Saturation Tools and Tricks

[T-rex]

First of all, it’s awesome to be back at the TOMB. Hope I’m not blowing up all these threads.

So I always used a little saturation on bass to help cut through on small speakers and for EFX. But I’ve been watching some vids with Jaycen Joshua and a few others, I was kind of shocked how much saturation and straight up
distortion they use. So I’ve been going down that road pretty hard lately and it’s awesome.

The Culture Vulture plugin sounds good on pretty much anything I put it on. It’s just seems to work on anything.

Saturn, confused the fuck out of me for about a week when I was demoing it. I just thought there were too many options based on the demo videos. But now I get it. Multiband saturation has been a game changer; drums, gts, bass, vocals; didgeridoo, whatever. Being able to focus in on a particular range to saturate or treat the low end and the midrange with two different saturation types in one plugin is so nice. I even have an instance in my mix bus to push the midrange a bit, albeit super subtle. I think the mix knob is at 4%. But you take it off and some of the excitement goes away.

What’s your favorite saturation tools and tricks?

[Scodiddly]

Just using the stock plugins in Reaper myself, but...

I do like the "Waveshaping distortion" plugin. A lot of my stuff the past couple of years has been mixing together phone vocals (ie recorded remotely direct to a phone mic), and that tends to help a lot. Now that I've got these old Auratones to play with I should probably revisit bass guitar stuff and see if that helps.

[digitaldrummer]

Culture Vulture can be cool for the right thing. Sound Toys Decapitator of course. sometimes I'll use Sound Toys Devil Loc Deluxe, which is a compressor but it can add some nice grit. I just got the Louder Than Liftoff Silver Bullet MK2 plugin so I haven't used it a lot, but I did put it on a couple things recently just kind of trying it out. Didn't drive them real dirty but I definitely preferred the "after" to the "before" which seemed kind of dull in comparison. I'm sure it will probably get more use and folks that have the hardware really talk those up. I've tried the Black Box from PA too and it was OK. I think I used it on some acoustic guitars once. United Plugins FrontDAW, is more of a "console" plugin and meant to go on every channel, but you can drive that pretty good if you want. I also like the built-in HPF. And since I went there, Heat (which is part of Pro Tools) is essentially providing some saturation on every track too. I've been using that more lately and like it (in very small, subtle doses). I also use the Slate Digital VCC (virtual console) and the Sonimus A-Console, Satson, and Britcon (now N-console I think) which I just put at the top of each channel (if I'm not using Heat). But those are more of a "whole mix" kinda of saturation thing. all pretty subtle on their own, but when you have 10 or more tracks going, then you start to hear it.

[Recycled_Brains]

I love Saturn. I have done some multi-band stuff with varying degrees of success, but I don't get crazy with it. Usually just pick a mode and adjust the amount/EQ. I have a preset that Audiosiege made that is for the mix buss and split into L M H and gets into the M/S functionality and I sometimes use that.

I've been really enjoying the Kazrog True Iron plugin lately. Mostly subtle, but sounds good at extreme settings too.

Sansamp plug is always a good one when it works.

[Colorblind]

Love Devil Lok and Sansamp. Decapitator to a lesser degree. Been wanting to check out Saturn for a long time, but I’m pretty sure I’d be relegated to V1 due to my ancient DAW setup.

[T-rex]

Heat is cool. The Black Box from PA I find really good on electric guitars to help them cut through. Particularly if the tone wasn’t that great to begin with. a little bit on a lead track is awesome. But I haven’t found it that good on anything else.

Devil Loc has been my go to for years but even dialed back, it’s a lot and I think that’s why I didn’t use it very much. I usually only used it for utter destruction.

I like soundtoys stuff but didn’t get into Decapitator when I demoed it. It’s been the defacto for a lot of big mixers for years but I didn’t like it.

[T-rex]

I have a preset that Audiosiege made that is for the mix buss and split into L M H and gets into the M/S functionality and I sometimes use that.

Holy hell, I didn’t even know it did M/S! Can you send me a screenshot of that preset or a link? I would love to play around with that a bit as a starting point.

