Best type saturation vst for 2025?

[zerocrossing]

Aliasing does exist but mostly below what average listeners care to perceive.

I'm no golden-ears, and it's often pretty apparent. If you're playing a lot of lower notes that don't have much in the way of harmonics, it can be imperceptible, but notes in the middle and upper range of most instruments will definitely produce audible aliasing.

Oversampling changes more than just reducing bounceback. Most hear that more than aliasing or lack of.

Wut? If it's producing tonal range changes, then something is wrong. Most likely what you're perceiving as a change in tone is just the removal of inharmonic reflections, or I should say the pushing of those reflections even higher up the frequency range. I remember when DiscoDSP updated Discovery Pro I checked to see if it sounded more like my old Nord Lead 2x and my first reaction was that it sounded darker than the hardware, but the developer suggested turning off the default oversampling and as soon as I did, my patches started sounding right. When I played very high notes, it was clear that what was missing was the aliasing reflections of the hardware.

[anoise]

Hello, I need tube type saturation plugins. Price is not important, I want to know the best quality ones. There are options like Kush audio LG drive, Overloud Gem Sculptube, Black Rooster Audio OmniTec-67A, Black Box Analog Design Hg-2. Which one do you recommend? Are there any better ones? (It would be nice if it doesn't use too much CPU)

Check out Klanghabitat Cassiopeia and Lyra:mb (multiband): https://www.klanghabitat.com/plugins/

[Morty-C-137]

Hello, I need tube type saturation plugins. Price is not important, I want to know the best quality ones. There are options like Kush audio LG drive, Overloud Gem Sculptube, Black Rooster Audio OmniTec-67A, Black Box Analog Design Hg-2. Which one do you recommend? Are there any better ones? (It would be nice if it doesn't use too much CPU)

Check out Klanghabitat Cassiopeia and Lyra:mb (multiband): https://www.klanghabitat.com/plugins/

Can't. Those are only for 2023.

[anoise]

Can't. Those are only for 2023.

[Scoops]

So I find it curious nobody mentioned Saturn 2 yet
I got some different saturation vst's. Izotope, Black Box, some IK stuff, a Softtube something or another.
I had been using the Black Box Analog design as a go to, but once i figured out what Saturn 2 can do, I don't need the others. It's just so versatile

Just my $0.02

[jtsterays]

TrackWarmth.

[Steve Bolivar]

Melda MSaturatorMB
https://www.meldaproduction.com/MSaturatorMB
It's on sale for $17 for the next 2 days.
It can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be.

[concealed identity]

Not sure if it's the best, but if price isn't important, then you might as well want to pick this one up as a bonus:

https://unitedplugins.com/DarkFire/

I just picked this up after demoing it for a couple of weeks.
I really think United Plugins (and JMG Sound in particular) have some really underrated plugins. They just tend to have horrible names and slightly cheesy GUIs at times.
But DarkFire lets you do some cool stuff, it basically separates the harmonics, lets you tweak them in various ways, and then adds them back on top. Different sound and different workflow than other saturators I use.

[xx JPRacer xx]

A lot of good suggestions already. I'd add ADPTR Audio Hype. It can do dynamics and harmonics. I think it's one of the most underrated plugin.

https://adptraudio.com/product/hype/

[SebAV]

These days, a lot of stuff is good or great. What you need to look for is aliasing, which can be prevalent in plugins that do distortion of any type. Decapitator is one of those plugins that was considered great in its day, but in modern times it doesn't really hold up due to a lack of internal oversampling. It's easy to check for. Just run some high notes though a plugin as you turn up the distortion amount and you'll start to hear the weird inharmonic garbage that aliasing creates.

I’m always astonished by the fact that something that « great at the time » is no longer ? I mean if it sounds bad today, it sounded bad at the time ? Or is there any combination of used algorithms and quality of DACs of the time ? Or were those old plugins used as « one trick pony » in their « not bad » spectrum of use ?

[Calagan]

These days, a lot of stuff is good or great. What you need to look for is aliasing, which can be prevalent in plugins that do distortion of any type. Decapitator is one of those plugins that was considered great in its day, but in modern times it doesn't really hold up due to a lack of internal oversampling. It's easy to check for. Just run some high notes though a plugin as you turn up the distortion amount and you'll start to hear the weird inharmonic garbage that aliasing creates.

I’m always astonished by the fact that something that « great at the time » is no longer ? I mean if it sounds bad today, it sounded bad at the time ? Or is there any combination of used algorithms and quality of DACs of the time ? Or were those old plugins used as « one trick pony » in their « not bad » spectrum of use ?

