This vid might be "boring and low production value" to some but it explained the EXACT differences a thousand times better than any other flashy vid I've seen. The scope and graphs REALLY do the trick. I saw it once and will never forget the differences between these effects now. Thank you so much for posting this! I learned more in just a few minutes, than hours with other vids.

9 year old video that explains the differences between fuzz, overdrive and distoration better than any other video I've watched. The oscilloscope and spectrum analyzer really nail the differences in the three "distoration" effects. Thanks for a great video.

7 years old but still explains it clearly. this is relevant.

I need an oscilloscope - I'm certain my playing will look better than it sounds!

@wileecohagen

6 жыл бұрын

The Guitar Geek me too! Mine disappeared when we moved into my current house. It was a nice scope with its own roller stand. Someone helped themselves to it during the move. My wife and I took in her parents as they were both failing in health. I did inherit some cool,stuff though, so I guess it isn’t all bad. But I need that scope!

@wileecohagen

6 жыл бұрын

Man that tube distortion really changes the original waveform. The asymmetric clipping is something I didn’t expect. Is the schematic for that available?

@robcerasuolo9207

5 жыл бұрын

I don't need an oscilloscope to demonstrate that my playing looks better than it sounds. Well, actually, it doesn't look so great, so you can see where I'm setting the bar.

@chipsterb4946

3 жыл бұрын

One of the funniest comments I’ve ever read! 😝

@lzy2

Жыл бұрын

use corrscope

YES!!! I wonder how many of us fuzz-nuts have been trying to explain the differences we hear between fuzz, distortion and overdrive to our fuzz-innocent buddies - this straight-forward video does the very best job of explaining this that I have yet seen, and I feel like I have the tools to kind of helpfully explain it a bit now. Thank you so much for this video. It’s almost a truism that every guitarist who has a Fuzzface loves the way that circuit behaves as the guitar’s volume is rolled back, and it's so fun to see it on the oscilloscope and the spectrum analyzer. Any guitar player who has one is going to watch that section and jump up and down, "I KNEW IT I KNEW IT I KNEW IT!!!" - and you see the pattern in the harmonics with the gain cranked (five and then a space, then five and another space, or counted another way, no sixth harmonic at all, no twelvth harmonic, and so on), and how it changes (the others drop but the sixth and twelvth come in!) - just really exciting!!!! Definitely one of the most fun guitar-related videos I’ve seen in ages. And it’s been out there since 2014, imagine that.

Dude i've been studying electric engineering and I must say you taught me much more than my teachers! Really thanks for explaining these fxs

@luiseduardomiranda6807

5 жыл бұрын

Hi, mate, so i study civil engineering and it's unrelated do most of the things i've learnt. But i just got curious, do you study how pedals influence the soundwave of your signal? I bet there are more aplications in your field, but it seems a really cool subject! Greetins from a brazilian random dude who comments on random posts hahaha :)

@brucesmith9144

4 жыл бұрын

If this were an EE course, you would be expected to compute the FFT, Bode plot response of the circuit, calculate its transfer characteristics H(s) including stability analysis, phase and gain margin, calculation of all poles and zeros. Actually, a pretty good exercise come to think of it.

@somedude4122

4 жыл бұрын

@@brucesmith9144 The depends on the design, bode plots and phase shifts are pretty normal, but stability analysis and gain,phase margins are only applicable to feedback systems.

@lowgpu1687

Жыл бұрын

The distortion wave looks very similar to when you put a capacitor in a circuit

@tacaobh

5 ай бұрын

I'm an electrical engineer and I agree! Congrats from Brazil! 👏🏽

Extremely high quality video. The spectrum analyses were fascinating!

I have been serching for a video like this literally for years! and I have to say this one is just perfect, as an engeneer I really love this video!

@PaulGrahamGuitarst

7 жыл бұрын

Thanks Ruben. I have had a number of people from electronic engineering backgrounds leave comments similar to yours and I really do appreciate it. It is reassuring to know this video is doing exactly what it was intended to do.

One of the most valuable piece of electronic stuff I've seen on this "mojo" subject ! Sir, you nailed it, first class ! 🤩 Cheers from France.

It might be interesting to do exactly the same type of comparison between silicon vs. germanium.

@Willam_J

6 жыл бұрын

Here’s a good one: kzread.info/dash/bejne/nKmJsLulYJjdXZs.html

@ecscottindiana

4 жыл бұрын

@@Willam_J cheers for the link!

@chipsterb4946

3 жыл бұрын

@@Willam_J I was expecting germanium vs. silicon transistors, not diodes. Plus the Klon circuit is fairly unusual in the way it uses diodes.

@bigbasil1908

Жыл бұрын

@@chipsterb4946 Whiney bstrd

Now I can actually see the difference between overdrive and distortion. Thanks for this very interesting video.

@PaulGrahamGuitarst

9 жыл бұрын

It is great to hear I helped you out.

