---
title: Distortion
description: "A distortion as a device you can plug in: a drive, a tone, a mix and an output as a state, a panel that draws its transfer curve, a Web Audio engine and the tools an agent drives it with."
component: true
base: base
---

<ComponentPreview styleName="base-nova" name="block-distortion" />

Bends the sound. The panel draws the transfer curve, the output for each input against the straight line of a clean sound: the more the drive, the more the peaks round off. It is a device like the [compressor](/docs/components/compressor): a state, a panel that draws it, an engine that plays it and tools an agent calls, each its own file.

## Installation

<CodeTabs>

<TabsList>
  <TabsTrigger value="cli">CLI</TabsTrigger>
  <TabsTrigger value="manual">Manual</TabsTrigger>
</TabsList>

<TabsContent value="cli">

```bash component
npx shadcn@latest add @audio-ui/block-distortion
```

</TabsContent>

<TabsContent value="manual">

<Steps>

<Step>Install the packages:</Step>

```bash
npm install @audio-ui/react @audio-ui/core
```

<Step>Add the pieces you want. All of them, or only the state and the panel if your engine is elsewhere:</Step>

```bash
npx shadcn@latest add @audio-ui/distortion-device @audio-ui/distortion-panel @audio-ui/distortion-engine
```

<Step>Copy and paste the demo that wires them, if you want it.</Step>

<ComponentSource
  styleName="base-nova"
  name="block-distortion"
  title="components/examples/block-distortion.tsx"
/>

</Steps>

</TabsContent>

</CodeTabs>

## Usage

```tsx
import { DistortionPanel } from "@/components/audio-ui/devices/distortion/panel";
import { distortionDevice } from "@/components/audio-ui/devices/distortion/device";

const [state, setState] = useState(() => distortionDevice.defaults());

<DistortionPanel onValueChange={setState} value={state} />;
```

The state is a plain object keyed by parameter id, so a host stores it, saves it with its project and sends it where it likes. `softClip(input, drive)` is the clip and `distortionCurve(state)` the whole curve with the mix and the output.

## The engine

```ts
import { createDistortionEngine } from "@/components/audio-ui/devices/distortion/engine";

const engine = createDistortionEngine(ctx, state);
source.connect(engine.input);
engine.output.connect(ctx.destination);
engine.update(nextState); // parameters ramp: no click
engine.dispose();
```

The drive is a gain before one fixed soft-clip table, so turning it never rebuilds the table, and the shaper oversamples 4x to keep the clip from aliasing.

## Latency

The shaper oversamples 4x, which delays the signal by 4 ms in Chrome (192 samples). The dry path waits as long, so a partial mix does not comb; the device then has a latency of 4 ms to report to a host. The number was measured in Chrome and the specification does not give it, so measure it in another browser with `measureLatency` of `device-measure`.

## The tools

```ts
import { deviceTools } from "@audio-ui/core/device";
import { distortionDevice } from "@/components/audio-ui/devices/distortion/device";

const [set, reset] = deviceTools(distortionDevice);
```

`set` and `reset` change the state, with the ranges the device enforces: a value out of range is brought in and reported, a wrong one is refused by name, and a call never throws.

## Accessibility

Every control is a native input: the knobs are sliders named after their parameter, with the value and unit as the text value, the switch is a toggle button, and everything takes the keyboard.