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Wwise Guitar Distortion

(See the Wwise Guitar Distortion Properties below.)

Distortion is a form of non-linear processing that alters the shape of the waveform and introduces frequency components not present in the original signal. The Wwise Guitar Distortion plug-in mimics the behavior of commonly encountered distortion 'stomp boxes' to obtain typical guitar distortion sounds.

Distortion Types

The Wwise Guitar Distortion plug-in provides several flavors of distortion algorithms. The following transfer function figures show how different distortion types affect the signals. In these figures, when there is no distortion, the transfer function (on the left) shows that output amplitude is always the same as the input amplitude. The output of the algorithm when fed a sine wave (on the right) is not distorted.

Distortion type 'Clip' clamps the levels symmetrically for negative and positive values with a hard knee transition (that is, no transition) when the amplitude reaches the overload level.

Distortion type 'Overdrive' clamps the levels symmetrically for negative and positive values with a soft knee transition that slowly progresses towards total clipping when the amplitude reaches the overload level.

Distortion type 'Heavy' clamps the levels symmetrically for negative and positive values with a soft knee transition that slowly progresses towards total clipping when the amplitude reaches the overload level. The transfer function is more abrupt around zero values so that more sustain is achieved. This is typically used with higher values of drive parameter to get a heavy metal kind of distortion.

Distortion type 'Fuzz' clamps the levels asymmetrically for negative and positive values. It uses a soft knee transition that slowly progresses towards total clipping for negative amplitudes and a hard knee at higher level amplitude threshold for positive values. This type of distortion is more suited for monophonic solo type materials as it rapidly becomes very inharmonic when fed complex polyphonic tones. The additional tone parameter primarily controls the soft knee for negative amplitudes (figure uses a Tone parameter set to 10).

Rectification

The rectification parameter can perform half-wave rectification for parameter values up to 50% and full-wave rectification for parameter values between 50% and 100%. Half Wave rectification prevents the negative portion of the signal from going lower than a certain amplitude; for example, changing from -1 to 0 based on rectification control with 0% applying no half-wave rectification and 50% not allowing completely clipping negative signals.

Full-wave rectification goes further and makes the negative portion of the input signal gradually more positive based on the rectification parameter value. At 100%, full-wave rectification is achieved and the negative portion of the signal is essentially flipped in polarity. This has the effect of doubling the fundamental frequency of the signal and can be used as an 'octaver' Effect.

Equalizer Controls

Because distortion is a non-linear process (that is, applying a gain prior to the distortion is not equivalent to applying it after), it follows that frequency specific gains used when filtering also have a different effect when applied before or after the distortion algorithm. In fact, it is quite common to filter a signal in a way (for example, boost low frequencies) to get the distortion algorithm to behave in a desired way and then filter out the same frequency region afterwards to cancel the overall filtering effect that was applied prior to the distortion. For this reason, a fully fledged parametric EQ is provided before and after the distortion process to be able to customize the behavior of the distortion and obtain many different flavors of distortion.

Wwise Guitar Distortion Properties

The Wwise Guitar Distortion plug-in contains a series of properties, many of which can be edited in real time and can be mapped to specific Game Parameters using RTPCs.

Interface Element

Description

Inclusion

Determines whether the element is included or excluded. When selected, the element is included. When unselected, the element is not included. By default, this applies across all platforms. Use the Link indicator (to the left of the check box) to determine or to set platform-specific customizations.

When this option is unselected, the property and behavior options in the Property Editor become unavailable.

Default value: false

Name

The name of the Effect instance.

Effect instances are a group of effect property settings. They can be one of two types: custom instances or ShareSets. Custom instances can be used by only one object, whereas ShareSets can be shared across several objects.

Effect

The type of effect.

Shared by (Used by)

A list of objects that currently subscribe to the selected ShareSet.

This field is called “Used by” when editing a custom instance of the Effect.

Opens a search field where standard alphanumeric entries filter out unmatching elements from the view. Learn more in Using Tables.

Click the Close icon to the left of the search icon to close the search field and remove the filter.

[Note] Note

The searches do not include elements in collapsed nodes of the List View, Query Editor, MIDI Keymap Editor, and Reference View.

Returns the Effect property settings to their default values.

This option is only available when editing a custom instance of the Effect.

Notes

Additional information about the Effect.

Pre-Distortion EQ

Pre-Distortion EQ Band Enable

Enables the EQ band when selected.

Default value: false

Pre-Distortion EQ Band Curve

Determines the type of filtering that can be applied to the signal in a given EQ band. The following filters are available:

  • Low Pass to provide a fixed sloped attenuation of high frequencies from a specified frequency. Below this point the signal is almost unaffected but higher frequencies are progressively more attenuated past the cutoff frequency point.
  • High Pass to provide a fixed slope attenuation of low frequencies from a specified frequency. Above this point the signal is almost unaffected while lower frequencies are progressively more attenuated below the cutoff frequency point.
  • Band Pass to reject all frequencies around the specified center frequency. The range of frequencies around the center is controlled by the Q.
  • Notch to provide a fixed attenuation of a specified frequency range with a varying width. The range of frequencies around the center is controlled by the Q.
  • Low Shelf to provide gain/attenuation for a specified range of low frequencies. This curve type is also known as Bass Tone Control.
  • High Shelf to provide gain /attenuation for a specified range of high frequencies. This curve type is also known as Treble Tone Control.
  • Peaking to provide amplification/attenuation of a specified frequency range with a varying width. The range of frequencies around the peak is controlled by the Q.

