Help me understand saturation and its uses please

[swilow11]

Saturation makes waveforms rounder, distortion makes waveforms squarer. I do not know if this is even correct, but that's how it sounds and looks to me. But wavefolding is best.

[plexuss]

I get why there is a weird obession with saturation, which I just call distortion to remind me of what it really is, and I don't go down that path. I don't want to TL;DR so I won't get into it here. I just don't like the sound of distoriton in my productions and I use it sparingly, mostly to add a more exciting soundstage. Beyond that, its just distortion to my ears.

Because it's distortion, I think its good to have high quality distortion audio tools. Tools that tune their approach to a musical outcome, vs noise.

[kritikon]

Interesting to see there are still a few posts spouting drivel about what is distortion and what isn't. Saturation is distortion. Clipping is distortion. Limiting is distortion. All usable but nevertheless distortion. If you want your mixes distorted, then saturate them and it's a purely subjective choice which is neither right nor wrong. But know that you are distorting them - you are not using any magical process. Some people just like shitloads of distortion everywhere. I dunno why

[egbert101]

No one is forcing you to use saturation. In fact I admire anyone who does things different or against what is popular or what works. The problem is only our ears are used to old music produced and played on vinyl, tapes, etc.

Go against what everyone else uses, and see if it works, if it doesn't, it's not your fault, but everyone else's ears.

[Mind Riot]

This thread increasingly makes me want to sell all my saturation plugs except for one which I'd keep for those rare times I'd actually choose to use it.

It also makes me feel embarrassed that I've accumulated more than one saturation plugin when I haven't really understood or liked the effect in the first place.

[Mind Riot]

Clipping is causing saturation/ distortion- it’s effectively a waveshaper

Yeah, but saturation is meant to be audible (I think). Clipping is transparent, at least when used in the way I described. They may both be distortion, but only one of them sounds like it.

[zerocrossing]

Saturation makes waveforms rounder, distortion makes waveforms squarer. I do not know if this is even correct, but that's how it sounds and looks to me. But wavefolding is best.

It’s not.

[zerocrossing]

…I haven't really been able to find authoritative information on what circumstances would call for the use of saturation, and why, and how much, and what type.

That’s because there really isn’t one. Historically it’s been an artifact of analog circuits or media being pushed past the point where they provide a linear result. Actually, saturation refers to magnetic tape. When the amount of magnetic energy is pushed to the point where there is no more energy the tape can hold, it’s called saturated. It’s just another name for a type of distortion. In analog circuitry it’s been called “clipping,” based on how the waveforms look. When you push something like a sine wave past the point where the circuits can properly reproduce it, the peaks of the waveform look like they’ve been “clipped” off.

Cut to modern times, gear has a much higher dynamic range (usable range between noise level and distortion). Of course, that doesn’t mean you can’t get various types of distortion. What was found was, people missed some types of distortion. Saturation is different than clipping, because tape doesn’t “clip” the peaks of the waveforms, but it’s more like the peaks are “sanded down.” So that sine wave becomes more like a square wave, but not quite. Regardless, it’s adding harmonic content. That’s all really. It will make any sound brighter. That’s really it. So if you have an item that’s getting lost in a mix, a little saturation is a good way of making it more noticeable. It’s not the only way, just a way. The good thing about it is its dynamic, so you can be playing a part where most of it isn’t saturating, but during louder passages, you get the distortion. Guitarists are especially good at using tube distortion to create a dynamic performance. Picking lightly and then harder will change the harmonic content of the guitar. Use it like any spice in your kitchen’s spice rack. It can make your mix better, or it can ruin it.

[Teksonik]

Saturation is just another buzz word that people use to chase that magical analog dragon. To some of us who have used analog tape the endeavour seems rather pointless in 2023 but hey, to each their own.

One man's "warmth" is another man's muddy and smeared.

Back in the day we couldn't wait for affordable digital recording to reach the masses and now seeing people wanting to go back to sounding like tape is perplexing. Wanting to sound like cassette tape is just down right befuddling. But I realize everything old is new again.

In the end use whatever satisfies you but don't let others convince you to chase that dragon unless you're really sure he's worth catching.......

[zerocrossing]

Clipping is causing saturation/ distortion- it’s effectively a waveshaper

Yeah, but saturation is meant to be audible (I think). Clipping is transparent, at least when used in the way I described. They may both be distortion, but only one of them sounds like it.

