Ronald Meij Maker · 1 d ago
Thirteen, and it runs from the ear to the code. The first seven are the physical article: what harmonic distortion is, why even and odd order sound different, tape physics, a transformer driven into its core on a bench, diodes clipping, hard against soft. If you only take one thing from those: saturation is not an effect you add, it is what every real circuit does when you ask it for more than it has. The last six are the digital problem. Copy a non-linear curve naively into code and it folds new harmonics back down the spectrum as aliasing, and that metallic edge is the reason so much early digital distortion sounded wrong. Then what to do about it: oversampling, and antiderivative antialiasing, which is the cleverer answer. Two gaps worth naming. There is no good talk here on modelling transformer hysteresis specifically, and none on tape saturation modelling on its own. Both exist in papers. If somebody has found them on video, post them. 01 Introduction to harmonic distortion. Odd and even harmonics, and how to use it in your mix. Matty Harris Mixing & Mastering What harmonic distortion is, how even and odd order differ in character, and what each is reached for. www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBqV1zDIH7o 02 Harmonics: Even vs Odd / Valve vs Solid State Amp Sound - Hear & See the Difference? BluesMate The same split tied to valve against solid state, with both the audio and the spectra on screen. www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKglqBbLkzs 03 Audio 101: The different Saturation types and how they sound Tim Talks Audio A survey of the usual flavours: tube, tape, transformer, transistor, and what each one does. www.youtube.com/watch?v=iM86k6tegbQ 04 Audio Concepts 107: Analog Tape Recording - 3. Physics of Tape macProVideoDotCom How the medium actually magnetises, and why it compresses and distorts as you push level into it. www.youtube.com/watch?v=5W8NCLM6s88 05 What Does Audio Transformer Overload Sound Like? Dave Rat A transformer driven into core saturation on the bench, so you can hear and see what that is. www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRMwsO-po6I 06 What is Diode Clipping? | Too Afraid To Ask Science of Loud How diode clipping works in a pedal, and how the choice of diode shapes the curve. www.youtube.com/watch?v=16Vz6XHqGMY 07 Distortion | Episode 3: Hard Clipping And Soft Clipping Positive Feedback Hard against soft clipping as transfer curves, and the different harmonic signature each leaves. www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlQtEx0eL4o 08 ALIASING is the worst enemy of our tone: How to hear it & how to fight it in NAM, Neural DSP plugin Leo Gibson Audible aliasing from digital amp simulation, and what raising the oversampling actually changes. www.youtube.com/watch?v=htpqcYEV6g8 09 Aliasing and Oversampling for DSP Engineers - Sam Fischmann - ADC23 ADC - Audio Developer Conference The engineering version of the same problem: why non-linearity generates aliasing and what oversampling costs to fix it. www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJrJi-4SDUQ 10 ChowDSP Coding Livestream #4 (Waveshaping and ADAA) The Audio Programmer Live coding waveshaping distortion and antiderivative antialiasing in C++, with Jatin Chowdhury. www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIJRhLLBaik 11 antiderivative antialiasing demo & discussion Matt Nielsen ADAA demonstrated and talked through on a waveshaper. Small channel, so the depth is unverified. www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVw-A6L4ky0 12 Implementation of an IIR Antiderivative Anti-Aliasing Wavetable Oscillator - Maxime Coutant - ADC23 ADC - Audio Developer Conference An IIR formulation of ADAA applied to a wavetable oscillator. www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVhXRzzzHa8 13 Virtual Analog Audio Effects Simulation with JUCE, Ivan Cohen, JUCE Summit 2015 ADC - Audio Developer Conference Simulating analogue effects in JUCE, saturating stages included. www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_HHJdCKcjA Every link in this channel was checked against YouTube itself: the title and the channel name under each one are what YouTube returns for that video, not what anybody remembered. That check earned its keep more than once, because a search result is quite happy to hand you a title that belongs to a different video. What could not be done is watch them all. So the line under each link comes from the verified title and channel, not from having sat through it. If one turns out not to be what it says, reply and it comes off the list. Same if a link dies, which they do.