Now I know how valve (vacuum tube) preamp gives warm-sound. It skews signal. At 12:24 clearly seen that rising a little bit slower than falling. Valve's conductance-increasing sinks faster than its plate's resistor can pull it up again. This phenomenon can achieve in high-voltage low-current condition. Now i know how, thank's to your effort. Your share makes people getting more smart. Cheers from Indonesia.

This is one of the best videos I have seen on the subject. I love the lab scope analysis with the signal. Thanks for the great video!

Great video. Love the use of the oscilloscope and spectrum analyzer to show the effects.

GREAT Video. The best comparison between the different distortion characteristics I have seen so far!

As many others have said, this is exactly what I've been looking for! A clear description of these effects with a scope to illustrate. I'm studying electrical engineering and have been getting into pedal design so this is gold.

the most complete clipping analysis i've seen until now, and is also in real time.

Great explanation Paul. Thank you for taking the time to put this together 🙏

Great stuff, great to see the oscilloscope and harmonics. Always wanted to know more about the differences between those approaches to overdrive/distortion!

I wish that I would have found this video years ago!!! So incredibly insightful! I almost fell off my chair when I saw the wave form of the fuzz and the distortion. So many lights went on!

Great video. This really puts things into perspective a lot better than I have ever seen

this is perfect in every technical, musical and didactical aspect. great work. THX

Great analysis ! You just reminded me back this from University. I liked this signals modulation analysis, and now it has been very helpful to distinguish between pedals before buying. Thanks to you and Fourier !!!

Thanks man , I like how you break it down for us !! Plus the spectrum analysis is extremely helpful !!

I liked seeing both the waveform and the harmonic graph for each. It made for an intriguing approach to explaining how the signal is being affected for each scenario. And, it was an excellent refresher for myself. \m/

Thanks for this. Learned more in 19 minutes than the last 4 decades.

I really enjoyed this video! Thanks for posting this, the explanations were quite straight forward and it was great to see everything on the oscilloscope.

Good stuff! Content like this is much needed today!

This video is badass. Thanks so much for the serious in depth analysis!

Such a great video! It answered a lot of questions that i have. Thanks a lot man!

This video is bizarely exactly what i was looking for. Ty 💪🥰

Love your tube distortion! Nice. Great demo.

Brilliant video. This explains a lot about both pedals and amps...and even why some "clean" channels sound good and others boring...and yes...it's the harmonic distortion in the "clean" channel.

Exactly what I'm looking for! Thank you for explaining!

Thank you this video is timeless 🎊🤯 I was looking for something that went into detail just like this a proper tutorial looking forward to watching the rest of your videos

Thanks for the video, Paul! Interesting stuff.

What a brilliantly made video!

This was a very detailed and thorough introduction to distortion! The only thing that can be improved is the sound (of both you and the wave forms). Thanks!

Glad to see there's vids about that tube distortion box. Heading there now 👍🎸

Perfect video. You should win an award for this. Thx

This was fantastic. I eat this kind of stuff up. Well done mate!

Nothing better than visual representations of all this audio voodoo.Thank you.

you just gave me some good ideas in order to calculate the behavior of the pedals. keep on buddy

Great job man. Good to know what is going on with the signal from an instruments. So nice to look on the scope :)

I know to keep my subs a sin wave and now I know why! Thanks for connecting the dots!

Muy, muy bueno! Very, very good job Paul Graham!

Very informative and educative video! I do hope you're planning for some more effects to be explained like this :) Thank you!

Great demo. Very useful. Thanks!

As a physicist and fuzz pedal enthusiast, I really appreciate this video

excellent comparative analysis

Exactly what I wanted to learn. Thanks!

I'm just a pathetic amateur in effects building and your video gave me an overall idea of how the waveform is altered by different types of devices, really nice!

@PaulGrahamGuitarst

9 жыл бұрын

Thanks. Everyone has to start somewhere and everyone is on a learning curve. It cool to hear I have helped you out.

O melhor vídeo que encontrei mostrando a forma de onda dos diversos tipos de pedais. Obrigado! Excelente conteúdo.

Hi Paul! Great video, thanks for sharing! I would love to see the pedals used in conjunction (eg. fuzz into tube overdrive, ss overdrive, etc.) and see how tha wave is affected and to underestand why its souds the way it does. Maybe you already did that. Thanks again!

This kicks ass, thanks so much for making it!

Great vid, super informative and, finally, a graphic illustration of terms that people throw around with no idea of their meaning. Thx for sharing "the oil" - Jamie the Pom

Loved the content bro. Make more videos like this, may be like a Flanger, Phaser or Wah. Cheers.

