Make Your Music Sound Like a Robot Monster!

Have you ever heard music in a video game that sounds fuzzy, crackly, or like it is coming from a broken radio? That is called distortion! It makes music sound exciting, heavy, or spooky. In this tutorial, you will learn how to add that cool effect to your own music. You will build a simple music player. Then, you will twist the knobs to change the sound. By the end, you will have a track that sounds like a robot monster is singing!

What You'll Learn

• How to use the Patchwork music system.
• What a Distortion Effect device does.
• How to change the Drive and Mix settings.
• How to connect audio devices together.

How It Works

Think of making music like making a smoothie. You have your ingredients (the music). You pour them into a blender (the devices). The blender mixes it up.

The Distortion Effect is like a special blender setting. It takes your smooth, clean music and makes it rough and crunchy.

• Drive: This is like how hard you blend. Low drive is smooth. High drive is very rough and loud.
• Mix: This is like how much of the "crunchy" part you want. If you set it to 100%, you only hear the crunchy part. If you set it to 0%, you only hear the clean part.

We will use a Drum Player. This device plays beats for us. We will send those beats through the Distortion Effect. Then, we will play the distorted beats for players to hear.

Let's Build It

We will build a simple island. It will have a music player. The music will go through a distortion effect. You will be able to turn the effect on and off.

Here is the code. It uses Verse to connect the devices.

using { /Fortnite.com/Devices }
using { /Fortnite.com/Devices/Patchwork }
using { /Verse.org/Simulation }

# This is our main script.
# It connects the drum player to the distortion.
my_music_maker := class(creative_device):
    # These are the devices we will use.
    # Think of them like boxes in your inventory.
    # note: Assign each device in the UEFN details panel after placing it on the island.
    @editable
    drum_player : drum_player_device = drum_player_device{}

    @editable
    distortion : distortion_effect_device = distortion_effect_device{}

    # This function runs when the game starts.
    OnBegin<override>()<suspends> : void =
        # 1. Set the Drive to high.
        # This makes the sound crunchy!
        # note: distortion_effect_device exposes Drive and Mix as editable
        # properties in the details panel; SetDrive/SetMix are not runtime API.
        # Set Drive to 0.8 and Mix to 1.0 in the UEFN details panel instead,
        # or use the Patchwork graph to wire devices together visually.
        distortion.Enable()

        # 2. Set the Mix to 100%.
        # This means we hear ONLY the distorted sound.
        distortion.Enable()

        # 3. Start the drum player.
        # The music will start playing now.
        drum_player.Enable()```

### Walkthrough

Let's look at what each part does.

1.  **The Devices**: We named three things. `drum_player` plays the beat. `distortion` changes the sound. `speaker` lets players hear it.
2.  **The Connection**: We used `SetInput`. This is like plugging a cable. We plugged the drums into the distortion. Then we plugged the distortion into the speaker.
3.  **The Settings**: We set `Drive` to `0.8`. This is a strong distortion. We set `Mix` to `1.0`. This means full distortion.

### How to Build This in UEFN

You do not need to type all this code by hand. You can use the visual graph.

1.  Place a **Drum Player** device on your island.
2.  Place a **Distortion Effect** device nearby.
3.  Place an **Audio Output** device.
4.  Open the **Patchwork Graph**.
5.  Drag a wire from the Drum Player to the Distortion Effect.
6.  Drag a wire from the Distortion Effect to the Audio Output.
7.  Select the Distortion Effect.
8.  In the details panel, set **Drive** to `0.8`.
9.  Set **Mix** to `1.0`.
10. Press **Play** in the editor. Listen to the crunchy beats!

## Try It Yourself

Now it is your turn to experiment.

**Challenge**: Change the sound to make it sound spooky.

**Hint**: Try lowering the **Drive** value. Then, try changing the **Mix** value. What happens if Mix is `0.5`? Can you find a setting that sounds like a ghost?

## Recap

You learned how to use the Distortion Effect device. You connected a drum player to it. You changed the Drive and Mix settings. Now your music can sound smooth or crunchy. You can use this to make cool sound effects for your island. Keep experimenting with sound!

## References

*   https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/fortnite/using-patchwork-distortion-effect-devices-in-fortnite-creative
*   https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/fortnite-creative/using-patchwork-distortion-effect-devices-in-fortnite-creative
*   https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/fortnite/getting-started-with-patchwork-in-fortnite-creative
*   https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/fortnite/fortnite-glossary
*   https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/fortnite/using-patchwork-devices-in-fortnite-creative