Plugin for ridiculous Fuzz Pedal Distortion

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I'd recommend trying out Dent or Indent from Unfiltered Audio. They are extremely versatile distortion processors. There has not been much I haven't been able to do with them.
Don't F**K with Mr. Zero.

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Blue cat destructor

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Surprised this hasn't been brought up yet!!! Sounds great! :tu:

https://www.kuassa.com/products/efektor-fz3603-fuzz/

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For really crazy nasal fuzzy sounds the best bet is probably some kind of foldback distortion. A good number of standard distortion plugs will do this but for more control and more crazy then a graphical waveshaper is the way to go. Just draw some kind of daft stepped zig zig shape and refine from there. It won't sound very analogue, but that might be ok if running into more processing.

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valhallasound wrote:This might be a ridiculous thing for a plugin developer to say, but I'd recommend using analog hardware in this case. There are some great lower cost fuzzes out there:

The EHX Big Muffs tend to be reasonable (the new Green Russian is pretty awesome for $80).

I'm hearing great things about the DOD Caracosa. $99. I have one on order, that should arrive early next week.

Biyang FZ-10 Fuzz Star. A clone of a Ram's Head Big Muff, with true bypass switching, for under $40. https://www.amazon.com/Biyang-FZ10-Fz-1 ... B003OKXBB8

Behringer Super Fuzz SF300. Ok, I would normally never recommend anything Behringer. But this is a clone of the Boss FZ-2 Hyper Fuzz, which is an AMAZINGLY HUGE RIPPING FUZZ. The FZ-2 is based on the Univox Super Fuzz, which is an enormous fuzz from the late 60s (think Cramps, Mudhoney). The FZ-2 adds low and high EQ, so you can boost the bass to corpulent levels. Anyway, the FZ-2 and Super Fuzz both command ridiculous $$$ on the used market. The Behringer SF300 is under $30. Probably pretty cheaply made, but hey, it's cheap! https://www.amazon.com/Behringer-SF300- ... B000T9PE9E

Sean Costello
You pretty much hit the nail right on the head. The amount of investment required to create a good software emulation is much higher than it is to just make an SMT clone. I would also add that a lot of these cheap "micro" clone pedals coming out are actually quite good (Mooer, Tone City, Donner, TomsLine, etc.), probably cheaper then any plugin you could find, and will get much closer to that sound.

P.S. Your plugins are amazing! Thank you for making affordable, high-quality software for "the rest of us."

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+1 for the DOD Carcosa - extremely versatile fuzz. As we're talking hardware, I would also recommend a Blackout Effectors Twosome (check Reverb).

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Winstontaneous wrote:Not a direct clone of any fuzz pedal, but the one distortion plugin that consistently makes me go "Sh!t, I'm about to lose control of this hairy beast" (in the best possible way) is NI's Driver.

The filter action reminds me of the Intermodulation Distortion on the Crowther Audio Prunes & Custard I had, and the EH BassBalls.
Thanks for pointing Driver out :D
I had never tried it before. Gave it a try, loved it and picked it up in the market place.
A surprisingly flexible little plugin that gives me something different.
:)

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I think there's a really a big gaping hole in the market for some actually good sounding plugin Fuzz. I've tried pretty much everything from all the major amp sim players and haven't found a satisfying one that would really nail a good fuzz. There's always something weird and fizzy going on. The new Kuassa stuff (imo) isn't really any better than what's been done before - the distortion just doesn't sing like the real pedals do.

And most of the plugins mentioned in this thread aren't fuzzes at all (NI Driver, Fuzzplus..)

We really need andy from cytomic to do a Scream for fuzzes!

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Liero wrote:I think there's a really a big gaping hole in the market for some actually good sounding plugin Fuzz. I've tried pretty much everything from all the major amp sim players and haven't found a satisfying one that would really nail a good fuzz. There's always something weird and fizzy going on. The new Kuassa stuff (imo) isn't really any better than what's been done before - the distortion just doesn't sing like the real pedals do.

And most of the plugins mentioned in this thread aren't fuzzes at all (NI Driver, Fuzzplus..)
Digital fuzzes run into the same aliasing issues as digital amp simulators, but to a much greater degree. You either need to use a TON of oversampling, and/or some other CPU extensive process to bandlimit the distortion.

For me, this is a relative cost issue. Let's say that you have a $2K MacBook Pro. If you need to use 5% of your CPU to get a good fuzz running without aliasing, you are using $100 of your computers capacity. $80 will buy you an EHX Green Russian (the new Big Muff from EHX), which sounds FANTASTIC. 5% of your computer is also several 10s of millions of transistors, simulating a box that might have 2 to 4 transistors.
We really need andy from cytomic to do a Scream for fuzzes!
Andy would do a good job.

The nice thing about a good fuzz is that it is more "stand alone" than a Tube Screamer. A real TS808 sounds really thin and tinny on its own - it needs to feed into a good amp (or good amp simulator). Something like a Big Muff is doing most of the heavy lifting already. Plenty of musicians have used fuzz boxes directly into a mixing board, or into the filters of a synth (Eno), so a standalone fuzz plugin could be really cool.
Last edited by valhallasound on Sat Sep 23, 2017 5:27 am, edited 2 times in total.

