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

[soundmodel]

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

Curve looks the same in Trash 3 as in Trash 2.

Yes I figured that to make all of them sound less bad is to do a kind of bell curve with the EQ.

I wouldn't call that to sound good nor sounding like tube even with that though.

[soundmodel]

I find that cutting a lot of around 300Hz with Filter 1 makes it noticeably less bad and more like the others.

Maybe Trash has some problem with getting too much 300Hz to the output?

[chk071]

This thread almost made me reinstall Waves Berzerk, but, then I realized again how much I hate their authorization software, the different generations of plugin versions, and that stupid shell container which nobody else does.

Didn't install or use them since I moved to my new computer in 2022, and I really don't plan to.

[soundmodel]

This thread almost made me reinstall Waves Berzerk, but, then I realized again how much I hate their authorization software, the different generations of plugin versions, and that stupid shell container which nobody else does.

Didn't install or use them since I moved to my new computer in 2022, and I really don't plan to.

It became one of my favorite plug-ins now. Hadn't used it, because I thought it would be crap based on the price ($19.99, I think I even got it as a freebie).

Seems much better designed for usable distortions than the Trash module. Even the "Go" button seems to give usable tones most of the time at least.

[Uncle E]

I can get fairly similar results with Trash Lite as with Dist Tube-Culture using the simple distortions:

trash-disttubeculture.jpg

[soundmodel]

I can get fairly similar results with Trash Lite as with Dist Tube-Culture using the simple distortions:



trash-disttubeculture.jpg

I don't know, I don't have the Arturia plug-in but I thought the demos sounded far better than Trash's. Especially the drum demo has the correct bite. The vocal was a bit cardboardy.

[soundmodel]

Some Scream 4 modes sound almost as static, but not as harsh.

Softube Saturation Knob is hard to make sound bad.

Maybe it is just about the quality of the model.

[Uncle E]

Try Trash Lite. It's quite capable. No reason to being going off of the online demos. Plus, sometimes you need something rough and harsh, and this is great for that. I'm nailing Ed Rush & Optical sounds with it.

[concealed identity]

My experience with Trash 2 is that it gives you a huge range to work with and can get really crazy, so you just need to dial it back a lot. Some plugins are all about giving you a "sweet spot" where it all sounds good (Softube Saturation Knob, IK Saturator X and Camel Crusher are good examples of this), but Trash is about giving you options and freedom. Trash 2 is probably my favorite distortion plugin, but it really requires you to tweak it. Some people love this approach, and others prefer something more limiting but more immediate.

[soundmodel]

Hmm, I always thought having unnecessary parameter range was bad engineering. Whereas ranges that give usable sound most of the time are good engineering.

This is the paradigm using which all the Culture Vultures, Neves, APIs or whatever have become staples.

I think parameters have probabilities and having a plug-in to dial every time for sounds that work for 1% of the time is wasteful.

[soundmodel]

I can get fairly similar results with Trash Lite as with Dist Tube-Culture using the simple distortions:



trash-disttubeculture.jpg

Any chance you could do a null test to see how much the mathematics agree?

It would not be entirely suprising if they do in fact give similar results, because Trash is iZotope's only distortion so maybe it's meant to compete with all the others.

[soundmodel]

I also sort of find like the Filters are almost a necessity for working with the Trash module.

Only with them one can tune the Trash module's input and output to be such that there are no unwanted frequencies.

Yes, well, it does have some value, but it's depressing that the plain Trash module's types suck for most material I've tried them to.

[concealed identity]

Hmm, I always thought having unnecessary parameter range was bad engineering. Whereas ranges that give usable sound most of the time are good engineering.

This is the paradigm using which all the Culture Vultures, Neves, APIs or whatever have become staples.

I think parameters have probabilities and having a plug-in to dial every time for sounds that work for 1% of the time is wasteful.

I look at it as them giving you the tools to experiment. Plugins get used for a lot of different music genres by a lot of different artists with their own unique ideas, workflows, and sounds. The hardware you listed wasn't really meant to encourage experimentation, it was meant to get a job done - that's the "sweet spot" philosophy (and also probably important when it comes to sales and a particular user base). People used to experiment by pushing that hardware in ways it wasn't intended to (redlining Mackie desks, abusing the Akai timestretch function, etc.), but in the age of plugins, the developer can give you the tools to push things and experiment.

With something like Trash, I think it makes sense, as it's meant to be used for a variety of applications. You can put in a raw sine wave, a lead vocal, a drum bus, foley sounds, whatever- and you'll be using it differently for all of those, from light saturation to some creative filtering and pushing harmonics up front.

I guess you can look at it as only 1% of the settings being useful for the particular sound you're working with at a given time, or you can look at it as being useful for 100% of your sounds. In the end, I think it's just a different philosophy, like a Juno vs Phase Plant; one is all sweet spots, and the other gives those up in order to give the user more freedom to make the sounds they want.

[Uncle E]

Any chance you could do a null test to see how much the mathematics agree?

You could probably get even closer with the full version. I’m only using Trash Lite and it lacks the convolution, yet even that is enough to get me in the same ballpark.

Anyway, sure, remind me on Monday and I’ll run a null test.

[gaggle of hermits]

Hmm, I always thought having unnecessary parameter range was bad engineering. Whereas ranges that give usable sound most of the time are good engineering.

applying that to fm or phase distortion would be hilarious. "can I have non-integer settings?"

"no"

"why not Egon?"

"they would be bad"