distortion/noise/dissonance - guitar vs everything else

[0bleak]

A thought that just occurred to me, why is virtually unlimited distortion/noise/dissonance allowable for guitar, but apply it to anything else and people's ears fold and crumple up into the fetal position?
I'm speaking broadly here, and I'm sure people can point out many exceptions, but surely ya'll know what I mean?

 

[version]

You can get that ear splitting sort of noise from a guitar, but generally it just seems to be a more pleasant noise; rounded, less piercing. There's an old post somewhere on here where Zhao talks fondly of Pan Sonic's use of distortion because they manage to do that electronically and you can turn it up and up without it getting unpleasant.

 

[0bleak]

I don't know how they did it, but I have noticed that Pan Sonic would sometimes creates these timbres, like in the above, that do sound closer to a distorted guitar. I dunno though, it still has the potential of being too unpleasant if the volume is too high.
At least I wouldn't put in a DJ set as opposed to something like:

 

[version]

I don't know how they did it, but I have noticed that Pan Sonic would sometimes creates these timbres, like in the above, that do sound closer to a distorted guitar. I dunno though, it still has the potential of being too unpleasant if the volume is too high.
At least I wouldn't put in a DJ set as opposed to something like:

Vainio did use guitars from time to time.

 

[0bleak]

One of my favorite Vainio solo noisy tracks:


although kind of a strange rhythm if you try to mix it with other stuff

 

[0bleak]

although kind of a strange rhythm if you try to mix it with other stuff

The new Emptyset has been a bugbear for me in the same way, which is kind of unfortunate, because every track is killer.
I did somehow manage to somehow manage mix one of those new Emptyset tracks with the new Haxan Cloak track, but I don't even know what I did there or how I got it to work!

 

[version]

Is digital distortion a 'purer' distortion in some sense and missing pleasant analogue imperfections like any other digital sound?

 

[0bleak]

I guess I need some context.
I know a lot of electronic productions have used analog distortion on sounds often times.

 

[0bleak]

There is also the question of where is the line between distortion and sound design (whether digital or analog) since I guess it could maybe be argued that anything beyond a simple sine wave is a wave that has been somehow distorted?

 

[version]

Can you zoom in on distortion? What does it sound like if you get between the spaces?

 

[0bleak]

We still we to define what distortion and the context is though, because otherwise I'm not sure if we even know what we're talking about.
and if you get in the spaces between waves, you're kind of in a sound vacuum (not sure if that's the best word, but...), right?

 

[DLaurent]

I spent time speaking to many who think the guitar is the holy grail of music and are tuned into to it to an extent that's all they like. A bit of time spent with D16 Devastor, running drum machines through it, is more my understanding of distortion. Though I bet I get a lot of distortion listening to low fidelity YouTube. I do like distorted guirar, a bit of Sonic Youth, but there's definitely something tonal going on where the sound of guitar locks people into it more than Dance Mania record.