Distortion effects overview in MainStage
Distortion effects simulate the distortion created by vacuum tubes, transistors, or digital circuits.
Vacuum tubes were used in audio amplifiers before the development of digital audio technology. They are still used in musical instrument amplifiers today. When overdriven, tubes produce a musically pleasing distortion that has become a familiar part of the sound of rock and pop music. Analog tube distortion adds a distinctive warmth and bite to the signal.
There are also distortion effects that intentionally cause clipping and digital distortion of the signal. These can be used to modify vocal, music, and other tracks to produce an intense, unnatural tone, or to create sound effects.
Distortion effects include parameters for tone, which let you shape the way the distortion alters the signal (often as a frequency-based filter), and for gain, which let you control how much the distortion alters the output level of the signal.
WARNING: When set to high output levels, distortion effects can damage your hearing—and your speakers. When you adjust effect settings, it is recommended that you lower the output level of the track, and raise the level gradually when you are finished.
Included are Bitcrusher, ChromaGlow, Clip Distortion, Distortion, Distortion II, Overdrive, and Phase Distortion. You’ll also find some great guitar pedal distortion effects in Pedalboard.
If you’re new to using plug-ins in MainStage, see Add and remove plug-ins in MainStage.