Members rasputin1963 Posted August 15, 2007 Members Share Posted August 15, 2007 Hi Craig, I've been meaning to tell you that QUADRAFUZZ is one of the most useful, most intuitive, most attractive, most useable plugins I've ever used. Today I used it to give my SoundFont trumpets and trombones an amazing bite they were lacking... My SoundFont horn patches were not bad, but once they reached the loop phase, they kind of take on a buzzy, flat sawtooth-y sound. I used the EDIT features to precisely "agitate" the frequencies needed to add life, "air" and bite to these sounds. Then, panning four separate trumpets across the pan field creates a startlingly effective horn section. Craig, how does QUADRAFUZZ work, exactly, and how does it differ from, say exciters and so-called "warming" plugins? Thanks, ras Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted August 15, 2007 Members Share Posted August 15, 2007 It splits the signal into four bands, and distorts each one individually via a distortion curve characteristic of red LEDs. The multiband distortion gives a cleaner sound than "monoband" distortion. Is that enough info, or do you want more? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rasputin1963 Posted August 15, 2007 Author Members Share Posted August 15, 2007 The distortion.... what is it exactly...? Do you introduce some noise (white/pink/brown) to the signal... FM modulation..? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted August 15, 2007 Members Share Posted August 15, 2007 The plug-in models the original hardware. The key clipping element is an LED. Traditional fuzzes use diodes to clip the signal and introduce distortion, but light-emitting diodes have a unique, "softer" transfer curve. The other thing about an LED is that its capacitance changes depending on the current going through it. With more current (higher levels), there's less capacitance, and therefore more highs. With less current (lowe levels), there's more capacitance and a warmer, chunkier sound. It's the interaction of the LED with the signal that is key, and the guys at Spectral Design who modeled the Quadrafuzz not only nailed that curve, but threw in some others as well. The main coder is a guitar player, so he "got" what it was supposed to sound like. Too bad the software version isn't available anymore... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bp Posted August 15, 2007 Members Share Posted August 15, 2007 Craig, did you know that PRS used LEDs in their old 1980s solid state guitar amp? I always liked the direct out of that piece. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members eightyeightkeys Posted August 15, 2007 Members Share Posted August 15, 2007 Craig :I've got to chime in and say that I love this plug-in as well. I've used the EQ section many, many times to get that certain something out of drums and bass when all of my other plug-in EQ's just didn't do it. (And I've got quite a few high-end EQ plugs) The EQ adds bite, balls and character. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted August 15, 2007 Members Share Posted August 15, 2007 In the hardware version, the EQ was designed to do everything wrong: Maximum passband ripple, maximum phase shift, you name it. It was my attempt to do cabinet emulation in analog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted August 15, 2007 Members Share Posted August 15, 2007 Craig, did you know that PRS used LEDs in their old 1980s solid state guitar amp? I always liked the direct out of that piece. Tom Scholz is another big fan of LEDs as distortion elements, we had quite a discussion about it once. Of course, the pre-CBS LEDs are the best Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jeff Leites Posted August 15, 2007 Members Share Posted August 15, 2007 Tom Scholz is another big fan of LEDs as distortion elements, we had quite a discussion about it once. Of course, the pre-CBS LEDs are the best I think I've got a box of NOS pre-CBS LEDs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members philbo Posted August 15, 2007 Members Share Posted August 15, 2007 Gee, I wonder what kind of distortion curve you could get from the old pre-LED nixie tubes? (I suppose they'd work better as a compressor...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members milnersXcoupe Posted August 15, 2007 Members Share Posted August 15, 2007 I want QuadraFuzz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members chipmcdonald Posted August 15, 2007 Members Share Posted August 15, 2007 Tom Scholz is another big fan of LEDs as distortion elements, we had quite a discussion about it once. Of course, the pre-CBS LEDs are the best Actually, we can get sillier than that... yellow LEDs sound the best. / not joking Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gward Posted September 23, 2007 Members Share Posted September 23, 2007 I am still waiting to hear any news on a new version the Craig mentioned was a possibility... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rasputin1963 Posted September 23, 2007 Author Members Share Posted September 23, 2007 I want QuadraFuzz. yeah, you do! It's the most "musical" sounding of all the computer distortions I've heard.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members modul8 Posted September 24, 2007 Members Share Posted September 24, 2007 I am still waiting to hear any news on a new version the Craig mentioned was a possibility... ... as I think many of us are. A QuadraFuzz thread comes up at least every other month it seems. There is definitely demand. I must admit, I'm a bit ashamed I have let my eyes wander the way of Izotope's Trash, but, I'm still holding out for a magical reinvention of a multi-faceted, side-chain exploiting, automate'n everything Quadrafuzz plug-in... my drum mangleing just hasn't been the same and there simply is no better way to mistreat a monosynth i.e. 303. ... Audio Units support too please ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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