@linuxguitarchannel

4 жыл бұрын

Flanger, phaser and wah are basically (modulated) filters (in case of flanger and phaser, their frequency response it driven by an LFO - low frequency oscillator - in case of wah, the frequency response is driven by the pedal movement and in case of auto-wah, the frequency response is driven by the envelope of the signal - basically a rectified and low-pass filtered version of the signal - itself), so for a sine wave (which is the "purest" form of wave, consisting of only a single frequency) they would just cause the amplitude to go up and down. To see what these actually do, the best thing would be to feed white noise into them (because that has all frequencies in it) and then look at the spectrum analysis. A look with an oscilloscope (and sinosoidal input) actually doesn't reveal a lot about what these effects do. You need a wideband signal and a view of the spectrum to see what's actually going on.

Absolutely wonderful video. Thank you!

Really good video man! This is the first video I see that has an electronic analysis of the signals. Could you make a video where you combine distortion and overdrive pedals?

Nice video, a great waveform reference, thanks.

absolutely fascinating. this needs to be done for all pedals. start a website tomorrow, please.

Gracias por el vídeo, muy completa la explicación, las imágenes del osciloscopio son de gran ayuda para diseñar los circuitos, Felicitaciones, saludos desde Colombia.

Really cool video 😎 a lot of insight why these effects sound like they do :D

Cool explanation dude. Thanks!!!

That tube box sounds killer!!!

Wow, what an informative video about how different components clip in our favorite amps and pedals. I must say I am very surprised by the frequency response of the Maxon OD808 and the shape of the sine signal. It was to my eyes the 'softest' clipping waveform of all the waveforms including the tube pedal - and yet contrary to popular belief where a 'soft' clipping waveform has more even order harmonics - that had all odd order harmonics without a trace of any even - and that's the all time favorite overdrive pedal in history. So I guess this shatters two widely held beliefs, one - that soft clipping creates even order harmonics and two- we don't like odd order harmonics, everyone - or nearly everyone loves the Maxon OD808. Would have loved to have seen a boss SD-1 being analyzed with it's slightly different arrangement of 3 clipping asymmetric clipping. Another funny observation, the maxon od808 has always been described as a 'smoother' breakup where as the boss sd-1 asymmetric overdrive has always been described as more 'rough' - but i bet it has more even order harmonics while the od808 has none.

Sublime video mate. Thanks!

A ton of thankyous, helped me solve multiple issues with one video.

@PaulGrahamGuitarst

7 жыл бұрын

That's great. Thanks for watching.

Fantastic demo. Thanks.

Excellent presentation. Thank you.

Thank you, awesome work!

Very cool explanation! Thanks.

That was a great sounding fuzz you had there !

thanks dude. i have been looking for something like this.

Great video, thanks for putting it together.

@PaulGrahamGuitarst

7 жыл бұрын

Thanks. Its good to know I helped you out. Cheers.

Fantastic video! Thank you!

Thanks for the excellent demo. I learned a lot.

@PaulGrahamGuitarst

7 жыл бұрын

Sweet! Happy to be of service.

Great demo. This also shows why hard clipping of an audio system can blow speakers. Speakers take more time physically to move than a signal like that is telling them to. Depending on the frequency they can stack common signals before they can return to a lower position in the wave and they start to ride up and will destroy themselves. The hard clip is just way too much fast dynamic for them to deal with in the acoustic world. Pushing your speakers beyond their rated wattage is much easier on them than pushing your amps final output stage (causing hard clipping at high watts) beyond its rated output.

Great video, Very helpful, Thanks!!

Very very good video! Thank you very much !

I built a two-valve pre-amp (Marshall circuit) and overdrove it with a Germanium transistor booster fifty years ago. Still use it, or an incarnation of it. Awesome fat distorion tone. The thing is......... the biggest difference occurs when the note dies away. The pedals for fuzz/distortion etc seems to me to have a clear and definite point where the fuzzy sound ceases whereas the valve distortion just smoothly transitions into a clean tone. It's good to see someone put up some oscilloscope traces and show people what's actually going on with a waveform as it distorts. The unit I built starts by rounding off the bottom of the waveform in a very pronounced way - the bottom peak gets rounder and rounder and the top peak just keeps climbing until it all starts to bend and morph into a waveform almost identical to your own valve unit.

Loved the explanation

Awesome explanation, thanks.

Great video! Very informative!

this is golden, thanks!

Cool video man. I would be interested to see what the sound waves look like when combining different distortions, for example if you were to put an overdrive pedal in front of the fuzz (which is something that I often do).

This is great! I'm going to do it by myself too ! Thanks!!

this is a pearl, dude! thanks a lot =)

Great video!

great video, helpful for me.

I've wanted to see this for a long time :-)

@PaulGrahamGuitarst

5 жыл бұрын

It was interesting to me when I first done it also. I was surprised to see how different the wave forms were.

excellent video

Thank you so much, super useful!

Excellent information.

best video ever! Thanks so much.

@PaulGrahamGuitarst

9 жыл бұрын

Edwin Fire Thanks.

Great video. Thank you.

This is great, thank you!

Thanks a lot for this video!!

Awesome, mate. Thanks!

Really great video.

@AgustinCaniglia1992

3 жыл бұрын

I am musical producer, and this is awesome material.