Question:
I just weanted to know what the differance was, I didn't know what overdrive was. Then someone put his amp on and played a song with distortion and told me it was in overdrive...I got confused, is it totally different? or is it just a tone differance? or what?
Answer:
easy answer:
overdrive is low to moderate levels of signal clipping. Distortion is moderate to heavy levels of signal clipping.
there's more complicated answers that I've read, but am not qualified to reproduce.
Answer:
I see them almost as the same thing... though i've always thought of distortion as being more lite and overdrive being heavy soundwise...
Answer:
ok thanks.
Answer:
All technicalities accounted for, there really is no difference between "distortion" and "overdrive". They are both words for what happens when you clip a signal.
However generally speaking, overdrive is a lower gain clip, often with a more "classic" voicing, while a distortion is a higher gain clip, often with a more "modern" voicing.
But, honestly, they're not different.
Answer:
Overdrive tends to sound warmer and smoother than distortion, if you can understand what I mean. Distortion is heavier and has a "crackly" sound to it. I did my best to describe it in an understandable way without all of the technical talk. Hopefully you got my meaning.
Answer:
I see them as the same thing.
Like Rainer said, They are both used to describe what happens when a signal is clipped.
And generally on high-gain amps the channel used for distortion is called the OD channel, so, I have always viewed them as beeing the same thing.