What I’ve done on the last few things I mixed was have a Tom Splat and a Tom Bomb send. splat is high passed with Culture Vulture on it, about medium saturation; nice splatty sound. Bomb is low passed with SPL vitalizer on it, nice big round low end. I’ll send my Toms to these just a bit and I can dial in either attack or bottom end or both based on the send amounts. The settings are extreme so you don’t need a lot but when it’s mixed In under the normal tom tracks they sound amazing. Best way I’ve found to cut through walls of guitars or make floor tom hits explode.

[trodden]

I've been really enjoying the Kazrog True Iron plugin lately. Mostly subtle, but sounds good at extreme settings too.

Love that plug in! I haven't tried HEAT yet, and wondering if those two are very similar?
This along with Decapitator (I usually have two-three instances of it per mix), Devil Loc, Radiator, Sonnex Inflator, Massey Tape Head, the classic Sans Amp, or even running my Burl B1d's as an insert are all things I use when needs some dirt.

I've heard so much good about Saturn before this thread, now i'm definitely interested.

[Recycled_Brains]

I've been really enjoying the Kazrog True Iron plugin lately. Mostly subtle, but sounds good at extreme settings too.

Love that plug in! I haven't tried HEAT yet, and wondering if those two are very similar?
This along with Decapitator (I usually have two-three instances of it per mix), Devil Loc, Sonnex Inflator, Massey Tape Head, the classic Sans Amp, or even running my Burl BId's as an insert are all things I use when needs some dirt.

I've heard so much good about Saturn before this thread, now i'm definitely interested.

HEAT is seductive. I've been experimenting with it, but I can't really decide if I like it yet. It's always like "whoa this is way better!" at first, but sometimes I turn it off once a mix is pretty much done and like it better without. I guess like anything it's case dependent.

[andychamp]

I'm only in the early stages of discovery of this, at least on the software side of things. (Running preamps hot is practically my recording S.O.P.)
I've dabbled with Saturn2, but tended to get overwhelmed by the options...I need to put some more time into this.
My most used plugins currently are the JS Saturation plugin in Reaper, and Tape by Airwindows (many moons ago I used and liked the free VST version of Massey's Tapehead).
Tape often on drum and guitar channels and busses, occasionally on the main mix; JS Sat on the FX returns bus, and on individual tracks when I'm curious.
I tend to prefer simple and effective plugins, apparently.

[Nick Sevilla]

For some mono sources, I still like to use guitar pedals like a Boss Blues Driver.

As to plug ins for saturation, well, TOMB saying "it all depends."

I've been using the Plugin Alliance's Neve channel strip as a "front end" of sorts for Nuendo. Where you can have plugins affect the incoming signal on their input busses. The Lindell Audio 80 Series.

Sometimes I'll use a different channel strip. They all distort slightly, differently.

[trodden]

For some mono sources, I still like to use guitar pedals like a Boss Blues Driver.

The Boss Blues Driver has been my most used and valuable pedal in the last 15 years of me owning it. It's on bass, it's on guitar, it's on everything. I even got Keeley to mod it back when they were still offering that service so it lets more low freqs through.

[T-rex]

I haven’t heard of Kazrog Iron before, but I’m gonna demo it. $37 seems like a really good price.

[T-rex]

I've dabbled with Saturn2, but tended to get overwhelmed by the options...I need to put some more time into this.

I tend to prefer simple and effective plugins, apparently.

Yeah, I actually demoed Saturn a while back and didn’t buy it. I thought it was too complicated and I ended up going with the UAD culture vulture since I had a coupon. But I bought another fabfilter plugin and tried Saturn again and it clicked. I think after I had been experimenting with other saturation plugins the multiband option made more sense.

I like really simple plugins too. It’s why I stayed away from Fabfilter for so long honestly.

[trodden]

I haven’t heard of Kazrog Iron before, but I’m gonna demo it. $37 seems like a really good price.

It's subtle (most of the time) but adds up! I'm actually mixing in the box now! ahahah. (yeah, I'm a late bloomer).