Saturation plugin

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SWAN808 wrote:I know its not popular around here but I have got some good use from the Fielding DSP Reviver saturation plugin for Mac mainly due to its ability to gently add 2nd and 3rd harmonic satuartion in separate amounts alias free. I use the 3rd harmonic mostly on drums to give punch and its really useful. Im looking to find a PC version however most seem to lump 2nd and 3rd harmonics together into one process - and this is less good IMO as the 2nd harmonic doesnt impart so much punch and seems to make to signal warmer in a mushy way....any PC VST alternatives?
you could try my FuncShaper with the 'ChebychevPolynomials' preset. with this preset, the a,b,c,d paramters control the amplitudes of 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th harmonic respectively. if you use only 2nd and 3rd order, 2x oversampling should be enough to stay clear from aliasing.

edit: small correction: 'a' controls the linear part - so b and c would then be 2nd and 3rd harmonic.
My website: rs-met.com, My presences on: YouTube, GitHub, Facebook

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i've used 3 or 4 plugins with these cheb. polynomials but they all sound harsh to me. maybe they are supposed to sound like this but it is certainly not warm. i like the saturation processor in ozone 4, the "warm" mode. but these plugs sound nothing like that. even t-racks pultec adds even harmonics which sound pleasant..but this is just my opinion..YMMV...

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sunny_j wrote:i've used 3 or 4 plugins with these cheb. polynomials but they all sound harsh to me. maybe they are supposed to sound like this but it is certainly not warm.
if my func-shaper was among them, i guess it has to do with the oversampling setting - as said: harmonics up to 3rd order call for at least factor 2 (and in the mentioned preset this is not set up that way - shame on me). without that, aliasing will occur - which gererally sounds somewhat 'cold' (to me, at least).
My website: rs-met.com, My presences on: YouTube, GitHub, Facebook

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by the way: probably people are talking on cross-topics here. the thread title contains the term 'saturation' but saturation is *not* what polynomial waveshapers do. to saturate means to reach a maximum level upon which no further increase is possible - which would call for some kind of sigmoid (s-shaped) transfer function. polynomials on the other hand diverge to plus/minus infinity. no saturating behavior at all. quite the opposite, actually.
My website: rs-met.com, My presences on: YouTube, GitHub, Facebook

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Cooker, You have a PM.

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I had to dig this ancient thread up when seeking one about SPL. I've demoed URS, PSP, BBE, many of these mainstream saturators and harmonic enhancers..

Damn. I don't know about the actual saturation, but the TwinTube harmonics are some sweet ear candy. The Vitalizer plug also works miracles..

Mix Magazine:
Bottom line: TwinTube is the best "track warmer" I've heard to date. For the sound of high-quality tube gear being either tenderly used or intentionally abused, this is the real deal.


Anyone looking for sat. plugin, i would recommend this.

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robin i like your func-shaper as much as easyQ, there is a preset "tube" and if u adjust to taste, its sounds real good, juz that the GUI has no tube on it :lol:

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tongsong wrote:robin i like your func-shaper as much as easyQ, there is a preset "tube" and if u adjust to taste, its sounds real good, juz that the GUI has no tube on it :lol:
nah. no tube artwork. i won't claim it to be a proper tube-emulation anyway. just a transfer-function that was roughly inspired by those of tubes.
My website: rs-met.com, My presences on: YouTube, GitHub, Facebook

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focusing eq by softube has an outstanding compressor/saturator built in, you can even set it to keep the lows or highs clean. sounds really good and has a meter so you can tell when its compressing the signal.

also, urs saturation is really good for just saturation but doesn't have the compression that the softube saturation does. i do really like the british transformer model though.

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imo none nail the front to back depth you get with hardware,they sound a bit 2d or fake ,i never forget completely i m using plugins with these saturators

i just tried robin func-shaper and have been surpised with the sound ,really nice ! but i don t get how the formula work ?

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kobal wrote:imo none nail the front to back depth you get with hardware,they sound a bit 2d or fake ,i never forget completely i m using plugins with these saturators
That is probably true, they're simulation after all. BTW, none of these usual plugs come close to the SPL stuff, I'm in love with this company. SPL MixDream (which i have been drooling) just won the Future Music summing thing, or they said
The SPL is without a doubt the best sounding summing mixer
To my ears, SPL products sound damn elegant and clean. Just found out that the dude who designed the SPL Transient Designer is now working for Elysia, which is another company i love. These things are so top notch. Give me ten grands =)

On the subject, Ferric DOES sound very good too.

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Ghettopanda wrote:
kobal wrote:imo none nail the front to back depth you get with hardware,they sound a bit 2d or fake ,i never forget completely i m using plugins with these saturators
That is probably true, they're simulation after all. BTW, none of these usual plugs come close to the SPL stuff, I'm in love with this company.
So you've tried the softube focusing eq, urs saturation, soundtoys decapitator, et all?

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ah its my old Saturation thread...

Well after much experimentation my favourite Saturation plugins are:

(drumroll)

Nebula + Tapebooster / Henry Olonga / Alex B PCS presets

SoundToys Decapitator

Softube Focusing EQ (brilliant tool)

Didnt like any of the others - even SPL/URS and other expensive ones...
Presets for u-he Diva -> http://swanaudio.co.uk/

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futurefields wrote:So you've tried the softube focusing eq, urs saturation, soundtoys decapitator, et all?
Softube no, URS and Soundtoys yes. I previously used URS strip which has the saturation built in. Sounds OK, but i think it serves a different purpose than the SPL. Decapitator sounds good to me, but I don't think it does anything you couldn't do with proper eq'ing and compressing. Or who knows.

Ok, enough hype, but my first reaction was "WOW" when i turned the harmonic knob. Oh, it's probably also the GUI which is kinda sexy IMO :D. It's pretty heavy on Vista (takes 10% of my CPU lol), but I can understand why. Nebula is cool too, but it's even heavier.

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Ghettopanda wrote:
futurefields wrote:So you've tried the softube focusing eq, urs saturation, soundtoys decapitator, et all?
Softube no, URS and Soundtoys yes. I previously used URS strip which has the saturation built in. Sounds OK, but i think it serves a different purpose than the SPL. Decapitator sounds good to me, but I don't think it does anything you couldn't do with proper eq'ing and compressing. Or who knows.

Ok, enough hype, but my first reaction was "WOW" when i turned the harmonic knob. Oh, it's probably also the GUI which is kinda sexy IMO :D. It's pretty heavy on Vista (takes 10% of my CPU lol), but I can understand why. Nebula is cool too, but it's even heavier.
the channel strip pro actually doesn't saturate like the actual saturation plugin. they're both made by urs but use different algorithms. the saturation plug is generally viewed as the superior tool for this effect. however I think softube has something with the focusing eq, that's a great mixing tool very analog sounding.

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