---
title: Overdrive
description: "An overdrive as a device you can plug in: a band-pass, a drive, a tone and a mix as a state, a panel that draws the band that reaches the clip, a Web Audio engine and the tools an agent drives it with."
component: true
base: base
---

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

A pedal-style distortion. A band-pass picks what is pushed into the soft clip, so the lows do not choke it: the panel draws that band, and the handle on its centre sets the frequency. The width, the drive, the tone and the mix are knobs. 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-overdrive
```

</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/overdrive-device @audio-ui/overdrive-panel @audio-ui/overdrive-engine
```

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

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

</Steps>

</TabsContent>

</CodeTabs>

## Usage

```tsx
import { OverdrivePanel } from "@/components/audio-ui/devices/overdrive/panel";
import { overdriveDevice } from "@/components/audio-ui/devices/overdrive/device";

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

<OverdrivePanel 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. `overdriveBand(state)` is the band the panel draws.

## The engine

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

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

Only what the band-pass lets through goes into the clip; the clean sound goes round it in the dry path. The drive is a gain before one fixed soft-clip table, and the shaper oversamples 4x.

## 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 { overdriveDevice } from "@/components/audio-ui/devices/overdrive/device";

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

`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 switches are toggle buttons, and everything takes the keyboard.