Saturation -what do you use ?
- KVRian
- 744 posts since 15 May, 2003 from R'lyeh
I just run everything through my Marshall JCM800.
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- KVRist
- 447 posts since 1 Feb, 2022
Sadly yes.hotmitts wrote: Mon Apr 14, 2025 6:08 pm You mean learn the craft as opposed to buying shedloads of plugins and throwing them at the mix ? Haha Yes i take your point, might be time to take some tutorials.
I was interested though what saturation might add, watched one tutorial which suggests it's either to rough up something, or smooth it out, which may help in choosing what flavour to add.
Unless you have unlimited budget I would strongly suggest waiting until you understand sonically what you are looking for.
But how can you learn without hands on experience you ask? No one knows, because we all started out by buying a bunch of plugins. But we will all happily tell you 'don't do that' and leave it there. Good luck!
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- KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 1076 posts since 27 Nov, 2003 from UK, Polegate
Well I've stayed mostly within the Reason Studio environment, sticking with the stock EQ's and devices (with a few Rack devices) , trying to learn the basic stuff, but there's always more to learn.ROTMetro wrote: Wed Apr 16, 2025 7:12 pm =
Unless you have unlimited budget I would strongly suggest waiting until you understand sonically what you are looking for.
But how can you learn without hands on experience you ask? No one knows, because we all started out by buying a bunch of plugins. But we will all happily tell you 'don't do that' and leave it there. Good luck!
I saw that as limiting, but in a way i have learnt from limiting myself.
However I fancied treating myself to some stuff that's more advanced than what you get inside Reason, namely subtle saturations.
I did decide after making this thread to get U-he Satin on the second hand market, it was reasonably priced, flexible, and a good developer (no invasive protection stuff), and for the same reasons also got Kazrog True Iron for subtle tube flavours.
Didn't spend too painfully and got new options to play with
- KVRian
- 529 posts since 2 Sep, 2012
I’d say that u-He Presswork is maybe better for saturation than Satin. It can be ‘tuned’ with the warmth knob and adjusted to react more to dynamics with that knob, set the amount to taste. You get the bonus of a good compressor as well, but you can leave the threshold at 0 and just use the saturation.
Satin is nice for some general tone shaping as well though, with the pre-emphasis, bump and tape speed. Plus you get the delay and flanger. Hmmmm, you should get both of them!!
Satin is nice for some general tone shaping as well though, with the pre-emphasis, bump and tape speed. Plus you get the delay and flanger. Hmmmm, you should get both of them!!
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- KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 1076 posts since 27 Nov, 2003 from UK, Polegate
haha, have to save up.DMG68 wrote: Thu Apr 17, 2025 2:22 pm I’d say that u-He Presswork is maybe better for saturation than Satin. It can be ‘tuned’ with the warmth knob and adjusted to react more to dynamics with that knob, set the amount to taste. You get the bonus of a good compressor as well, but you can leave the threshold at 0 and just use the saturation.
Satin is nice for some general tone shaping as well though, with the pre-emphasis, bump and tape speed. Plus you get the delay and flanger. Hmmmm, you should get both of them!!
I've just been demoing the Tone Architect by Teletone Audio which I'm also liking, it's so easy to use, the difference is very audible but somehow subtle without getting too 'nasty'
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- KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 1076 posts since 27 Nov, 2003 from UK, Polegate
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- KVRist
- 148 posts since 16 Sep, 2023
Can't go wrong with Fuse Audio Labs and Neold preamp / analog hardware emulations such as their Big AL
Unlike standard waveshaper based saturation tools, they don't sound overly harsh and bright on breakup (the point where the saturation becomes obvious). The free Fuse Audio VPRE-72 is a great option for a start.
Unlike standard waveshaper based saturation tools, they don't sound overly harsh and bright on breakup (the point where the saturation becomes obvious). The free Fuse Audio VPRE-72 is a great option for a start.
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- KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 1076 posts since 27 Nov, 2003 from UK, Polegate
and what is it ? Doesn't come up in search
- Banned
- 475 posts since 22 Nov, 2015
- KVRist
- 246 posts since 4 Oct, 2021
Tone Projects Kelvin seems to cover most of my needs. I've had it pretty much since it came out and although I'd like to say I now know it inside out and play it like a precision instrument, in truth what I've learnt over all these years of using it is just to stick to the simple things it does well (saturation) and don't get lost in the right hand side shaping stuff.
And if I can just "flush and go", the main reason I use this is because I absolutely do not want any aliasing artefacts introduced into my signal and this plugin provided the cleanest saturation, i.e. free from aliasing, when I tested it many years ago.
You may not think that's important. I do.
And if I can just "flush and go", the main reason I use this is because I absolutely do not want any aliasing artefacts introduced into my signal and this plugin provided the cleanest saturation, i.e. free from aliasing, when I tested it many years ago.
You may not think that's important. I do.
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- KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 1076 posts since 27 Nov, 2003 from UK, Polegate
absolutely agreedastewart wrote: Sun Apr 20, 2025 9:19 am Tone Projects Kelvin seems to cover most of my needs. I've had it pretty much since it came out and although I'd like to say I now know it inside out and play it like a precision instrument, in truth what I've learnt over all these years of using it is just to stick to the simple things it does well (saturation) and don't get lost in the right hand side shaping stuff.
And if I can just "flush and go", the main reason I use this is because I absolutely do not want any aliasing artefacts introduced into my signal and this plugin provided the cleanest saturation, i.e. free from aliasing, when I tested it many years ago.
You may not think that's important. I do.
