Question:
so what's the difference between overdrive and distortion? like what makes them different? okay, sometimes one may sound lighter or cleaner than the other, but like..if im gona get a distortion pedal, why would i want to get a overdrive?like..give me reasons why i would want to get it, maybe ill get one myself! i play mostly for p&w, if that helps you get an idea of what kind of music ill be playing.
Answer:
the name 'overdrive' comes from when an amp is just starting to distort. a mild distortion.
distortion is higher gain.
it all depends on the sound you want. one isn't overly better than the other, its all relative to your taste.
(preferably, i'd rather have tube distortion, but thats just me )
Answer:
It's subjective, but what tht00 said is a pretty good description. Overdrive is mild to midrange overdrive. Distortion is usually more high-gain, and IMHO often sharp or nasty sounding.
-Nick
Answer:
It could also be said that there really is no difference at all, essentially. The name is all that's different. But generally, overdrive tends to describe a light clip, and distortion is a heavy clip.
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I agree with the above posts. There is no real demarcation between one and the other. Lots of pedals kinda overlap - OD pedals with the gain up high might well be considered distortion, at least by some. OD would be more appropriate for P & w, IMHO. That's more of what you'll hear on stuff from Crowder, Tomlin, and the like, although AFAIK pros will typically use natural tube OD from an amp for their "foundation" tones, using pedals for alternate/occasional tones.
Answer:
do you guys know any OD or distortion pedals that can be adjusted from one to another by adjusting it's gain? or can u do that with all OD/distor pedals
Answer:
All overdrive/distortion pedals will give you different levels of distortion by adjusting the gain. If you really want some variance, get one of these:
Boss OS-2
Visual Sound Jekyll & Hyde
Tech 21 Tri-A.C.
Answer:
If I remember correctly OD was originaly in pedals and was used to get more distortion out of Tube amps or a mild distortion out of clean amps.
Answer:
Well, OD has always kinda been around in playing a tube amp way past it's max volume. But I believe that people had pedals before true switchable 2 channel amps came out.
Answer:
When dealing with pedals overdrive and distortion are the same in the sense that they both work by amplifying your signal then clipping everything that exceeds a certain level. To me, the difference is this: Distortion clips harder. It allows the level to reach a certain point then just chops it off when it exceeds that. Overdrive clips softer, or more gradually as the level approaches a threshold. Overdrive also tends to be more senstive to dynamics. You can have heavy overdrive, or light distortion, but in general distortion is edgier sounding. In either case, the amount of clipping is increased by increasing the gain/output level of the amplified signal, thus keeping it closer to the clipping level.
As far as pedals are concerned, the only kind that uses a significantly different approach to creating the clipping is a fuzz pedal. These work by overdriving transistors.
Answer:
All of the above are good explanations.
Historically speaking, overdrives were intended to drive a non-master volume tube amp's preamp section harder to get distortion without having to really crank it (as with a "plexi" Marshall), or get a little more distortion into an amp that doesn't really want to distort (such as a classic Fender Twin).
So, it really had more to do with amplifiers than anything else originally. The sounds people were looking for just weren't available from the tube amps at the time without incredible sound pressure levels (in the case of the Marshall) or even at all (classic Twins don't really distort a whole lot, even when cranked - Leo was trying to get perfect reproduction and didn't want distortion at all).
EVH got around this problem nicely by hot-rodding and attenuating his Marshalls to get the "brown" sound. Then he could turn up all the way without causing permanent hearing loss to those around him (because of the attenuator) and get all that tasty Marshall power amp distortion.
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I've also heard that some people use overdrive to refer to amp distortion, and distortion to refer to pedal distortion.
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Originally Posted by Rainer. I've also heard that some people use overdrive to refer to amp distortion, and distortion to refer to pedal distortion.
i usually use them both to refer to amp distortion... 'overdrive' as a light/medium distortion and 'distortion' being a more high-gain sound.
Answer:
everybody that's said there's not really a difference is more or less right, but i thought i'd expand a bit.
the basic difference is in the clipping that occurs. as a general rule, overdrive refers to soft clipping, and distortion refers to hard clipping. the difference being that, when it's soft clipping, the signal is being squashed, so to speak, so the wave retains some curve. hard clipping means that the top of the waveform is just being removed, so that the wave hits kind of a plateau and just flattens out. the sonic result of this is that, in lower gain situations, overdrive produces a "smoother" sound, whereas distortion is harsher, more abrasive. but, when you increase the gain of an overdrive significantly enough, the "squashing" reaches a point where it's basically flattening out the top of the wave, so it's more or less the same sound.
that's not universally applicable (example: the MXR Distortion + uses soft clipping), but generally it's true.
hope that was helpful.
Answer:
Difference between OD and distortion? The old folks complain to the pastor when you turn on your distortion.