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valhallasound wrote: For me, this is a relative cost issue. Let's say that you have a $2K MacBook Pro. If you need to use 5% of your CPU to get a good fuzz running without aliasing, you are using $80 of your computers capacity. $80 will buy you an EHX Green Russian (the new Big Muff from EHX), which sounds FANTASTIC. 5% of your computer is also several 10s of millions of transistors, simulating a box that might have 2 to 4 transistors.
Well that is simplifying things to a high degree. I could imagine a lot of people, including me, valuing a speedy in-the-box workflow very high - not to mention the i/o needed for routing analog stuff in and out of digital systems. I'd _much_ rather have a plugin solution for fuzz than fiddling around with actual pedals, and I wouldn't mind the CPU hit (which I don't mind with The Scream either).

But, as with all things, it's a matter of taste.

Totally agree on the stand-alone thing.

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The new Kuassa Fuzz is just great.

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If your plugin is a Synth-edit/synth-maker creation, Say So.
If not Make a Mac version of your Plugins Please.

https://soundcloud.com/realmarco

...everyone is out to get me!!!!!!!

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Liero wrote:I think there's a really a big gaping hole in the market for some actually good sounding plugin Fuzz. I've tried pretty much everything from all the major amp sim players and haven't found a satisfying one that would really nail a good fuzz. There's always something weird and fizzy going on. The new Kuassa stuff (imo) isn't really any better than what's been done before - the distortion just doesn't sing like the real pedals do.

And most of the plugins mentioned in this thread aren't fuzzes at all (NI Driver, Fuzzplus..)

We really need andy from cytomic to do a Scream for fuzzes!
Already on it!

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I'll make a general circuit where I'll add extra components so it will be able to emulate pretty much every fuzz pedal ever made, and also allow you to switch between accurate models of silicon and germanium transistors. You'll be able to edit every parameter of every component just like you can with The Scream. It should be slightly lower cpu than The Scream as well, since there are fewer components in the circuit.

Haven't really thought about names yet, but the most obvious may work: how about "The Fuzz"?

The kit cost me USD 85 plus shipping, so sure a fuzz pedal isn't that expensive, but if you want stereo then you'll need to buy two of them, then it won't save its settings in the song, you can't automate any settings, and you don't have 10 different fuzz pedals on call for whatever you need, or the ability to quickly mess around with any component value and come up with crazy sounds. With software you also don't have to have hiss if you don't want, which is just impossible with hardware. As for oversampling of course you can use the low cpu mode for realtime and crank up the oversampling on render to get pristine anti-aliased results.

I still think for USD 29 a supremely detailed fuzz face emulation will be a fantastic little plugin, and well worth the investment :)
The Glue, The Drop - www.cytomic.com

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andy-cytomic wrote:
Liero wrote: We really need andy from cytomic to do a Scream for fuzzes!
Already on it!
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That's exciting news, Andy!
I'll make a general circuit where I'll add extra components so it will be able to emulate pretty much every fuzz pedal ever made, and also allow you to switch between accurate models of silicon and germanium transistors. You'll be able to edit every parameter of every component just like you can with The Scream. It should be slightly lower cpu than The Scream as well, since there are fewer components in the circuit.
Would this be a dedicated Fuzz Face (Tone Bender, Vox Distortion Booster, etc.), or would you incorporate other fuzzes such as the Big Muff? I could see the Big Muff being a good idea for a future plugin, as there are TONS of mods for that circuit that really change the character of it. A good overview of the Big Muff variants, including detailed schematics and circuit analysis:

http://www.bigmuffpage.com/Big_Muff_Pi_ ... part1.html

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valhallasound wrote:
That's exciting news, Andy!

Would this be a dedicated Fuzz Face (Tone Bender, Vox Distortion Booster, etc.), or would you incorporate other fuzzes such as the Big Muff? I could see the Big Muff being a good idea for a future plugin, as there are TONS of mods for that circuit that really change the character of it. A good overview of the Big Muff variants, including detailed schematics and circuit analysis:

http://www.bigmuffpage.com/Big_Muff_Pi_ ... part1.html
Thanks Sean! The big muff is quite a different circuit, so they would be different plugins from the fuzz face. I'll add extra passive components to a circuit to cover all the variations between builds of the same pedal, and possibly even some extra diodes if it won't impact cpu too much. I want to support something not possible with an actual circuit, and that is to morph between sets of values, and automate this morphing. If the topology of the circuit changes clearly it won't be possible to morph between the circuits!

I plan to do a few more stomps, and I'll roll them all out at $29 a pop. Currently planned are a guv'nor, a RAT, and a big muff, but I also like the look of a bunch of the boss stuff like the FZ-2 which is all discrete components in the distortion section, since it will be ultra fun to screw around with the components and make all sorts of variations.
The Glue, The Drop - www.cytomic.com

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