Best type saturation vst for 2025?

[whassup]

Two of my favorites right now are

https://codalabs.io/szechuan/
https://kwhaley5.gumroad.com/l/zvovk?layout=profile

Thanx alot for that! Very cool stuff!

[xerix]

Newfangled saturate
Sonnox inflator
Saturn 2
Decapitator
UAD Oxide [especially on drums but is heavy handed]
Vertigo
OTT kinda acts as a saturator effect
NFuse [SSL & neive emulator]
Quadraduzz [if u on cubase]
Ozone exciter

[nanostream]

PSP is having a sale right now, so I finally bought their Saturator for 22 bucks (at Thomann).

While at it, I’ve noticed they’ve recently updated Vintage Warmer, another great saturation option. It’s sold as „2025 edition“ now, whatever that means. I don’t expect them having changed anything dsp wise, it’s a classic after all. But I still wish they would release easily accessible change logs.

[billinder33]

Track saturation - Spectre
Distortion - Rift
Buss saturation - VSS-2
Mastering saturation - True Iron set up as a dual mono split

[VELLTONE MUSIC]

For silky smooth tube saturation use Teletronix LA-2A Tube Compressor.

[whassup]

With saturators I like to change the ones I use every now and then.
I was using Saturn 2 a lot.
Then I got tired of that sound which was often just the default preset with the Warm Tape algo in it.
Sounds good but I wanted something different.
My latest go to was Airwindows ToTape8. Sounds great.
I started to dial back the HeadBump and lowered the Input to get a less pronounced effect.
Recently I started to go through all my options to find a new go to or to rediscover older ones.

[concealed identity]

PSP is having a sale right now, so I finally bought their Saturator for 22 bucks (at Thomann).

While at it, I’ve noticed they’ve recently updated Vintage Warmer, another great saturation option. It’s sold as „2025 edition“ now, whatever that means. I don’t expect them having changed anything dsp wise, it’s a classic after all. But I still wish they would release easily accessible change logs.

I also picked up Saturator, I demoed it and thought it was easily worth that price.

This is the lowest I've ever seen VintageWarmer. It's so tempting, because it's pretty much been the one plugin I've wanted for years but never wanted to pay that much for. $58 still feels like a lot tbh, but over the years I've definitely spent more than that on plugins trying to chase that sound

[seangm]

Thinking of picking up PSP Saturator, I'll have to demo it. What is it you guys like most about it, are there certain saturation types that stand out?

[Lotuz2019]

What is it you guys like most about it

The Smooth feature.

[concealed identity]

Thinking of picking up PSP Saturator, I'll have to demo it. What is it you guys like most about it, are there certain saturation types that stand out?

A few things really stood out to me:

1. It was really good at preserving transients at high saturation levels compared to a lot of other saturation plugins I have.

2. The ability to shape the high/low end really adds versatility to it.

3. The sidechain dial, to remove saturation from the low end completely.

The algorithms sounded really good to me. I was also comparing it to driving VintageWarmer, and could get extremely close, but VintageWarmer added some extra weight to the lower midrange ("fatness").

[Gam456]

I don't have a best one
Arturia ColdFire, PSP Saturator, Kelvin, Trash 2, BlackBox, Decapitor, Pyros, CyberDrive and many other

[oobesan]

This thread has got it all. LOL. The original poster asked for opinions on the best tube saturation plugins money can buy, and most of the responses were for free tape emulations and wave shapers like clipping distortion plugins.

For me, I love the sweet spots I get with HG-2MS on low and low mid frequency elements. It's just so fast and effortless. I like all of the Fuse Audio, Universal Audio, Plugin Alliance, and Arturia preamp and channel strip plugins for thickening up the mids. Analog Obsession just released a free mid-frequency saturator that I need to try out. As for the free one-knob plugins go, personally I like Slate Digital's free Heatwave better than Softube's free Knob. Although I have no idea what kind of harmonics they are adding and if they are tube-style or not.

[Kai Enaki]

While a preamp, I use the MixWave/Coil Audio CA-286S as a drum bus saturator. It's limited in what it can do, but if you find the right place for it, it'll shine.

[seangm]

Thinking of picking up PSP Saturator, I'll have to demo it. What is it you guys like most about it, are there certain saturation types that stand out?

A few things really stood out to me:

1. It was really good at preserving transients at high saturation levels compared to a lot of other saturation plugins I have.

2. The ability to shape the high/low end really adds versatility to it.

3. The sidechain dial, to remove saturation from the low end completely.

The algorithms sounded really good to me. I was also comparing it to driving VintageWarmer, and could get extremely close, but VintageWarmer added some extra weight to the lower midrange ("fatness").

Thanks for your feedback guys, sounds very interesting. Going to demo today.

[JerGoertz]

Anyone have opinions on which VST's avoid the "digital harshness & breakup" when pushed?