Example of pushing a synth hard?

[cobaia]

I have read that expression repeatedly, and I wonder what exactly is meant by pushing a synth hard. I think it refers to modulation, but what exactly?
Can you give me a specific example of such a modulation, how it should sound and how it should not sound In other words, comparing two synths' different behavior under identical conditions...

[Funky40]

"Pushing hard" is in my opinion always, or at least most often a Gainstaging thing.........vs. whatever circuit or gear comes afterwards. There are many things where you can push hard.

Within a synth on its own, VCF (Filter section), overdrive section. Or even just the VCA or the mixer section. You can push these hard. Always a quest of gain/Volume, and how "hard" you hit that section. The VCF (Filter) would be your most common use for that term i`d say.

VCFs can for example behave quite different vs. how hard you hit them. With how much gain you go in. VCA and mixer sections in certains Synths can also start to produce -pleasing- overtones. And then a overdrive section itself.

And some folks might even just refer to how hard, ....how loud,......they`ve run a synth into the mixer. (macky comes to mind)
But the results have quasi always some similarities .
It goes most often towards the creation of overtones, and mostoften combined with some compression that starts to come into play

[cobaia]

Oh, and I thought it referred to modulation...

[Ah_Dziz]

Generally it's just referring to settings that are at the upper bounds. So with modulation, you might hear some bizarre behavior when using filter fm that pushes the cutoff between sub territory and the Nyquist frequency.

[exmatproton]

Oh, and I thought it referred to modulation...

Any type of change to audio (or any system) can be called modulation. So when you push a loud signal into amps, and it starts to saturate the amp, or distort the signal, that is a type of modulation (mind you...in the most BROAD sense of the use of the term 'modulation' )

[Funky40]

Oh, and I thought it referred to modulation...

it could be. It`s not exclouded. *
Sometimes the sentence "to push hard" could refer to FM. Or even PWM.......and what not ?
Usually there should be a context, and you should see from there if its not the common "to push hard" that was meant, but something else.


* For example was there the Plan B M15 VCO (Eurorack).
You can push there the PWM hard -into extreme settings- and the VCO starts there to act and sound quite special.

Or today the new "Curves&Membranes" SW-synth. I could see people refering there with "to push hard" to how hard they ride the Modulations.

[El°HYM]

This is a perfect example of 'pushing a synth hard' - so can be achieved using different approaches and maybe just defined by pushing the synth to its limits, generating some sounds that are not generally expected and doing this in a exceptional, creative and maybe extravagant way. At least thats how I would define it.