What we want to do is make sure we're getting all that we can out of our equipment. Certain opamps are known to clip 'gracefully' and are used for the 'good' kind of distortion. Making music is about introducing pleasant impurities. Listening to music is all about reproducing signal with purity and accuracy. This is anecdotal, but while we're on the subject. If an opamp receives too much power, we'll get a very ugly distortion and maybe even fry a component! If the driver receives values that go beyond its maximum range, it could produce distortion depending on how it handles the data. It can happen on a digital or analog level, and might depend on your sound card or drivers. If we boost the audio signal too much we're going to run in to it - it's just a question of where. It sounds awful and can damage your equipment. This squaring of the wave is responsible for distortion. If you looked on an oscilloscope you would see the top of the waves being 'clipped' off. When an audio signal goes past that limit, the sound wave gets squared off. Sound 101 Distortion is bad (unless it's on a guitar)Įvery circuit has a limit. It's not as simple as removing the volume limit. You'll get much better control out of using a compressor/limiter in combination with boosting the audio. The best way to boost your volume isn't by turning it up to 11.
