Distortion Mistakes To Avoid: Don't Confuse Input Gain & Amp Gain

Distortion has always been a dual-edged sword in recording and audio production. Unwanted distortions, like from clipped recordings, can ruin a great take, but distortion can also add some very desirable character to musical instruments and audio recordings, from the wonderful crunch and grind of a classic guitar amp, to the subtle analog warmth and presence imparted by the very gentle saturation of so much classic analog hardware.

In this video tutorial on Gain Confusion from his complete course, Audio Mistakes 108: 10 Common DIstortion/Saturation Mistakes, Joe Albano helps you get the right quality and quantity of distortion from a virtual guitar amp.

With so many gain settings on the guitar amp plugin and the guitar and the DI box, you could just blindly turn knobs to find the best resulting sound. But you might be better off calibrating the level of the incoming guitar signal to the virtual amp. 

So, if you think Guitar Amp modelled sim plugin X doesn’t sound realistic, then it might well be that with a bit of calibration you can rectify the issue. 

More About The Course

Here’s the truth: The only undistorted "pure" sound that exists is an electronically-generated sine wave. All other sound, whether in music or in the real world, is distorted in one way or another. It’s true. That’s not a bad thing, though. It’s a naturally-occurring phenomenon. It’s what gives sound character and warmth. That’s why understanding how to creatively ADD distortion to your music tracks is such an important skill to have in your audio toolbox.

Many top engineers use distortion and saturation on every track. So you can see how easy it would be to misuse these types of FX! You must have a clear understanding of the different kinds of distortion effects and techniques out there so that you can make the right choices for the instruments in your production and the style of music your producing.

So join expert audio engineer Joe Albano now and learn what NOT to do when making distortion choices. In less than an hour of study, you will master all kinds of saturation and distortion tips and tricks that are guaranteed to give realistic, analog warmth to all the tracks in your productions.