Overdrive

A warm, band-limited overdrive that focuses the midrange before driving it, then runs an antialiased soft shaper so the grit stays smooth even when pushed hard. This is the standalone form of the Overdrive mode from the Distort module — same DSP, with the focus band's brightness pulled out as a real Tone knob (Distort fixes it at 5 kHz).

How it works

The signal is high-passed around 720 Hz and then low-passed at the Tone cutoff, so only a focused band is sent into the shaper — that band-limiting is what keeps the overdrive thick and musical rather than fizzy. The shaper uses antiderivative antialiasing (ADAA) to suppress the harsh aliasing a hard clip would produce, and a DC blocker keeps the asymmetric, biased drive centred.

Controls

  • Drive — how hard the focused band is pushed into the shaper, 0–1. Low settings add gentle warmth and edge; cranked, it saturates into a singing, compressed overdrive.
  • Tone — the lowpass cutoff of the driven band, 1000–8000 Hz (default 5000). Lower for a darker, rounder, more vintage push; higher to let more presence and bite through. At 5000 it matches Distort's Overdrive exactly.
  • Bias — the even-vs-odd harmonic balance of the asymmetric drive. At 1 (default) it keeps the full asymmetric voicing; back toward 0 for a thinner, harder, more symmetric odd-harmonic edge.
  • Level — output trim, 0–2 (default 1 = unity). Use it to make up or tame gain after driving.

Inputs & outputs

  • In L / In R — the audio to overdrive. Mono? Just use L. Patch a stereo

pair (the Wavetable's L/R, say) and each side gets its own drive path through the shared knobs, so a wide source stays wide through the grit.

  • Drive / Tone / Bias CV — voltage control over the matching knobs (±10 V sweeps each across half its range); patch an envelope or LFO to make the grit swell, the tone open up, or the harmonic balance shift over time.
  • Out L / Out R — the processed signal. With stereo in but only L cabled,

the channels fold to mono automatically so nothing goes missing.

Tips

  • The drive passes through clean at zero Drive — open it up to hear it bite.
  • Patch an envelope into Tone CV so the band brightens as a note hits, then darkens on the tail — a vocal, wah-like motion.
  • Keep Level near 1 if you want the same output level as the Distort module's Overdrive; nudge it down when heavy drive gets too loud.