Is it just me, but do most "wow complex" distortions just sound garbage?

[soundmodel]

* Destructor

Blue Cat's?

Since it exposes the transfer function, then why isn't it similar to Trash?

[soundmodel]

Maybe the Trash type algos would work better in multiband use? E.g. applied only higher frequencies? Or mid?

[Uncle E]

I wonder what the gold standards of digital distortions for any material are. For reference.

Probably one of the machine learning plugins, trained with studio gear. For example, I captured a distorting Moog filter pedal with tonex and that for me is the gold standard of distortion for synths.

[soundmodel]

Maybe the Trash type algos would work better in multiband use? E.g. applied only higher frequencies? Or mid?

Well cutting most of the low end and some of the very high-end makes all of the "complex transfer function" algorithms less harsh, but they stil sound bad, because the transfer function gives a sort of "cardboard" sound. They're just not good waves or then the way they're mixed into the input waveform sucks.

More specifically it seems that all the bad sounding functions have some variation of the square wave. But I don't understand why things like "Tube Drainer" also sound bad.

[soundmodel]

Comparatively SDDR2 can have some of the same cardboard sounds, but they can be tuned away using the parameters and the result sounds much better. This didn't seem like doable with Trash ... (I think the user curve on the Transfer Function is pointless there)

HQ+ mode on SDDR2 also makes a world-difference, so wonder if the problem is also about some numerical depth.

Based on just this SDDR2 HQ+ mode replaces 80% of the Trash module and with less adjusting by the user ...

[soundmodel]

Okay why does Waves Berzerk sound smooth and not harsh, even when it has these "wow complex transfer functions"? There's none of that harshness of the Trash module.

[soundmodel]

Maybe they do some sort of transient suppression?

[chk071]

Okay why does Waves Berserk sound smooth and not harsh, even when it has these "wow complex transfer functions"? There's none of that harshness of the Trash module.

Because... *drumroll* ... plugins sound different.

[soundmodel]

Okay why does Waves Berserk sound smooth and not harsh, even when it has these "wow complex transfer functions"? There's none of that harshness of the Trash module.

Because... *drumroll* ... plugins sound different.

I wanted to know the possible technical reason. After being surprised that the Trash module seems to suck even when iZotope in general is very knowledgeable developer.

So to begin with it's surprising that a Waves distortion sounds better than an iZotope distortion.

The new Trash also costs multiples of the Berzerk.

[chk071]

Okay why does Waves Berserk sound smooth and not harsh, even when it has these "wow complex transfer functions"? There's none of that harshness of the Trash module.

Because... *drumroll* ... plugins sound different.

I wanted to know the possible technical reason.

I just hope that no developer enters the discussion, and bores you with incomprehensible technical explanations.

[soundmodel]

The Full Band demo at https://www.izotope.com/en/products/trash/listen is exactly the kind of bad I talk about.

The others sound good, but aren't just about the Trash module. And happen to be quite clean inputs.

[soundmodel]

NI Driver is also in the ballpark and it too sounds noticeably less harsh than Trash. Still not good, but at least it's not piercingly harsh.

A lot of these plug-ins seem to have the same basic tonalities, but they do something differently on it.

[zerocrossing]

You probably just want something like Arturia’s Culture Vulture emulation. Pretty simple, sounds great.

[dlandis]

I've mostly used just Trash 2's presets, but today I shut down everything else and simply tried the Trash module.

I think all of the other settings there sounded pretty bad except for those that happened to have quite clean (e.g. a half-sine) transfer curve.

So to me all the other "wow what a complex curve" were just pointless.

Why bother then?

Could be an analog-digital thing too. The digital distortions just sound bad, when the equivalent thing as analog electronics would sound lively and smooth.

Maybe it's a (sort of) orchestration/sound design issue? I love Trash (both 1 and 2), but for me, it tends to be quite niche, i.e., drums and percussion. I'd never get near, say, a guitar with them, except, perhaps in some sort of quasi-industrial setting (?). I say this last with some hesitation as I am being totally speculative here and haven't had to try it.

[Uncle E]

But I don't understand why things like "Tube Drainer" also sound bad.

I'm testing Tube Drainer right now. It sounds pretty good to me. Here are the settings I'm using. I set the mid frequency high so that the tilt EQ is functioning more as a low pass filter. Trash Lite:

tubedrainer.jpg