This means you can choose to saturate specific parts of the frequency spectrum - great for stuff like adding some harmonic richness to an 808, for example. Plus, its multi-band functionality allows you to create up to 6 saturation bands, each of which gives you access to its own dedicated feedback knob, drive knob, tone adjustment sliders, and mix knob. As far as desert island plugins go, this would be at the top of the list in the saturation category. It can do everything from super subtle harmonic enhancement to pure screaming destruction. Saturn is one of the most versatile plugins on this list. Specially developed by EMI during the ‘60s and ‘70s, each formula has its own unique frequency response and harmonic distortion behavior. In addition to the J37 itself, three exclusive oxide tape formulas have been modeled. Abbey Road J37 recreates the inimitable sonic signature of the original machine. The J37’s controls include Tape Speed, Bias, Noise, Saturation, and Wow & Flutter.
It’s a tape machine emulation, so its job is to capture some of the more delicate features analog tape imparts on a signal. This is perhaps the most subtle saturation plugin on the list. Easily one of the best saturation plugins out there, perfectly at home anywhere in your mix.
HG-2 emulates four different vacuum tube stages combined in series and parallel circuits to color your mix and individual tracks with a range of rich harmonics. An added Air knob lets you control how much high-frequency ‘fairy dust’ you sprinkle on vocal tracks, string instruments, piano, and full mixes. The boutique stereo processor’s multiple tube circuits not only make tracks sound richer and fuller, they also make them sound louder, bigger, and punchier at the same peak level. The Black Box has found its way into some mastering engineers’ chain, and is right at home on groups and mix buses. This is a faithful recreation of Analog Design’s Black Box hardware tube saturation unit. I’ve been using it on my background vocal bus not only for a bit of grittiness, but also to quickly EQ the highs and lows so they sit underneath the leads. In its day, it was used on many early Motown hits, and now you can add it to your DAW for some classic analog dirt.Ī colleague of mine uses it on anything he thinks sounds ‘boring’ - interpret that as you will.
The original Altec 1567A hardware was a five-input tube mixer with removable transformers, a simple two-knob EQ, and a massive 97 dB of gain.īy digital’s standards, the sound it made was colored and gritty, with a huge portion of old fashioned hardware noise (which you can toggle on/off in the plugin it’s noisy!). Radiator is a dual-drive tube input channel and EQ, based on the Altec 1567A tube mixer from the ’60s. SEE MORE: Soundtoys Decapitator | Grade A Saturation.Then they narrowed down the pieces of gear they felt had the most distinctive sound and had unique character when used both subtly and at extremes.įinally, Soundtoys took their 5 favorite hardware pieces and packaged them up in Decapitator. In creating Decapitator, Soundtoys collected and analyzed vintage and modern hardware - consoles, preamps, input channels, EQs, compressors, and studio distortion units. You can do anything from giving an instrument a bit of analog character to ‘punishing’ the signal with extreme distortion. That’s because it gives mixers a lot of control in an easy-to-use plugin. Related: 5 Quick Saturation Mixing Tricksĭecapitator is super popular.These are some of our favorites, but the best saturation plugins are really whichever ones you’ve come to like! It’s always hard to label something the ‘best,’ because ultimately it’s a subjective thing. Plugins that emulate tape or tube saturation are perfect for this type of thing. Pretty amazing stuff!īeyond that, saturation gives us some of that dirtiness we love from classic recordings that digital technology took away. This is because the plugin is squashing those really loud transient peaks while adding fullness to the overall signal. But if you check your peak values, they can be quieter than they were without saturation. You’ll most definitely hear what appears to be an increase in overall level. Grab your favorite saturation plugin, load it up, and turn up the drive. It can actually control peak levels on something like, say, a snare drum - a loud instrument with really aggressive transients. One of the less obvious things saturation does is it allows us to increase the perceived loudness of a sound. Best Saturation Plugins: What do they do?