This is completely wrong. Clipping isn’t ever transparent. No distortion is “transparent.” Clipping is one of the most noticeable types of distortion.

[zerocrossing]

Saturation is just another buzz word that people use to chase that magical analog dragon. To some of us who have used analog tape the endeavour seems rather pointless in 2023 but hey, to each their own.

One man's "warmth" is another man's muddy and smeared.

Back in the day we couldn't wait for affordable digital recording to reach the masses and now seeing people wanting to go back to sounding like tape is perplexing. Wanting to sound like cassette tape is just down right befuddling. But I realize everything old is new again.

In the end use whatever satisfies you but don't let others convince you to chase that dragon unless you're really sure he's worth catching.......

It is funny that I spent 20 years trying to hide the fact that I was using tape (as much as one can hide it) and now here we are.

That said, it’s one thing to be forced to deal with it, it’s another to have it as an option. It’s just another type of effect. I almost never put it on the 2 bus, but I will use it on tracks when I feel the part could use a little extra harmonic content and grit. I especially like to use tape delay effects.

[zerocrossing]

This thread increasingly makes me want to sell all my saturation plugs except for one which I'd keep for those rare times I'd actually choose to use it.

It also makes me feel embarrassed that I've accumulated more than one saturation plugin when I haven't really understood or liked the effect in the first place.

Try this. Make a sine wave type “keys” sound. Super simple, fast attack, longer decay and no sustain. Then, line up all your saturation plugins and go though them, one by one. Just mess with the settings and see how they affect your sound. Take notes. After a while, you’ll get an idea of the general character and get some ideas of when each one might be appropriate to use on a channel.

[Aaron Marshall]

When should I use saturation, and for what reason? What kind of situation calls for it? What problems does it solve in mixing? How much should be used, is it a light, subtle effect or an obvious, powerful change?

Thanks to any and everyone who's kind enough to share their knowledge.

If you think of it visually, or like a visual medium, it's a texture. It's about building contrast. It's like doing one stroke with a smooth brush, and another dabbing the paint on with a sponge. There's a different feel to it. It's a tool.

In orchestral music, one layer could be a smooth pristine flute. Another layer could come in like a bassoon or oboe. It's a different choice, a different texture. The layering can sound quite nice.

What contrast do you want to give your piece? It's not a "problem" that needs solved. It's a question of, "what do you want to express?".

[juanpablo]

I understand your point. If I were in your case, I would still try saturation in order to bring some elements of the mix to the front; give them presence that otherwise you could be doing with an EQ, however, doing it with saturation gives them some additional color. Also note that "saturator" plugins are not the only way to do it: technically saturate something means pushing an amplifier to its breaking point, generating some pleasing (or not) sonic distortion where it starts to add harmonics. Before getting into saturator plugins, you could start by pushing vintage compressors and EQs (which are amplifiers of some sort) until the signal breaks a bit. See if that works in your mixes in order to give them presence if you need them, especially on vocals where you definitely want to bring them to the front.

The other use for saturation is the one that I need for my case: i mix mostly folk and acoustic music, with very few elements and instruments. In this case, I need to fill the audio spectrum with harmonics that I get from saturation (which I see you don't need because you're after a transparent and clean sound). That's why I actually need the color and added harmonics, which I achieve mostly with compressors that "don't compress" the peaks but I use the gain until they break a bit. I'd recommend some vintage compressor like LA-2A or any comps modeled based on an old device. Also tape, these plugins are great for some saturation, check u-he satin if you want complete control of how you saturate, you can achieve a fairly transparent saturation if you're using the right plugin.

In both cases, I think it's worth it to experiment with saturation, maybe not thru a saturator or distortion plugin because it may be too much, but at least with a compressor. You'd be surprised to know that even the most transparent mixes you've heard use some kind of saturation technique on some of their tracks. The added color and harmonics really sound great and is a sound that we as humans find really pleasing, for some reason.

Finally, distortion is a completely different beast. When you REALLY push something, preferably into something tube based like a guitar amplifier, you get distortion, which is an extreme form of saturation. As a guitarist I could tell you that you could start with gentle distortion by adding low gain into the amplifier (or using a tube screamer pedal), which starts to add presence and color (just like I've been talking before with compressors and tape plugins), but with the guitar amp you have the option to keep pushing the signal into the amp tubes and get the classic guitar distortion, which sounds great!

[jamcat]

Compression (and all non-linear processes) add harmonic distortion, which is what we mean by “saturation.”