Favorite distortion units?

[challism]

I like that orange plastic thing from props.

That orange plastic thing is quite the beast! Useful in many situations

We are talking about Audiomatic, right? I love that RE, I just wish it had more control over the parameters than the 4 knobs gain, volume, wet/dry and transformation amount. But for distortion, I think Audiomatic's presets: Circuit, Cracked and Gadget all have very interesting and original flavors.

You guys gotta try the Kuassa Fuzz. It's like having a EHX Big Muff in Reason!

<3 the Fuzz unit. I used that on a bass today and it was a perfect fit. I tried so many different distortion units until I found the right one. I love that Kuassa's distortion units have the wet/dry knobs. It really helps to dial in the perfect amount of distortion.

FutsBox is a very specific distortion. I've used it for adjusting movie dialog to sound like it was coming through devices (telephones, boomboxes, speakers, etc) and it really does that job super admirably. Obviously this makes it useful for 'lo-fi' as well, though I've found that usually a little sounds better than a lot.

I love Futzbox, too. I didn't vote for it because I don't think of it as a distortion unit. Sure it has distortion and lo-fi sections, but it has so much more with those modeled SIMs. I love those so much. For me, those SIMs are what makes this device so great, not its distortion sections. The SIMs are all I really use this device for. I will use the distortion and other sections to help shape the sound I am looking for, but it's all centered around those SIMs. I can't say I really like the distortion Futzbox puts out on it's own, with the SIMs shut off. I don't think any of the distortion models sound that good compared to all the other choices I have in my rack. And the lo-fi section is completely out of control; it's incredibly difficult to dial in a small enough amount so it doesn't completely overpower and destroy the signal. I emailed McDSP after it came out and asked them to add a wet/dry knob to that section. I also asked them to allow the users to somehow reorder the signal chain. They said they would keep it in mind (it'll never happen).

Like The Echo a lot for tape-like saturation

Me too. Echo's tape saturation is so nice. In case anyone is unaware, you can use The Echo just as a distortion unit (*nearly* bypass the delay by setting the delay time to 1ms), turn it to 100% wet and crank up the drive. Nice tape saturation sound on this unit!

[BRIGGS]

Echo's tape saturation is so nice. In case anyone is unaware, you can use The Echo just as a distortion unit (*nearly* bypass the delay by setting the delay time to 1ms), turn it to 100% wet and crank up the drive. Nice tape saturation sound on this unit!

I tried that. It works great! Thanks!

[aeox]

Echo's tape saturation is so nice. In case anyone is unaware, you can use The Echo just as a distortion unit (*nearly* bypass the delay by setting the delay time to 1ms), turn it to 100% wet and crank up the drive. Nice tape saturation sound on this unit!

I tried that. It works great! Thanks!

Indeed.. didn't know about that one!

[Marco Raaphorst]

Like The Echo a lot for tape-like saturation

Me too. Echo's tape saturation is so nice. In case anyone is unaware, you can use The Echo just as a distortion unit (*nearly* bypass the delay by setting the delay time to 1ms), turn it to 100% wet and crank up the drive. Nice tape saturation sound on this unit!

You can also bypass the delay completely (0 latency) by using the inserts on the back of The Echo. I do that a lot.

[challism]

Me too. Echo's tape saturation is so nice. In case anyone is unaware, you can use The Echo just as a distortion unit (*nearly* bypass the delay by setting the delay time to 1ms), turn it to 100% wet and crank up the drive. Nice tape saturation sound on this unit!

You can also bypass the delay completely (0 latency) by using the inserts on the back of The Echo. I do that a lot.

Or..... if you don't want latency, you could go this route.

[Marco Raaphorst]

Synchronous Dist 1 sounds the same as OVDR of The Echo.

Mr. Overdrive sounds differently, very nice and flexible but can't do the thing The Echo and Synchronous Dist 1 does. Which is nice, so it's not a copycat