I stumbled over this thread about distortion pedal recommendations for synths:
Since a lot of people here seem to know their stuff I’d love to ask you these two questions:
does hardware distortion still have an edge over plugins like Decapitator, Trash2 ect when used with hardware synths?
and
if yes, which overdrive or distortion pedals (30-200$) would you recommend to use with a Roland S-1 synth (basically a polyphonic SH-101)?
Analog Heat unfortunately is way out of budget. I don’t need much control options. In the other thread I’ve read that bass distortion pedals might work better as they don’t cut too much low frequencies?
I tried plugins, also tried Neural Amp Modeller, and while I get some good results it’s not much fun and I have a hunch that overdrive/distortion is still not 100% there compared to hardware.
I prefer hardware FXs on hardware synths if there are controls on it, because that will be next to the instrument I’m playing with.
It sounds also better to my ears for more extreme scenarios. If you need a bit of overdrive on your bassline, software is fine.
You should also define your budget, because there are a lot of options out there.
Distortion pedals in that price range will not be very fun, as you’re not really going to be playing them. Unless you get something with further functionality, it’ll pretty much be set and forget.
Trash is excellent. I used it on my very first CD many years ago. The latest version locks like it’s got even more functionality. Also, the new VST from Baby Audio, Transit 2 looks excellent too. Hardware, I use the Microcosm by Hologram.
get an Analog Heat MK2 for cheap. 8 flavors of distortion, 2-band eq, multimode filter, LFO, envelope follower, midi, add an expression pedal and a footswitch for on/off. I adore it for tons of stuff - guitar, synth, master effect, also works as a plugin within the DAW. fantastic device.
I tried Trash2 but get overwhelmed by too many options. I’m also still not convinced plugins can get as aggressive while still sounding good. But I don’t have enough experience, hence I’d like to hear opinions on this.
I’ve recommended it in another thread but Arturia Coldfire is absolutely worth trying. There’s a free demo. You can just ignore the LFOs and sequencers if you want straight distortion.
Live 12 has Roar that is supposedly good as well.
As for analog, I think it’s only worth it if you’re looking for a very specific flavor.
I built a diyre colour duo, which lets you swap in and out simple analog drive circuits, I think it’s fabulous as a 2 channel distortion. There are definitely different textures I can get with that than with the plugins I have but I can get just as interesting/fun textures from a good plugin like tone projects’ kelvin. It’s all just different flavors.
Thanks for the recommendations. After lots of trying I fell back to the Airwindows plugins. Chris now has Airwindows Convoluted, which is basically a plugin that hosts all of his plugins. ‘Mackity’ is great distortion but others are also nice.
Right now I’m looking for analog gear to then compare to the plugins.
I paid about $50 for a dual big muff clone, one side is triangle and the other side is ram’s head and you can combine the circuits.
If you want something that sounds good, you don’t have to pay $1000 but you tend to get something remarkable when you overpay for overdrive and distortion pedals, it’s very hard to quantify and whether it’s placebo or not is hard to say. Expensive distortion sounds good, but it may not sound as good at the price vs something else much less expensive.
Just to say there are diminishing returns on boutique effects pedals as the price increases.
Analog distortion is noisy. There is line noise and gating won’t eliminate it so if you like quiet recordings get a plug in. If you like hands on control and the sweet spots that modeling misses, something like a big muff or a rat pedal (or a clone like I bought) will be fine for synths.
The one I got sounds great even if you don’t factor in the price. If you want to look into it I can send you a link.
Thanks! So even at higher settings you would say there is no quality difference, just sound difference between plugins and hardware overdrive/distortion?
I’ve tried some of the best rated plugins and when at higher settings, it sounds ugly in a ‘wrong’ way. When I watch videos of people feeding their synth into pedals it may eventually sound ugly but never “wrong” but ugly in a good way, if that makes sense.
I thought Trash 2 is essentially abandonware now. I own a license but don’t have it installed. For a plugin, Blue Cat Destructor is excellent. It is more like a saturation and distortion plugin with an amp modeler than the other way around (Blue Cat Axiom is their amp modeler). Amp modelers make good distortion effects for synths, too. You can also use Softube Amp Room or NI guitar rig for example. All of my guitar pedals are older. I think my favorite synth distortion pedal (Subdecay Stupid Box) is discontinued.
