Distortion adds harmonics to your sound, making it sound grittier, crunchier, and more interesting overall. 

In Atom the Distortion section is located in the effects section of the plugin:

To turn on the Distortion section simply click the grey light in the top right of the Distortion section to turn it green (which means its on) or click the light on the left-side of the FX menu next to Distortion to activate it:

Clicking the light again will turn the Distortion effect off.
​
The "Drive," knob controls how heavy the distortion added to the sound will be. The Type control alternates between different distortion types (with unique characteristics).

Cutoff sets the frequency range where the distortion applies, while resonance applies filter resonance to the distorted signal.

The Filter button allows you to change the distortion filter from lowpass, bandpass, or highpass, and filter % determines how much of the distorted signal is processed through the filter.

The "Mix," knob controls how much of that distortion is applied to your sound. A mix of 0 will have no distortion processing whatsoever.  

We recommend trying different combinations of these settings to find the perfect amount of distortion for your sound!