Is 78rpm still as fresh and amazing as in the good old days (during the roaming 20s) ?
Or is it sounding like shit ?
There is nothing natural or objective in how a specific technology is supposed to sound to human ears. People has some expectations based on what is considered the best at the moment. 78rpm was the thing hundred years ago. It's not anymore (at least, to most of us)...
All this said, I don't find any issue with Decapitator : I like how it sounds (dirty !), and if I need some "purer" distortion I can use another plugin (ColdFire, Tupe, Sonimus T-Console...), but Decapitator has its uses and is still an excellent plugin (IMHO)...

[Gam456]

These days, a lot of stuff is good or great. What you need to look for is aliasing, which can be prevalent in plugins that do distortion of any type. Decapitator is one of those plugins that was considered great in its day, but in modern times it doesn't really hold up due to a lack of internal oversampling. It's easy to check for. Just run some high notes though a plugin as you turn up the distortion amount and you'll start to hear the weird inharmonic garbage that aliasing creates.

I’m always astonished by the fact that something that « great at the time » is no longer ? I mean if it sounds bad today, it sounded bad at the time ? Or is there any combination of used algorithms and quality of DACs of the time ? Or were those old plugins used as « one trick pony » in their « not bad » spectrum of use ?

Funny to see people blame Decapitator. Many plugin even with oversampling can't rid aliasing with extreme saturation.

[zerocrossing]

These days, a lot of stuff is good or great. What you need to look for is aliasing, which can be prevalent in plugins that do distortion of any type. Decapitator is one of those plugins that was considered great in its day, but in modern times it doesn't really hold up due to a lack of internal oversampling. It's easy to check for. Just run some high notes though a plugin as you turn up the distortion amount and you'll start to hear the weird inharmonic garbage that aliasing creates.

I’m always astonished by the fact that something that « great at the time » is no longer ? I mean if it sounds bad today, it sounded bad at the time ? Or is there any combination of used algorithms and quality of DACs of the time ? Or were those old plugins used as « one trick pony » in their « not bad » spectrum of use ?

It's more about context than quality. For instance, people like a lot of old ROMpler instruments, like the famous Korg piano sound, but it's safe to say that no one would every say it's a very good quality piano sound when compared to a heavily multisampled instrument or an actual piano. So if you're asking of Decapitator is good at emulating analog distortion types, the answer is no. Not compared to modern emulations or the real deal. That said, if you're asking if one can you make a good sound with it, the answer is yes.

The point is, you can appreciate the character of something, even if the quality of it is not all that great, or even bad. You can enjoy a McDonald's hamburger and also realize that it's not a good hamburger.

[zerocrossing]

These days, a lot of stuff is good or great. What you need to look for is aliasing, which can be prevalent in plugins that do distortion of any type. Decapitator is one of those plugins that was considered great in its day, but in modern times it doesn't really hold up due to a lack of internal oversampling. It's easy to check for. Just run some high notes though a plugin as you turn up the distortion amount and you'll start to hear the weird inharmonic garbage that aliasing creates.

I’m always astonished by the fact that something that « great at the time » is no longer ? I mean if it sounds bad today, it sounded bad at the time ? Or is there any combination of used algorithms and quality of DACs of the time ? Or were those old plugins used as « one trick pony » in their « not bad » spectrum of use ?

Funny to see people blame Decapitator. Many plugin even with oversampling can't rid aliasing with extreme saturation.

Blame? I think it's funny to call what I'm doing "blame." I'm just dispassionately describing it. Now, if you want to start blaming, we can blame the processor speed of the prevailing computers of the time that Soundtoys stopped developing Decapitator. We can blame Soundtoys for letting their plugins languish with nothing more than OS compatibility updates, while other developers came out with new plugins that made use of the faster computers of modern times.

So I can't recommend Soundtoys plugins for that reason, but I can also say that if they released a new version of their suite that included better UIs and other enhancements, like higher quality modes, I'd be first in line to buy it. As it is, there's just nothing really compelling about them. Even if I want a saturation plugin that added a bit of aliasing, I've got better choices that afford more control over that kind of thing. If you love Decapitator, have at it. No one's coming to your house to delete it from your computer.

[Samual]

I love Softube Tape. It has a pleasant sound and it helps in filling the gaps in spectrum. Another thing is, it is very low on CPU. I have tried a few other ones and most of them were very CPU hungry, Softube one is very light on CPU and I can use multiple instances without needing to freeze tracks.