What are you go-to mix bus and master bus "saturation" plugins?

[LoveEnigma18]

Is there any version 2 of SDDR available? I see it mentioned in earlier posts.

That's the current version.

https://klanghelm.com/contents/products/SDRR/SDRR.php

Thanks mate. I did not see '2' anywhere, but I guess it is implicit.

Yes, there is a SDDR2 (was free for V1 users), but imo V1 sounds quite a bit better (seems the algos have changed)

I see, thanks for the information.

Thanks guys for all the suggestions.

[simon.a.billington]

Well I avoid goto as such, but I do have a short list of plugins I'll consider for the task.

Black Box HG-2
Elysia Phil's Cascade
Abbey Read Saturator
Cobalt Saphira
IK One
IK Saturator-X
Waves NLS
Waves Vitamin

Those are the ones I can think of right now anyway. Well, there is Trash and Elysia Character and Unfiltered Audio Dent, but I've only really mangled with those so far, I've never actually tried them on the stereo bus.

[Mushy Mushy]

Any thoughts on:
- elysia Compressor (just the saturation section)
- Softube Harmonics?

Planning on demoing tonight but curious in the meantime.

[simon.a.billington]

Any thoughts on:
- elysia Compressor (just the saturation section)
- Softube Harmonics?

Planning on demoing tonight but curious in the meantime.

Are you talking about the Soft Clipper on the Alpha... or driving the output section the mpressor hard and gaining it back with a trim plugin?.

[El°HYM]

TB - Barricade 4 has some very unique & good sounding #saturation, which is often overlooked, as its main purpose, might be the one of a Mastering - Limiter. Works great, though!

[Mushy Mushy]

Any thoughts on:
- elysia Compressor (just the saturation section)
- Softube Harmonics?

Planning on demoing tonight but curious in the meantime.

Are you talking about the Soft Clipper on the Alpha... or driving the output section the mpressor hard and gaining it back with a trim plugin?.

I was referring to the soft clipper. I've since bought it and it's absolutely lovely

[Good Times]

Tape Machines (sounds great, subtle, very CPU heavy)

One instance almost kills my aging machine. Average load can go from 30% to over 90% when I switch it on. So I just don't use it, when I have other less CPU tape machines. If I do use it in the future, it will be offline processed.

I upgraded my PC in December to be able to use Tape Machines and similar CPU hogs. For Tape Machines is was definitely worth it. Big improvement to my songs!

[bill45]

Tape Machines (sounds great, subtle, very CPU heavy)

One instance almost kills my aging machine. Average load can go from 30% to over 90% when I switch it on. So I just don't use it, when I have other less CPU tape machines. If I do use it in the future, it will be offline processed.

I upgraded my PC in December to be able to use Tape Machines and similar CPU hogs. For Tape Machines is was definitely worth it. Big improvement to my songs!

What are the specs of your new Machine

[damayor]

Tape Machines (sounds great, subtle, very CPU heavy)

One instance almost kills my aging machine. Average load can go from 30% to over 90% when I switch it on. So I just don't use it, when I have other less CPU tape machines. If I do use it in the future, it will be offline processed.

I upgraded my PC in December to be able to use Tape Machines and similar CPU hogs. For Tape Machines is was definitely worth it. Big improvement to my songs!

Try wavefactory cassette. Ik tapes and cassette after my two dessert island saturation plugins

[mahbubr]

Slate VTM

[Igro]

TB - Barricade 4 has some very unique & good sounding #saturation, which is often overlooked, as its main purpose, might be the one of a Mastering - Limiter. Works great, though!

Correct. They are awesome.

[LoveEnigma18]

Looks like Abbey Road Saturator can also be added to this expanding list, unless I missed seeing it mentioned. It sounds pretty good to me.

[Mushy Mushy]

Looks like Abbey Road Saturator can also be added to this expanding list, unless I missed seeing it mentioned. It sounds pretty good to me.

I agree, doesn't sound too shAbbey at all.

[MadDogE134]

i like true iron a lot... can work on track or bus... really smooth sounding to my ears. like as stated turn it up until you hear it then back it off a tad (same thing i do with reverb) decap is like was stated a bit heavy handed for most sum work imo so i keep it on individual tracks or maybe the drum bus and use the mix knob like in parallel. as for IK's SatX... it is the odd man out... got it free with group buy a while back and i rarely use it... maybe on the occasional synth. the distortion is a bit 'prickly'. used to use VSM-3 and Blackbox a lot on buses until i got true iron and have to say i prefer it... BUT if i need some low end heft i still use VSM-3... love it's controls. cheers

[BERFAB]

I own tape, saturator and exciter plugs from every major dev out there (many just included with bundles for other things). I rotate through them from time to time to see if there's something that i've been missing by NOT using them. Usually, I just wind up going back to the one plug that reliably gives me what I want:

Nomad Factory Blue Tubes Analog Trackbox

This plug has been around since the stone age, and I know that many here have long ago written off Nomad Factory as a vestige of long forgotten era. However, this thing delivers. The presets are actually useful, and the sound is as warm as you want it to be.

Oddly, Nomad has a couple of great tape plugs, but the Trackbox still does it better IMHO.

EDIT: just re-read the title of this thread. FYI I don't generally use dedicated saturation, etc. plugs on entire mixes or bus mixes. I use it on individual tracks, and I feel like if I've done it right, the usual compression/dither etc. tools will cement the mix.

Cheers
-B