Earthquake Distortion Device — Quick Start
Memory multiband saturator · VST3 · AU · AAX · macOS & Windows
The idea
Earthquake Distortion Device splits your signal into frequency bands and drives each through a saturation model. What sets it apart is memory: a clay terrain accumulates the spectral energy of your signal over time and fractures where energy piles up. That damage gates how hard each band is driven — so an identical input saturates differently depending on what came before. The distortion has a memory (hysteresis), like real material fatiguing under stress.
Transparent at rest — by design. The output is dry + distortion deltas, so an un-fractured terrain is bit-close to your input. Out of the box Reactivity is 0 — raise it first, or the plug-in stays clean and you'll "hear nothing".
Install & activate
1. Run the installer (macOS .pkg / Windows). It installs VST3, AU (mac) and AAX. 2. Open the plug-in in your DAW — it's fully featured for 14 days. 3. To activate: click the gear icon → Import License… → select the .license file from your purchase email. Unlocks instantly, offline.
The interface
- Top bar — Model, Geology, Freeze, A/B, Copy, Bypass, gear (settings), IN/OUT meters.
- Centre — the living terrain. It fractures where spectral energy builds up.
This is a visualisation, not a control — read it to see what the memory is doing.
- Bottom knobs (left → right) — Reactivity, Memory, Propagation, Tilt, Amount, Tone, Bias, Symmetry.
- Bottom bar — Oversampling, preset menu, Ext SC, Mix.
Controls
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Model | The saturation character — 12 models (see below). |
| Geology | The ground material — it doesn't replace your knobs, it modulates the terrain laws (fracture threshold, heal/fracture speed, how far shocks spread). See the four grounds below. |
| Reactivity | How easily the terrain fractures — turns energy sensitivity up and the fracture threshold down (things break sooner). Starts at 0: raise it to wake the plug-in up. Not a speed control. |
| Memory | How long damage persists (the hysteresis) — this is your time-evolution / character knob. |
| Propagation | How far a fracture spreads to neighbouring bands. Low = localised; high = the whole spectrum reacts together. |
| Tilt | Weights where the action lands along the spectrum (bass-weighted ↔ treble-weighted); centre is neutral. |
| Amount | Drive into the saturation — the main "how much". |
| Tone | Brightens/darkens only the added harmonics (never the dry) — lighten the distortion without thinning the fundamental. |
| Bias / Symmetry | Shape the curve's asymmetry — they add even-harmonic content and set how symmetric the clipping is (analog-style thickness). |
| Freeze | Locks the current terrain so it stops evolving — for a fixed texture. |
| Ext SC | Fracture the terrain from an external sidechain instead of the input. |
| Oversampling | 2× / 4× for cleaner highs on aggressive settings. |
| Mix | Dry/wet (parallel saturation). Auto-gain is on by default (gear menu) — that's why level stays steady as you push Amount. |
The four grounds (Geology)
- Sediment — neutral default, your baseline identity.
- Basalt — hard: breaks rarely but intensely, stays local, long memory (great for "only the loud hits break up").
- Ice — cracks on a whisper and chains across bands (brittle, cascading).
- Sand — wide, shallow, almost no memory (soft, diffuse colour).
The 12 models
- Triode · Tape · Transistor · Pentode · Transformer — warm/analog family, subtle → thick.
- Fuzz — hard clip: extreme, torn, almost square-wave, aggressive and raw.
- Wavefold — folding, synth-like harmonic richness.
- Waveshape — Chebyshev polynomial shaping (adds specific harmonics), not folding.
- Rectifier — full-wave (octave-up flavour).
- Sinkhole · Fractal · Lorenz — experimental / chaotic shapers for sound design.
Quick recipes
- Bus glue & warmth — Model Transformer + Sand geology, Amount low (~0.3), Mix ~45 %. (Or Tape, Amount ~0.45, Mix ~65 %.)
- Drums that break only on accents — Model Transistor or Triode + Basalt geology (Basalt's high threshold is what makes only the loud hits fracture — not low Propagation).
- Evolving texture (sound design) — Model Lorenz, Reactivity ~0.6, Memory high, Amount ~0.6, then Freeze to lock a moment. (Reactivity must be up or there's nothing to freeze.)
Tips
- Reactivity wakes it up (default 0), then Memory gives it character. Reach for those two first.
- If it feels harsh, raise Oversampling to 4×.
- Use Basalt (or lower Reactivity) to break only on loud hits; Ice to make everything crackle.
- Level jumping as you push Amount? Auto-gain is on by default — you can disable it in the gear menu.
Specs & support
VST3 · AU · AAX — macOS & Windows. 14-day full trial. Questions? See the contact page on harmonicodsp.com.