Help with parallel distortion

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I understand series distortion but I've just heard about parallel distortion. Any help in explaining this to me?
 
Usually parallel effects means you have two copies of your subject track; Lets say it's vocals.

So, the original copy has the standard chain, whatever that may be. Eq, comp, verb....whatever.

The duplicate has the distortion on it. With an effect like reverb or delay you'd set it to 100%, and with compression you'd be heavier handed than in series, so I guess with distortion you'd probably go heavier than usual.

Then all you do is set the main vocal level and introduce the duplicate to taste.

Hope that helps.
 
Cheers for that. I think I understand what you mean.
Basically you just duplicate the original track and run the distortion in this case through the duplicated track then mix it in with the original. So you end up with a balance between clean and distorted.
Is that right?

Thanks for quick reply too.
 
Exactly. :)

I'm not sure what the advantage is unless there's no wet/dry control in series.
Have a play around and see.
 
I have never heard of parallel distortion. Not saying it doesn't exist just because I never heard of it. But if I never once have even come across that term, I wonder how useful and often it's actually used.

Parallel compression I've heard of.
 
I only used distortion as an example but agreed. I've only come across the term today.
 
RAMI said:
I have never heard of parallel distortion. Not saying it doesn't exist just because I never heard of it. But if I never once have even come across that term, I wonder how useful and often it's actually used.

Parallel compression I've heard of.
Click to expand...
I have used it sometimes on bass guitar to give some grit, but I like to leave the dry track also, because distortion tends to eat the low frequencies.
 
Seidy said:
I have used it sometimes on bass guitar to give some grit, but I like to leave the dry track also, because distortion tends to eat the low frequencies.
Click to expand...
Great point. I once put distortion on bass recently and liked the sound, but noticed that it thinned it out, so I added a Vintage Warmer to it and EQ'd a lot of low end back in. Had I used parallel distortion, I might not have had to do all that. :cool:
 
RAMI said:
I have never heard of parallel distortion. Not saying it doesn't exist just because I never heard of it. But if I never once have even come across that term, I wonder how useful and often it's actually used.

Parallel compression I've heard of.
Click to expand...

I'd have to agree that I've never actually heard the technique called "parallel distortion" before, but I've seen it put to use. I've found the best uses are for bringing out the bass guitar harmonics in a mix, and I love adding a slight distortion on my parallel drum compression bus, after the compression insert. I splurged and picked up the Soundtoys Native effects bundle. Decapitator is perfect for that! I'll sometimes have the typical 1176 in all button mode with super slow attack and super fast release, pumping and crushing the crap out of the parallel drum bus, but then if I want more grit and attitude on top of that (which I always do), I'll slap on the Decapitator while listening in the sauce and just season to taste.

Graham Cochrane demonstrates the use of parallel distortion on bass guitar, but doesn't refer to it as that:
Bass Fuzz Mixing Technique - TheRecordingRevolution.com - YouTube
 
Long ago, in a land far, far away, Kanye West put out an album called 808s & Heartbreak.
At one point, he released the stems for the track Love Lockdown to be remixed by fans.
While not really in-line with my regular choice genres (though I somewhat dislike genres),
I dug the album and downloaded the stems. As I recall, the producers implemented this technique.
One track dry vocals, second track distorted vocals.

That sticks out in my mind because it seemed so strange to me at the time.
Something just occurred to me, though. Sure, you have wet/dry controlls... but what if you want to affect the distorted signal further?
It wouldn't be possible to do so in a chain without affecting the dry signal as well, 'ew see.
 
To those who questions the use of parallel distortion, it is in fact very useful.

The main reason is that any distortion unit will also change the tone of your track (not always in the way you want). So you use parallel dist. to keep the "original" tone of your track while adding distortion to it with a duplicate track. Bass tracks, as Rami talked of, is a very good example. In fact, put a bass track through a dist. unit (or plugin) and for sure, you'll lose in the bottom end. But if you duplicate your bass track, cut the bottom on this new track and distort it, you'll still get the bottom of your source track mixed with the added texture of your duplicate (distorted) track. So, you don't lose anything. You just gain more texture (which is a great trick to make a track cutting through a busy mix btw).
 
I've heard this effect being used (and used it myself) on acoustic guitar a number of times too.
I really like the way that sounds.
 
I think Jon Foreman used parallel distortion on his vocals during the chorus of Switchfoot's song "The War Inside."
I may be wrong, but it sounds a lot like that's what he's doing.
 
It's been a long time since I've used this site as it slipped my mind but I used the parallel distortion on these three tracks (funeral for a friend covers). If you want to listen and watch, ask for my youtube link as it won't allow me to post the link in this comment.

Cheers for all the comments and help.
 
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