Saturator plugin recommendation?

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logburner wrote:I'm looking for a quality saturator plugin. Currently using Ableton's stock Saturator . . .
Have you really explored this native LIVE plug ?
It has a lot of variety of color and is very cpu friendly (not to mention; you already paid for it)

peace
expert only on what it feels like to be me
https://soundcloud.com/mrnatural-1/tracks

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Yeah Ableton's Saturator is great, I use it all the time. The Soft setting is great for inflating and the analog or digital clip settings are great for annihilating peaks. Med and Hard settings are great for louderizing things in the mix or increasing density etc.

If you set up an EQ with inverse control linking either side of Live's Saturator as described in Dan Worrall's excellent video (link below), you'll get more mileage out of any saturation/non-linear processing. You can only do this in Ableton, Studio One 3 and Reaper as far as I know because the DAW must support parameter linking and inverse parameter linking. I'm sure other software can do it but I don't know of any myself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-Gs-o39C5o

Audio Damage's Fuzzplus 3 is newly updated, awesome and free.

I also demoed Decapitator and Saturn but didn't hear any magic regardless of everyone else's praise for them so I passed.

For mixing I'll occasionally use u-he Satin, Wavearts Tube Saturator or SDRR but I get the most use out of Ableton's to be honest.

For mastering I use inflator and Nebula libraries for saturation and very very occasionally SDRR.

I've heard only really great things about Studio Devil so maybe I'll pick up the tube amp sometime. The Vertigo looks interesting too but very expensive at 300 bucks.

Cheers

Scorb
I once thought I had mono for an entire year. It turned out I was just really bored...

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Don't overlook MJUC it's one of the most authentic analog emulations and can be used just as a preamp / saturator.
You are currently reading my signature.

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Try out the MeldaProductions Multiband Saturator. It's exactly what you want. I use it all the time to beef up my kicks and bass. It's amazing.

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Thanks guys for the recommendations!

Fabfilter Saturn, U-he Satin, PSP Mixpack 2, Soundtoys Decapitator and Klanghelm SDRR are the popular choices so far. I'm surprise no one has mentioned Vertigo VSM-3 (no positive or genative comments about it), maybe it's sooo good that the owners of the plugin want keep it quiet? I'll demo these plugins and see how they complement with the plugins I have.

Ableton's Saturator is great and I often tweak each parameters, but the way it saturates sound is just different from say, X-Saturator. Ableton's Saturator tends to alter sound in a quite obvious way and sometimes the effect of it isn't particularly what I'd be aiming for.

Massive thanks to djscorb for sharing the pre-post emphasis technique! Indeed it's so easy to setup a rack in Live and assign macros to corresponding parameters. I'm trying it with not only bass processing, but drum buss as well (driving kicks or snares only). It looks like I could turn any plugins to frequency specific processing device for no additional cost, which is exactly what I need! :party:

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logburner wrote:Thanks guys for the recommendations!

Fabfilter Saturn, U-he Satin, PSP Mixpack 2, Soundtoys Decapitator and Klanghelm SDRR are the popular choices so far. I'm surprise no one has mentioned Vertigo VSM-3 (no positive or genative comments about it), maybe it's sooo good that the owners of the plugin want keep it quiet? I'll demo these plugins and see how they complement with the plugins I have.

Ableton's Saturator is great and I often tweak each parameters, but the way it saturates sound is just different from say, X-Saturator. Ableton's Saturator tends to alter sound in a quite obvious way and sometimes the effect of it isn't particularly what I'd be aiming for.

Massive thanks to djscorb for sharing the pre-post emphasis technique! Indeed it's so easy to setup a rack in Live and assign macros to corresponding parameters. I'm trying it with not only bass processing, but drum buss as well (driving kicks or snares only). It looks like I could turn any plugins to frequency specific processing device for no additional cost, which is exactly what I need! :party:
Probably because not many will spend 300 USD for a saturator ;)
Image stardustmedia - high end analog music services - murat

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Free, portable and very, very handy option:

1) Get ReaPlugs.
2) Load ReaJS, which by itself will give you access to dozens of excellent free processing tools.
3) Load LOSER -> Saturation.

Sidenote: Saturn is also excellent, very tweakable and such, but LOSER's saturation is just in another ballpark. One knob tool that will do its job and also wouldn't let your signal exceed 0 dBFS which sometimes is a lifesaver.

Also, google for a) Shattered Glass SGA1566 and CodeRedFree b) Plug-in Conspiracy Saturator.
https://soundcloud.com/vospi
I love music, worked with a number of music/rhythm/dance games like Pump It Up, In The Groove, Cytus and Deemo, and teach music production.

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Vospi wrote:One knob tool that will do its job and also wouldn't let your signal exceed 0 dBFS which sometimes is a lifesaver.
One knob? There goes my interest... What ever it does, it's not transparent. Is it just a simple one style saturation, or is there a more sophisticated circuit behind it? Although free, too unflexible for me

Plus it doesn't go over 0 dBFS? So it has a built in limiter. That's not the way real saturation works, because if you push the saturation very hard, the plugin will also produce clipping at some point introducing unwanted distortion (saturation).
Image stardustmedia - high end analog music services - murat

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Omkar wrote:I have both, SSL X-Saturator and PSP Mixpack2 (incl Mixbass2).
(Also Decapi, but take it aside for now and focus on PSP and Duende).

