Controlled non-linear distortion effects processing produces a wide range of musically useful outputs, especiallyin the production of popular guitar sounds. But systematic control of distortion effects has beendifficult to attain, due to the complex interaction of input gain, drive level, and tone controls. Ratherthan attempting to calibrate the output of commercial effects processing hardware, which typically employsproprietary distortion algorithms, a realtime software-based distortion effects processor was implementedand tested. Three distortion effect types were modeled using both waveshaping and a second order filter toprovide more complete control over the parameters typically manipulated in controlling effects for electricguitars. The motivation was to relate perceptual differences between effects processing outputs and themathematical functions describing the non-linear waveshaping producing variation in distortion. Perceptualcalibration entailed the following listening sessions: First, listeners adjusted the tone of each of nine testoutputs, then they made both pairwise dissimilarity ratings and attribute ratings for those nine stimuli. Theresults provide a basis for an effects-processing interface that is perceptually-calibrated for system users.
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