ABSTRACT
Distortion and noise are the two broad categories of sonic artifacts that include variations and subcategories. This chapter focuses on extraneous noises that sometimes find their way into a recording as well as forms of distortion, both intentional and unintentional. Some composers and performers intentionally use noise for artistic effect. Experimental and avant-garde electronic and electroacoustic music composers and performers often use noise to create musical effects, and they delight in blurring the line between music and noise. Sources of noise include clicks, pops, ground hum and buzz, hiss, extraneous acoustic sounds and radio frequency interference (RFI). Distortion, usually due to some nonlinearity in our audio system, adds new frequencies not originally present in a signal. There are two main kinds of distortion from a technical point of view: harmonic distortion and intermodulation (IM) distortion.
