Spectral Erosion

Parameters

Erosion — Strength of the erosion effect, 0–100%. 0 is no effect (pass-through); higher values progressively eat away at spectral content below the sensitivity threshold. 30–50% gives a subtle aged/worn character (slight loss of detail at the spectrum’s edges); 70–100% strips significant content away, producing fragmented, broken textures. Erosion targets quiet edges of the spectrum first, mimicking how real-world signal degradation tends to attack the weakest content first.

Sensitivity — Threshold for what counts as “edge” content vs. core content, 0–100%. Lower values protect more content (only the very quietest bins erode); higher values erode more aggressively (catches mid-level content too). Pair with erosion to control how much content is eligible to be eaten away.

Depth — How “deep” the erosion penetrates into the spectrum, 0–5. 0 erodes only the outermost edges (subtle wear). Higher values cascade the erosion inward, eating progressively into the spectrum. 1–2 is balanced for natural-feeling decay/aging; 3–5 produces dramatic deterioration approaching destruction.

Mix — Equal-power blend between dry (0%) and eroded (100%).

Output Gain — Output level in dB, −24 to +24. Erosion reduces overall level (content is being removed); use this to bring it back up.

Additional controls

Direction — Direction the erosion operates in:

• Freq — erodes along the frequency axis (eats spectral peaks from the sides — quietest neighbors of each peak get attacked first). Produces “narrowing” of tonal content.
• Time — erodes along the time axis (eats spectral peaks from the temporal edges — note attacks/releases get worn first). Produces decayed/aged feel where transitions soften.
• Both — erodes in both directions. Most dramatic, produces fragmented, fully-decayed texture.

About Spectral Erosion

Spectral Erosion is named for the visual analogy: like rocks worn smooth by water or paint flaking off an old wall, this node “wears away” at the spectrum, eating quiet edges first and progressively eroding inward. Use it for: simulating tape decay or vinyl wear, creating broken/glitched sound-design textures, aging clean source material, gradually destroying signal as a creative effect (modulate erosion with an envelope for “slowly disappearing” sounds). The direction parameter controls whether erosion happens in frequency space, time space, or both — each gives a different aesthetic. For pure decay/aging use Time; for thinning of tonal content use Freq; for full destruction use Both.

Generated 2026-05-05 from K2K_Dev@96730bdc by scripts/gen_lexique.py. Edit _intros/ or _overrides/, not this file.