Fuzz and
Compression
I’m not sure about who the first engineer was to
accidentally redline a console preamp, but I can
almost guarantee that it was an accident, and it
was early enough in recording history to where it
was discarded for the first several years of its life.
For the uninitiated, “redlining” is what happens
when an audio input is fed too much signal to
process cleanly. The term itself refers to a VU
meter comprised of colored LEDs. When the input
signal is at its maximum, the red LED is illuminated,
and the channel has been redlined. This is also the
process that happens over years and years that
makes sound guys so grumpy, because guitarists
soundcheck with their guitars’ volume knobs on
eight, then flip it to 10 when the music starts. By
employing this trick, players may have participated
in redlining a console and not even known it. When
something is intentionally and ridiculously redlined,
though, something magical happens—fuzz. If it’s
only slightly redlined, overdrive happens. Magical,
yes, but amps do that anyway.
Many of us first experienced redlining on old
Tascam and Fostex four-track cassette recordings.
Running the input volume high on these devices
created a magical fuzz effect—so much so that
Mid-Fi Electronics created the Demo Tape Fuzz,
explicitly designed to simulate redlining a
four-track tape machine. A similar effect is
produced on the Electro-Harmonix Holiest
Grail reverb, as there’s an Input Gain slider,
and running it super hot results in an ampmelting fuzz tone. The secret to modern cassette
fuzz lies in the past—specifically in the 1970s.
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