Best type saturation vst for 2025?
- KVRAF
- 4803 posts since 21 Jan, 2008 from oO
I like to use the following for saturation:
https://sonimus.com/products/burnley73
https://www.pspaudioware.com/products/p ... agewarmer2
https://u-he.com/products/satin/
https://sonimus.com/products/burnley73
https://www.pspaudioware.com/products/p ... agewarmer2
https://u-he.com/products/satin/
JamWide - a cross-platform Ninjam client for DAWs
- KVRist
- 351 posts since 24 Aug, 2017
PSP saturator is my goto, and sometimes softube harmonics or black box.
- KVRAF
- 4803 posts since 21 Jan, 2008 from oO
- KVRian
- 991 posts since 24 May, 2024
Are you guys talking about stuff to add even harmonic ("pleasing") distortion, or exciter, or amplitude saturation, or tape emulation, or tube emulation, or soft clipping, or class A amplifier emulation, or guitar amp emulation, or a combo??
Sometimes people use proprietary "fatteners" or also levelers with or without EQ too. This topic is slightly ambiguous.
I usually shy away from exciters and distortion and soft distortion, but I do happen to like amplitudinal saturation, the kind which is just amplitude and not distortion and not excitation or whatnot. I pretty much just go for stuff almost like (or maybe exactly like) upward expansion. I also like mixing directly into a relatively transparent limiter while boosting EQ. I also like NYC style compression.
Without really knowing which you guys are talking about, I can still recommend that ppl check out the Terry West plugins. There's a lot of variety in that suite and even per plugin.
Sometimes people use proprietary "fatteners" or also levelers with or without EQ too. This topic is slightly ambiguous.
I usually shy away from exciters and distortion and soft distortion, but I do happen to like amplitudinal saturation, the kind which is just amplitude and not distortion and not excitation or whatnot. I pretty much just go for stuff almost like (or maybe exactly like) upward expansion. I also like mixing directly into a relatively transparent limiter while boosting EQ. I also like NYC style compression.
Without really knowing which you guys are talking about, I can still recommend that ppl check out the Terry West plugins. There's a lot of variety in that suite and even per plugin.
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- KVRist
- 225 posts since 21 Sep, 2020
It's pretty clearly stated in the first post. OP is asking for best tube type saturation plugin. There is even a list of good tube saturation plugins in the first post. Have you used those? Do you know any better ones?mjolnir wrote: Sun Dec 29, 2024 4:10 pm Are you guys talking about stuff to add even harmonic ("pleasing") distortion, or exciter, or amplitude saturation, or tape emulation, or tube emulation, or soft clipping, or class A amplifier emulation, or guitar amp emulation, or a combo??
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- KVRian
- 508 posts since 15 Nov, 2012 from Arkansas, USA
Klanghelm SDRR is worth considering.
- KVRist
- 276 posts since 7 Apr, 2012 from Stockholm
THIS one is really good... and the price is just rigth
- Banned
- 3197 posts since 23 Jan, 2022
everything Klanghelm is real good, buy now
aliasing plugin owner

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- KVRAF
- 5510 posts since 6 May, 2002
These quickly come to mind
Cytomic Scream
Newfangled Saturate
Nebula/Taipei Studio Tape Recorder [Rev. B]
Softube Harmonics
Kazrog True Iron
Arturia's new J-37 might be appropriate. Their Culture Vulture emulation held up under comparison.
Cytomic Scream
Newfangled Saturate
Nebula/Taipei Studio Tape Recorder [Rev. B]
Softube Harmonics
Kazrog True Iron
Arturia's new J-37 might be appropriate. Their Culture Vulture emulation held up under comparison.
Intel Core2 Quad CPU + 4 GIG RAM
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- KVRist
- 148 posts since 16 Sep, 2023
Not sure whether they fixed it, but last time I checked, Softube Saturation Knob aliased like nothing else. Really great if you are into inadvertently degrading the fidelity of your productionBenedict wrote: Sat Dec 28, 2024 9:59 pm Why not just get the free (or at least it always was) Softube Saturation Knob? It is just good.
Otherwise, Hornet Analog Channel is/was good (based on the earlier version I used for ages).
In this video I walk through all about what one needs to know about this process and compare several free/cheap options which all do what they say on the tin. Each has a different flavour like all hardware did (and most times several instances of the same unit would be different too).
Before someone asks, I haven't found any of those impressively priced things with silly knobs to sound any better than simpler tools. What I have found in some is fibbyness with things like hidden boosts. This review had me look at the new and wildly priced UAD thing which while nice doesn't manage to have any uberfulness when put to the A-B.
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