested both for guitar and bass.
Softdrive GV: The simulation of the legendary Marshall Guv'nor Stompbox
Retro Sampling Stomp Box Collection: a free collection of guitar stompboxes, including distortions.
7Amp Guitar Distortion Pedal Emulator: an interesting distortion for guitar with many controls
TSE BOD: a bass overdrive-distortion modeled after the Sansamp Bass Driver DI
Extremist: a vst guitar distortions with a 15 band equalizer
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As for the overdrive and the fuzz, pedal distortions were created because in the sixties and seventies guitar amps were usually not able to deliver a distorted signal, they were only able to give a saturated sound if the power amp was cranked to the limit, and this was not enough for the young bands of the time that were searching for more harsh and gritty tones.
Since a guitar distortion is more strong than an overdrive, many guitarists of the eighties, especially in the heavy metal scene (for example Judas Priest and Steve Vai), were used to plug a Boss Ds-1 distortion in the clean channel of an amp and use only the distortion generated from the stompbox, but in the last two decades we have seen an increasing of the popularity of amplifier distortion (that in the meantime have become very strong) ad its digital simulations, to the point that an overdrive is today often used just to tame some frequency of an already distorted guitar amp tone, instead of adding gain.
Guitar distortions are still today very popular, nevertheless, and every guitar and bass effect producer has some in their catalogue.
Here are some of the best free Guitar and Bass Vst distortions, try them out and let us know what do you think!
Ignite Amps PROF.E.T: a preamp stompbox that sounds extremely well, maybe one of the best free metal preamps around.
Mercuriall Audio Metal Area: A simulation of the Boss Metal zone, extremely realistic and with an interface even better than the original.
Softamp GT: The simulation of the Sansamp GT2 stompbox, really suggested both for guitar and bass.
Softdrive GV: The simulation of the legendary Marshall Guv'nor Stompbox
Retro Sampling Stomp Box Collection: a free collection of guitar stompboxes, including distortions.
7Amp Guitar Distortion Pedal Emulator: an interesting distortion for guitar with many controls
TSE BOD: a bass overdrive-distortion modeled after the Sansamp Bass Driver DI
Extremist: a vst guitar distortions with a 15 band equalizer
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Hey atoragon, great article on distortions VSTs! It's nice to read from someone who knows differences in distortion types and sounds, essential knowledge for any musician IMHO. Would love to get your opinion on Super Angry Distortion (http://rancorsoft.com/super-angry-distortion/) which the company I work for makes. Hit me back (justin {/at/} rancorsoft.com), if you want would love to give you a free review copy, or otherwise feel free to hit me back just to chat.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good blogwork!
Cheers mate, Justin @ rancorsoft.com
Hi dude , btw If u interested or looking for some fresh guitar samples have u ever try this one:https://www.lucidsamples.com/house-sample-packs/216-guitar-house-mafia.html
DeleteI need your opinion.
thank you very much!
ReplyDeleteJoz gan thx
ReplyDeleteJoz gan thx
ReplyDelete