Earthquake Distortion Device

TAPE · Tape, on a loop that is already dirty

The loop arrives gritty; tape does not add more grit, it rounds it. Transients soften, the top loses its edge, and the whole kit sits back a step. What you hear is mostly what the model took away, not what it added.

TRANSFORMER · Iron in the low end

A transformer saturates where the energy is, and on a kit that is the kick. The low end thickens and tightens while the hats pass almost untouched, which is why this model glues a drum bus instead of colouring it.

TRANSISTOR · Hard edges, on purpose

Where tape rounds, a transistor stage squares: the snare gets a hard front edge and the kick a short, clipped knock. Pull MIX back toward 40 % and it becomes a parallel crunch layer under an intact kit.

TRIODE · Warmth you can read on small speakers

A triode is asymmetrical, so it puts even harmonics above each note: the bass becomes legible on small speakers without getting louder. Hit BYPASS and the line sinks back into the mix.

PENTODE · The amp, pushed

A pentode holds clean longer than a triode and then bends hard, on odd harmonics: the note keeps its low end and grows a growl in the mids, the sound of a bass amp working. Listen where the line changes note in the second half: the growl follows the pitch.

SINKHOLE · The louder you play, the less comes out

Sinkhole is not a clipper: past a point its curve turns back down, so the loudest peaks collapse toward silence instead of flattening. Body on the sustained notes, a cave-in on the hardest attacks. No analogue circuit behaves like this.

FUZZ · A sub you can hear on a phone

A sine-like sub has almost nothing above 100 Hz. Fuzz builds a whole ladder of harmonics on top of it, and that ladder is what a small speaker plays back. Pull MIX down until the sub is back underneath.

WAVESHAPE · Harmonics, chosen rather than suffered

Waveshape is polynomial: instead of one curve pushed harder, it blends harmonics in a controlled proportion. The 808 keeps its long tail and its pitch drop, and gains a defined second and third harmonic: presence without the fizz of a clipped sub.

FRACTAL · Folds inside folds

Fractal stacks wavefolders an octave apart, each folding what the previous one produced. On a pure sub it is the clearest demonstration of the model: one note in, a dense metallic spectrum out, thinning back to a plain sine as the 808 decays.

TRIODE · Thicker, not harsher

The triode's asymmetry thickens with even harmonics: the phrase gets denser and warmer without getting harder. Switch to PENTODE on the same bar: nothing changes but the model.

PENTODE · Same settings, sharper knee

A pentode bends later and harder than a triode, and leans on odd harmonics: the phrase keeps its body and grows an edge in the upper mids, the kind that makes a synth line cut through a dense mix.

WAVEFOLD · Folding, not clipping

A wavefolder does not flatten a peak, it reflects it back on itself. Every time the level crosses a fold the harmonic series jumps, so the timbre moves with the playing: listen to the note tails change colour as they decay. No static curve does that.