You gave a good picture of X-Saturator and I agree, it can be used in combination of others.

While Mixpack2 often seems to be considered as an "old hat"
and generates frequent sales on marketplace (dirty cheap to your advantage),
I would say it has a great value, is low on cpu
and the components are well thought-out in terms of having them working all together.
Also completes X-Saturator nicely.


Out of curiosity, TheoM or others,
whats your experience with LSR audio as a company,
the TUBEnhance and do they have sales now and then ?
(Hello Black Friday ... )

From the corner of the eye I saw them involved into the Lindell native products
which is quite a kind of reference.
Hi I am sorry I missed your post.

had a few dealings with the owner of LSR, he is very polite and provides very fast response/service.

The plugins are solid and all sound great, no duds anywhere.

I think comprime and tube enhance are probably some of the most under discussed under rated plugins around.

Tube enhance is a spectacular saturator (IMO) and has a control to tailor it for bass or higher.

That's why i recommended it for this topic as it sounds REALLY good on bass, i promise. And well priced.

yes I bought them on a 40 or 50% sale, i can't remember exactly, but the price was very very good, felt like i was stealing them ;)

I'm only losing interest in native plugins these days cause i am so heavily invested and using UAD, but i am keeping a small set of natives round for itb only laptop work here and there. I will definitely be keeping tube enhance ;)

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I used MJUC and Saturn on an EP recently and they both gave the tracks that finishing touch i was missing so +1 for both.

Recently being using Single Mault a lot on individual tracks, definitely a freebie worth having becoming a bit of a goto.
Latest release and Socials: https://linktr.ee/ph.i.ltr3

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decapitator and trash are also highly recommended over here.

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TheoM wrote:
Omkar wrote:I have both, SSL X-Saturator and PSP Mixpack2 (incl Mixbass2).
(Also Decapi, but take it aside for now and focus on PSP and Duende).

You gave a good picture of X-Saturator and I agree, it can be used in combination of others.

While Mixpack2 often seems to be considered as an "old hat"
and generates frequent sales on marketplace (dirty cheap to your advantage),
I would say it has a great value, is low on cpu
and the components are well thought-out in terms of having them working all together.
Also completes X-Saturator nicely.


Out of curiosity, TheoM or others,
whats your experience with LSR audio as a company,
the TUBEnhance and do they have sales now and then ?
(Hello Black Friday ... )

From the corner of the eye I saw them involved into the Lindell native products
which is quite a kind of reference.
Hi I am sorry I missed your post.

had a few dealings with the owner of LSR, he is very polite and provides very fast response/service.

The plugins are solid and all sound great, no duds anywhere.

I think comprime and tube enhance are probably some of the most under discussed under rated plugins around.

Tube enhance is a spectacular saturator (IMO) and has a control to tailor it for bass or higher.

That's why i recommended it for this topic as it sounds REALLY good on bass, i promise. And well priced.

yes I bought them on a 40 or 50% sale, i can't remember exactly, but the price was very very good, felt like i was stealing them ;)

I'm only losing interest in native plugins these days cause i am so heavily invested and using UAD, but i am keeping a small set of natives round for itb only laptop work here and there. I will definitely be keeping tube enhance ;)
Thanks a lot for the LSR feedback, will keep an eye on them for sales.

Don`t know if you have everything you wanted from UAD, but they announced deals coming for BF.

Btw, Mix Pack 2 for $35 on marketplace ...
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 3&t=451080
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Two of my favourite Saturation plugins, both free

GSatMax from GVST in Beta (last modified 14 May 2015) by Graham Yeadon
http://www.gvst.co.uk/beta.htm

Tube Preamp by Philipp Bulling
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 3&t=356228

bmanic wrote:Wow! Just WOW!!! THIS is why KvR is so awesome!

I had never heard of this plugin before today. It is incredibly good sounding!

Quite buggy though. Lots of pops and clicks when restarting playback in Reaper 4 and also some obvious denormal issues.

The sound and potential for shaping the response is incredible!

Especially when running two plugins as a dual-mono configuration it can really naturally widen and give depth and some nice natural stereo instability to a project. It's awesome! This is definitely up there with the best of the best!

Would absolutely pay for a more refined version and 64bit release of this plugin. Highly recommended for all to try!

Cheers!
bManic

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I've tried almost everything I strongly suggest Melda's MMultibandsaturator.
It's what works the best on everything for me. Multiband is very practicle wathever you get.
MXLinux21, 16 Gig RAM, Intel i7 Quad 3.9, Reaper 6.42, Behringer 204HD or Win7 Steinberg MR816x

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If you want something more aimed at mastering, this actually sounds pretty good.

https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/prod ... vsm-3.html

The only downside is the $300.00 price tag.
Not sure if it will go on sale or not.
:borg:

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