MTurboAmp Distortion Modes

[sparella]

This was an instant buy when I saw the custom design system. Its really exciting. I posted this question elsewhere and it was recommended that I post it here.

EQ stages should be pretty familiar to circuit designers, but the saturation options might need a little translating. With pedals or preamps, where I dabble, I tend to think in terms of 'silicone diode clipping', 'jfet clipping', 'transformer saturation', etc. Seeing Saturation 1 or Clip 2 doesn't correlate to terms I'm used to, so I'm wondering if there is a document somewhere that explains what the different saturation styles are, maybe even in language that is familiar to people with some amp experience. I recall seeing a graphic somewhere for MAmp indicating Vintage 1 as tube, Vintage 2 as transistor, and Modern as opamp. So I'm thinking something similar might already exist for these saturation types. I'm not requesting the type names be changed or anything, just looking for some guidelines.

[Hexspa]

One thing you can do in the meantime is throw it into PluginDoctor and compare how those categories compare to the modules in this plugin. I haven't dug too deep into this one yet so I can't say.

[Chandlerhimself]

This was an instant buy when I saw the custom design system. Its really exciting. I posted this question elsewhere and it was recommended that I post it here.

EQ stages should be pretty familiar to circuit designers, but the saturation options might need a little translating. With pedals or preamps, where I dabble, I tend to think in terms of 'silicone diode clipping', 'jfet clipping', 'transformer saturation', etc. Seeing Saturation 1 or Clip 2 doesn't correlate to terms I'm used to, so I'm wondering if there is a document somewhere that explains what the different saturation styles are, maybe even in language that is familiar to people with some amp experience. I recall seeing a graphic somewhere for MAmp indicating Vintage 1 as tube, Vintage 2 as transistor, and Modern as opamp. So I'm thinking something similar might already exist for these saturation types. I'm not requesting the type names be changed or anything, just looking for some guidelines.

Hi,

I don't know if I can explain things perfectly, but I'll try to give you a run down. The clipping modes aren't really the same as an analog model of something. They are more like basic building blocks. All of the modes will distort, but the level that they distort at will vary. The lowest one(soft 1) will need to be push very hard for it to distort, but clip 3 should distort very easily. The analog control at the bottom will add even(maybe its odd) harmonics to the sound.

Different real world analog components will clip at different levels and produce different harmonics. Some of them might also effect the frequency of the sound in different ways as well. Using the EQ, Analog controls and clipping you can simulate the behavior of various tube. However I think it is easier and more fun to just use your ears. You can adjust things in a way that would be impossible for normal tubes. The clip modes would be closer to transistors, but really you can't say soft is tube and clip is transistor. I think it is easier to think of it as soft will gradually distort and can give you slight distortion and clip will distort quickly.

I designed many of the amps and pedals inside MTA and what I did was use the soft modes for something I wanted to stay mostly clean and clipping if I wanted a lot of distortion. For something in the middle I often used soft 3 or 4. Of course I used these in series just like you would add gain stages in a real amp. If you find an amp you like in MTA look inside and see how it was made. If it is one I created I'd be happy to explain how/why I did certain things. I hope that helps.

[Hexspa]

This was an instant buy when I saw the custom design system. Its really exciting. I posted this question elsewhere and it was recommended that I post it here.

EQ stages should be pretty familiar to circuit designers, but the saturation options might need a little translating. With pedals or preamps, where I dabble, I tend to think in terms of 'silicone diode clipping', 'jfet clipping', 'transformer saturation', etc. Seeing Saturation 1 or Clip 2 doesn't correlate to terms I'm used to, so I'm wondering if there is a document somewhere that explains what the different saturation styles are, maybe even in language that is familiar to people with some amp experience. I recall seeing a graphic somewhere for MAmp indicating Vintage 1 as tube, Vintage 2 as transistor, and Modern as opamp. So I'm thinking something similar might already exist for these saturation types. I'm not requesting the type names be changed or anything, just looking for some guidelines.

Hi,

I don't know if I can explain things perfectly, but I'll try to give you a run down. The clipping modes aren't really the same as an analog model of something. They are more like basic building blocks. All of the modes will distort, but the level that they distort at will vary. The lowest one(soft 1) will need to be push very hard for it to distort, but clip 3 should distort very easily. The analog control at the bottom will add even(maybe its odd) harmonics to the sound.

Different real world analog components will clip at different levels and produce different harmonics. Some of them might also effect the frequency of the sound in different ways as well. Using the EQ, Analog controls and clipping you can simulate the behavior of various tube. However I think it is easier and more fun to just use your ears. You can adjust things in a way that would be impossible for normal tubes. The clip modes would be closer to transistors, but really you can't say soft is tube and clip is transistor. I think it is easier to think of it as soft will gradually distort and can give you slight distortion and clip will distort quickly.

I designed many of the amps and pedals inside MTA and what I did was use the soft modes for something I wanted to stay mostly clean and clipping if I wanted a lot of distortion. For something in the middle I often used soft 3 or 4. Of course I used these in series just like you would add gain stages in a real amp. If you find an amp you like in MTA look inside and see how it was made. If it is one I created I'd be happy to explain how/why I did certain things. I hope that helps.

This Apollo amp is great.

[Chandlerhimself]

Hexspa - Thank you. I made the Apollo amp as something that could be used for a variety of things and tweaked in a lot of ways. I tried to make a British style amp that is more versatile than most real amps.

[Hexspa]

Hexspa - Thank you. I made the Apollo amp as something that could be used for a variety of things and tweaked in a lot of ways. I tried to make a British style amp that is more versatile than most real amps.

Yeah, I love me a Marshall. This amp does medium gain that goes well with my strat. I know you can crank the distortion up too but I reserve that for special occasions