Propeller Head Plaza

Technical and scientific discussion of amps, cables and other topics.

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RE: -1

Posted by Tony Lauck on February 16, 2015 at 11:47:48:
I said "some people" prefer certain distortions. I guess you are not one of them. :-)

As to an electric guitar, in this case the distortion is part of the instrument construction and the artistry of the musician. All musical instruments have distortion. For example, my wife's grand piano would clearly distort if one attempted to play too loudly and the keyboard would make annoying noise if one banged on the keys.

The type of distortion that I really object to comes from distortion that affects the sound of all the instruments. If this is added to the recording (an extreme example is clipping distortion) one will get intermodulation from the separate instruments and their individual realism will disappear. In some cases, BTW, this can happen in a live acoustic concert setting turing very loud passages. In this case it is one's ears that are distorting. Again, this may be intentional on the part of the composer or performers, but I prefer to sit back far enough so that this effect does not happen often.

All the different causes of distortion have their unique effects on the sound that we perceive, as will be appreciated by experienced critical listeners.