Audio effect
Damiano
Six-mode stereo distortion with drive, tone shelf, wet/dry mix, output gain, and real-time MIDI CC override of drive from Drift or any CC source.
Opinion
Covers the range from light warmth to aggressive fuzz. The Wavefold mode in particular produces sounds nothing else in the collection does. The MIDI CC drive link makes it a natural partner to Drift.
Functionality
Damiano is a stereo distortion with six selectable waveshaping modes. Each mode shares the same Drive, Tone, Mix, and Output Gain controls; the Folds control is only active in Wavefold mode.
Modes
| Mode | Character |
|---|---|
| Soft | Polynomial soft-clip — gentle rounding, clean at low drive |
| Tanh | Hyperbolic-tangent waveshaper with output normalisation |
| Fuzz | Asymptotic fuzz — positive and negative halves shaped differently for even harmonics |
| Overdrive | Biased tanh with DC cancellation, Tube-Screamer-style even-harmonic character |
| Tube | Asymmetric: tanh on the positive half, x/√(1+x²) on the negative half |
| Wavefold | Triangle-wave folder applied in series for dense harmonic folding |
Parameters
| Parameter | Range | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drive | 1–10 | 2 | Waveshaping gain; behaviour varies by mode |
| Tone | 0–100 % | 50 % | High-shelf: below 50 % darkens, above 50 % brightens |
| Folds | 1–8 | 2 | Cascade depth in Wavefold mode; greyed out in other modes |
| Mix | 0–100 % | 100 % | Wet/dry blend |
| Output Gain | −24 to +24 dB | 0 dB | Post-distortion level trim |
| CC Number | off / 1–127 | off | Which MIDI CC number overrides Drive in real time |
| CC Channel | 1–16 | 1 | MIDI channel to listen on |
Tone shelf
The Tone control is a one-pole high-shelf filter applied before the distortion stage. At 50 % it is transparent. Below 50 % it attenuates high frequencies going into the distortion, producing a darker, warmer result. Above 50 % it boosts high frequencies before distortion, producing a brighter, harder edge. Crossover is fixed at approximately 3 kHz.
MIDI CC drive
When CC Number is set to anything other than off, incoming MIDI CC messages on the selected channel and number override the Drive parameter for as long as a CC value is being received. CC value 0 maps to Drive 1, CC 127 maps to Drive 10. The override is released automatically when the transport stops; at that point the Drive slider resumes control.
This is designed to work directly with the Drift MIDI modulator. Route Drift’s MIDI output to Damiano’s MIDI input and assign the same CC number in both.
Wavefold notes
The triangle wavefolder applies the fold transfer function in series, re-driving the signal at each stage. High Drive combined with many Folds produces dense harmonic content that can sound noise-like at extreme settings — this is the intended character of the mode rather than an artefact. For cleaner folding tones, keep Drive below 5 and Folds at 2–4.
Status
All six distortion modes and the MIDI CC drive link are functional and tested. A fresh screenshot is needed.