Plusdistortion: The Ultimate Guide to Understanding the Sound

7 Creative Ways to Use Plusdistortion in Your MixesPlusdistortion is a versatile effect that can add grit, presence, and character to virtually any element in your mix. Unlike simple overdrive or fuzz, Plusdistortion often offers a blend of harmonic enhancement, dynamic response, and spectral shaping that makes it useful both as a subtle color and an aggressive sound-design tool. Below are seven creative approaches to using Plusdistortion, with practical tips, signal-chain examples, and mix-considerations for each.

1) Add subtle harmonic warmth to vocals

Use Plusdistortion extremely lightly to introduce pleasing upper harmonics that help vocals cut through a dense mix without raising level.

• How to set it: Place Plusdistortion before a de-esser but after EQ and compression. Start with drive/saturation at very low values and blend using the effect’s dry/wet control (10–25% wet is a good starting point).
• Controls to focus on: Tone or high-frequency tilt, output makeup gain, and dry/wet mix.
• Practical tip: Automate the wet amount on choruses or key phrases to increase presence only where needed.

2) Give drums more bite and character

Apply Plusdistortion in parallel to drum buses or individual elements (snare/top, kick transient) to enhance attack and add harmonic content that translates well on small speakers.

• How to set it: Send snare and overheads to a distortion bus. Use a transient shaper before the bus when you want to accentuate attack. Keep the bus EQ’d to remove excessive low-end before distortion.
• Controls to focus on: High-pass filtering into the distortion, midrange emphasis, and mix/blend.
• Practical tip: Use sidechain compression on the distortion bus triggered by the kick to keep low-frequency energy from becoming muddy.

3) Create gritty bass tone without losing low-end

Use Plusdistortion to add harmonics to bass so it reads on systems with poor low-frequency reproduction while preserving the fundamental.

• How to set it: Split the bass into two paths (parallel). Keep one path clean for the sub fundamentals and send the other through Plusdistortion with a band-limited EQ (boost mids where distortion will add harmonics; cut below ~80–120 Hz).
• Controls to focus on: Band-pass/filter inside or before the effect, blend amount, and smoothing/soft clipping options to avoid harshness.
• Practical tip: Use a low-pass or LPF after distortion if high-frequency artifacts become distracting.

4) Design unique textures and risers

Automate parameters of Plusdistortion over time to transform sustained sounds (pads, synths, guitars) into evolving textures, noisy swells, and cinematic risers.

• How to set it: Put Plusdistortion on an aux send or insert. Automate drive, tone, or even the dry/wet mix in sync with the arrangement. Combine with pitch-shifting, filtering, or granular delays for complex results.
• Controls to focus on: Dynamic automation of drive/wet, filter cutoff before/after the effect, and modulation sources (LFOs or envelopes).
• Practical tip: Use reverb and long delays after distortion to glue noisy textures into an ambient bed.

5) Shape electric guitar personality

Plusdistortion can sit anywhere from a subtle amp-like warmth to aggressive modern tones. Use it to complement amp sims or as an alternative when you want a distinctive bite.

• How to set it: Use Plusdistortion as a preamp (before amp sim) for tight, harmonically rich distortion, or post-amp to mangle the tone creatively. Try low-mid boosts to accentuate body, or notch filters to remove boxiness before distorting.
• Controls to focus on: Input drive (for saturation character), post-EQ, and presence controls.
• Practical tip: Layer a clean DI or re-amped track under the distorted guitar to retain clarity and stereo width.

6) Enhance percussion and loops

Distort percussive loops, world percussion, or found-sound samples to make them more aggressive, textured, and unique—excellent for beats and cinematic scoring.

• How to set it: Process loops with Plusdistortion on a return channel. Use multiband settings if available to target only the desired frequency bands, or pre-EQ to shape the harmonic generation.
• Controls to focus on: Band emphasis, transient response, and output dampening.
• Practical tip: Re-sample the processed loop and chop it for new rhythmic variations; reverse or layer with the original for hybrid sounds.

7) Make automation a sound-design tool

Think of Plusdistortion not only as a tone shaper but as a modulator: automated changes in distortion parameters can act like an instrument, adding movement and interest.

• How to set it: Map LFOs, envelopes, or MIDI controllers to drive, mix, or tone. Use tempo-synced modulation for rhythmic effects (pumping distortion) or long slow sweeps for evolving coloration.
• Controls to focus on: Synchronization options, curve shapes for modulation, and ranges to prevent clipping.
• Practical tip: Combine distortion automation with filter sweeps and dynamic processing for transitions (builds, drops, breakdowns).

Additional mix considerations

• Always check distortion in mono to ensure phase and low-end behavior remain solid.
• Use metering and gain staging; distortion often increases perceived loudness—trim or use makeup gain carefully.
• Consider multiband distortion or parallel processing when you want harmonic excitement without sacrificing clarity in the fundamental frequencies.
• When collaborating or sending stems, include both processed and clean versions if the distortion is essential to the sound.

Plusdistortion is a flexible creative tool: subtle use brings polish and presence; aggressive use creates signature textures and powerful sonic statements. Experiment with routing, parallel paths, and automation to discover sounds that serve the song.