ABSTRACT
The distortion tools used by music producers and mixing engineers are the product of a development process by signal processing engineers and software developers. All of the various tones and sounds of distortion, from subtle to extreme, come from the different algorithms for non-linear processing. In addition to software, where it is the primary focus, distortion can also be found in some digital equalizers, compressors, guitar amp simulators, reverb units, and tape machine simulators. Some software tools use relatively simple mathematical functions and achieve useful results. Other software can be highly complex, intended to model every component of analog circuits for results recreating hardware processing. This chapter provides insights into distortion software to help inform choices made in music production.
