Copyright© 2000 by David Billen

You may distribute Blood OverDrive freely and without restrictions, AS LONG AS NO PART OF THE DISTRIBUTION FILES ARE UNCHANGED FROM THE STATE THEY WERE IN WHEN DAVID BILLEN PUBLISHED THEM. Any version of Blood Overdrive that is distributed with altered code, or a changed or missing document file, (this file), is in violation of international copyright laws.

Blood OverDrive is a plug-plug – meaning – it’s free of charge, it only exists to let people know about SimSynth 2 – the fattest sounding softsynth period! Check it out at http://ellisdee.onestop.net ! Also – check out RedRexxon mp3.com, http://www.mp3.com/RedRexx
 

WHAT’S BLOOD OVERDRIVE?

Blood overdrive is a distorter that is specially designed for the needs of digital-audio musicians – not guitar players.

Blood provides overdrive distortion and handles it using classic techniques that give it the sweetest possible sound. Mushy, compressed, fuzzy – not grating and harsh. Any guitar player would love to hook it to an amp. But - Blood is also married to a band-pass filter. This gives you the ability to overdrive non-guitar audio that would normally turn ugly.
 

WHAT DO THE KNOBS DO?

• PreBand Sets the amount of band filtering that is applied to the audio before it is overdriven. Use this to clean up ugly distortion that may result from overdriving audio with a broad frequency range.
• Color Sets the frequency of the band filtering.
• PreAmp Overdrives the audio in order to achieve distortion. When you boost this, you need to compensate with the PostGain knob.
• x100 (that little skull) Multiplies the amount of PreAmp by 100. There’s no promise that this will sound clean with any audio! This is for serious distortion, (instead of just hard drive). It’s good for making single instrumental tracks, (with a narrow frequency range), sound metal.
• PostFilter The preamp’ed audio is low-pass filtered at a frequency which this knob controls. This is another option for cleaning up the distortion.
• PostGain Final gain, (only reduces - full is normal). This is needed because the preamp boosts the output considerably – but you can not compensate by reducing the amount of input with your host app, or you will defeat the preamp.

WHAT’S HAPPENING TO MY AUDIO?

• First it’s passing through a band pass filter, the tightness of which is controlled by the PreBand knob, and the center frequency set by the Color knob.
• Next, it’s getting pre-amp’ed some amount set by the PreAmp knob. This is being handled, (and "clipped"), in a special way that gives Blood it’s excellent sound.
• Next it passes through a 2-pole low pass filter, the cut-off of which is controlled by the PostFilter knob.
• Finally, the amp gets reduced some amount which is controlled by the PostGain knob. Note: When the audio reaches the post gain stage, it could still be up to 300% out of range. At that point, it is "hard clipped" like any other digital app. You should therefore reduce the PostGain to compensate for PreAmp.

WHAT USES ARE THERE FOR BLOOD OVERDRIVE?

• Overdriving the hell out of single instrumental tracks to get a "metal" sound.
• Overdriving the hell out of drum tracks or whole mixes to grungulate them.
• Overdriving tracks only somewhat to give them that cranked sound.
• Boosting tracks just a bit to squeeze more dynamic range out of them with softer clipping than you would normally get.
• Playing a mix through Blood, (even without preamping at all), causes upward compression on independent frequency bands. This gives overall upward compression and flattens the EQ. It can be used to bring some tracks to life, and can even be used to master some complete mixes. (Technical note: The compression is caused by non-linear signal response and therefore sounds a lot like a vacuum tube).

ISN’T DISTORTION JUST DISTORTION?

There’s actually a number of different types of distortion which are used by musicians. The most accepted and useful type of distortion, (which Blood uses), is overdrive distortion. This is simply the distortion, which occurs when you turn up something so loud that it can’t go any louder.
 

IF OVERDRIVE DISTORTION IS JUST TURNING UP THE VOLUME TOO LOUD FOR SOMETHING TO HANDLE – WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL?

You hear a different result depending on how the "thing being overdriven" responds. Metal guitar players have made both a science and a religion out of this. (Most of them divide overdrive into two categories: That which is produced by a brand of amplifier called a Marshall, and all others). Blood uses the techniques from the best guitar amps which sound great on all types of audio.
 

WHAT DOES A BAND PASS FILTER HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING?

There’s a simple rule: The broader the frequency range in a signal, the worse it sounds when you overdrive it, (or apply any type of distortion to it for that matter). This is the main reason that guitars always sound great distorted, but when you try to apply distortion to most digital tracks they sound awful. Guitars put out only about a two octave range at a time, (and often when playing overdriven styles all six strings are not even used, so it’s less than that).

Internally, Blood strips your audio into smaller frequency bands, then overdrives and clips them independently. This helps the problem a lot, but just isn’t always enough. That’s why there’s a band pass filter, which is available to reduce the frequency range of the audio.
 

TIPS FOR GETTING THE BEST SOUND

• If the output from Blood is too loud, don’t try to reduce the input to the plugin, (using your host application). This just defeats the preamp. Reduce it with PostGain.
• After the audio has been pre-amped and clipped, using the special techniques that give Blood it’s cool sound, it could still be up to 300% out of range. When it’s clipped after PostGain, normal, (harsh sounding), digital clipping is used. Therefore, a better sound is achieved if you take care to always compensate for PreAmp by reducing PostGain.
• It’s worth taking some time to fuss with the PreBand settings vs. the PostFilter settings for cleaning up distortion. Sometimes a little of one let’s you reduce the other a lot.

QUESTIONS AND INFO

Contact David Billen by emailing dbillen@home.com, (click here if your internet connection is active).