Default value: Low Shelf

Pre-Distortion EQ Band Gain

The amount of the amplification of the audio signal for the selected frequency band. Increasing this value “boosts” the audio signal. Decreasing this value “cuts” or attenuates the audio signal.

[Note] Note

The Gain controls are not available when the Low Pass, High Pass, Notch, and Band Pass curves have been selected because these filter types have their passband normalized at 0 dB.

Default value: 0
Range: -48 to 48
Units: dB

Pre-Distortion EQ Band Frequency

The portion of the frequency spectrum that will be affected by the gain.

Default value: 1000
Range: 20 to 20000
Units: Hz

Pre-Distortion EQ Band Quality Factor

The area around the center frequency that will be affected by the change in gain. A low Q value means that the bandwidth range will be wide, and conversely a high Q value means that the bandwidth range will be narrow.

This control is not available when the Low Pass, High Pass, Low Shelf, and High Shelf curves have been selected.

Default value: 1
Range: 0.1 to 20

Distortion

Type

The type of distortion algorithm that will be applied. The following options are available:

  • None: No distortion will be applied.
  • Overdrive: Smooth, blues type distortion.
  • Heavy: Hard distortion introducing lots of high frequency harmonics.
  • Clip: Hard clipping with no transition. Often leads to unpleasant static noise (clipping distortion).
  • Fuzz: Asymmetrical hard and soft clipping with different thresholds for positive and negative values. This type of distortion introduces many harmonics and may quickly sound inharmonic with complex tonal input.

Default value: None

Drive

This parameter scales the input signal prior to the evaluation of the transfer function. It can be thought as the amount of distortion that will be applied.

Default value: 50
Range: 0 to 100
Units: %

Tone

Changes the transfer function as specified in the text above.

[Note] Note

This parameter only has an effect when the distortion type is set to Fuzz.

Default value: 50
Range: 0 to 100
Units: %

Distortion Rectification

Amount of half-wave or full-wave rectification that will affect the negative portions of the input signal. Refer to Rectification for more details.

Default value: 0
Range: 0 to 100
Units: %

Output

Output Gain

The amount of gain applied to the output signal.

Default value: 0
Range: -24 to 24
Units: dB

Wet/Dry Mix

Controls the balance between the wet path (the output of the Effect) and the dry path (the input of the Effect). A value of 0 yields the original signal unaffected by the Effect while the a value of 100 outputs only the output of the Effect.

Default value: 100
Range: 0 to 100
Units: %

Post-Distortion EQ

Post-Distortion EQ Band Enable

Enables the EQ band when selected.

Default value: false

Post-Distortion EQ Band Curve

Determines the type of filtering that can be applied to the signal in a given EQ band. The following filters are available:

  • Low Pass to provide a fixed sloped attenuation of high frequencies from a specified frequency. Below this point the signal is almost unaffected but higher frequencies are progressively more attenuated past the cutoff frequency point.
  • High Pass to provide a fixed slope attenuation of low frequencies from a specified frequency. Above this point the signal is almost unaffected while lower frequencies are progressively more attenuated below the cutoff frequency point.
  • Band Pass to reject all frequencies around the specified center frequency. The range of frequencies around the center is controlled by the Q.
  • Notch to provide a fixed attenuation of a specified frequency range with a varying width. The range of frequencies around the center is controlled by the Q.
  • Low Shelf to provide gain/attenuation for a specified range of low frequencies. This curve type is also known as Bass Tone Control.
  • High Shelf to provide gain /attenuation for a specified range of high frequencies. This curve type is also known as Treble Tone Control.
  • Peaking to provide amplification/attenuation of a specified frequency range with a varying width. The range of frequencies around the peak is controlled by the Q.

Default value: Low Shelf

Post-Distortion EQ Band Gain

The amount of the amplification of the audio signal for the selected frequency band. Increasing this value “boosts” the audio signal. Decreasing this value “cuts” or attenuates the audio signal.

[Note] Note

The Gain controls are not available when the Low Pass, High Pass, Notch, and Band Pass curves have been selected because these filter types have their passband normalized at 0 dB.

Default value: 0
Range: -48 to 48
Units: dB

Post-Distortion EQ Band Frequency

The portion of the frequency spectrum that will be affected by the gain.

Default value: 1000
Range: 20 to 20000
Units: Hz

Post-Distortion EQ Band Quality Factor

The area around the center frequency that will be affected by the change in gain. A low Q value means that the bandwidth range will be wide, and conversely a high Q value means that the bandwidth range will be narrow.

This control is not available when the Low Pass, High Pass, Low Shelf, and High Shelf curves have been selected.

Default value: 1
Range: 0.1 to 20


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