Viator DSP

I already have a lot of saturation/distortion plugins, but most of them I hardly ever use. So I did not expect too much, when I installed this one. But I was very positively surprised.

Wonderful sounds, which both can be used subtle and intense, the different types match the characters very well, only Bitcrusher is not so much my taste, but the setting does, what a Bitcrusher should. Class AB and Class A Tube really sound different, Tape adds more smoothness in a very musical way, while Overdrive adds the typical transistor/op-amp bite with reduced bass response.

Drive and Mix allow really perfect intensity adjustments, Tone does exactly, what it should, turned to the left, the sounds become warmer, but not muddy, turned to the right, brighter, without becoming too shrill or too harsh. The additional HP/LP filters allow even more fine adjustments, while Rip and Analog even add more flexibility.

The sound quality is excellent, as a guitarist (mostly) I could even imagine, to use this plugin instead of an amp plugin, maybe even with two stacked instances. Add a cabinet IR behind and you get excellently sounding (amp) tones easily, if you look for clean to semi-clean to vintage crunch sounds with a lot of - well adjustable - character, what you can get a some almost perfect pedal platform tones, which even standalone sound great.

What I really like are the very organically and naturally sounds, the results - if properly adjusted - do not sound digitally at all.

Also works great for bass or keyboards, synthesizers, too add some more character to the sounds. Most probably also for drums, percussion, vocals, ..

Already made some positive experiences with ViatorDSP plugins a while ago, this one is for me a masterpiece for good sounds or professional sound improvements, some kind of swiss army knife in some way for additional harmonics, saturation, overdrive, distortion, tube or tape character.

Highly recommended and for me much more than just a distortion plugin.