Do you have a Go-To Plugin for Warming Up, Saturation, +Character ?

[kernaudioio]

the recommendations in here split into two groups, and i think the OP's choice depends on which they're after.

group one is always-on transformer color. spectre, ferric, totape8, sdrr at low input. these add density and weight without anything reading as distortion. the trade is they need a lot of instances and the result is cumulative across the mix bus, not local to one track.

group two is into-the-red character. verve at high drive, arousor, the heavier crush pack settings. these are obvious on the source. one instance does most of the work. the trade is the source has to deserve it. on a polite vocal it just sounds wrong.

i find the "subtle vs obvious" axis cleaner than the "tape vs tube vs transformer" axis when picking. tube/tape/transformer is mostly EQ shape, which a curve plot tells you faster than your ears can in a busy mix.

one practical: if you can't tell whether the saturator is doing anything, A/B with phase-flipped null. bypass-vs-engaged is a misleading test because most saturators boost level slightly. null tells you what's actually being added.

[Zeisner]

group one is always-on transformer color. spectre, ferric, totape8, sdrr at low input. these add density and weight without anything reading as distortion. the trade is they need a lot of instances and the result is cumulative across the mix bus, not local to one track.

group two is into-the-red character. verve at high drive, arousor, the heavier crush pack settings. these are obvious on the source. one instance does most of the work. the trade is the source has to deserve it. on a polite vocal it just sounds wrong.

I'm in group three: Anything that creates aliasing as low as possible, ideally lower than -120 dBFS when using a sweeping sine wave at -18 dBFS to have some headroom for further nonlinear processing. Instant win for me.

[bmanic]

Hmmm from you.. High praise.
You mentioned how ik mm does it in stillwell's thread..
I didn't want to ask there, but which ik mm plugin (s) were you referring to?
rsp

They have two transformer models in the Saturator X plugin.

[zvenx]

Hmmm from you.. High praise.
You mentioned how ik mm does it in stillwell's thread..
I didn't want to ask there, but which ik mm plugin (s) were you referring to?
rsp

They have two transformer models in the Saturator X plugin.

Thanks.. will go check them out again.
rsp

[Vortifex]

Airwindows Channel 9 is very cool.

[Uncle E]

Verve can be used subtly and the Essentials version is free now. I use the algorithms in the Essentials version 90% of the time.

[Uncle E]

I'm in group three: Anything that creates aliasing as low as possible, ideally lower than -120 dBFS when using a sweeping sine wave at -18 dBFS to have some headroom for further nonlinear processing. Instant win for me.

What are some examples of this?

[Zeisner]

What are some examples of this?

A few obvious and obscure examples from the -120 dBFS to -144 dBFS range:

Analog Obsession: FRANK, Harqules, HLQSE, N492ME, NEQME
Bram de Jong: Cyanide 2 (Depending on the curve you draw)
Softube: Tonelux Tilt, Tube-Tech ME 1B, Tube-Tech PE 1C
Sonimus: SonEQ
Tokyo Dawn Labs: TDR VOS SlickEQ (+GE of course)
Variety of Sound: Density mkIII, TesslaPRO mkIV, FlavourMTC, ThrillseekerXTC mkIII, most of the Nasty Signal Coloring FX
Xenium Audio: X-Tube

Unfortunately there's still no Chebyshev polynom waveshaper like Christian W. Budde's Christortion but with plenty of oversampling. That would be amazing.

[Uncle E]

A few obvious and obscure examples from the -120 dBFS to -144 dBFS range:

Analog Obsession: FRANK, Harqules, HLQSE, N492ME, NEQME
Bram de Jong: Cyanide 2 (Depending on the curve you draw)
Softube: Tonelux Tilt, Tube-Tech ME 1B, Tube-Tech PE 1C
Sonimus: SonEQ
Tokyo Dawn Labs: TDR VOS SlickEQ (+GE of course)
Variety of Sound: Density mkIII, TesslaPRO mkIV, FlavourMTC, ThrillseekerXTC mkIII, most of the Nasty Signal Coloring FX
Xenium Audio: X-Tube

Unfortunately there's still no Chebyshev polynom waveshaper like Christian W. Budde's Christortion but with plenty of oversampling. That would be amazing.

Thanks. That's great to hear. Variety of Sound uses ADAA, which AI says is also in these:

• apShaper (by Audioyeti): Specifically noted for using ADAA for efficient, low-aliasing distortion.

• Cenozoix Compressor (by Sonic Academy): Cited as the first compressor plugin to incorporate ADAA.

• Chowdhury DSP (Jatin Chowdhury): Known for pioneering accessible research on ADAA and implementing it in tools like the Chow Tape Plugin.

• Native Instruments: Original developers of the technique, often utilizing it for high-quality saturation without high CPU costs.

• General Modeling: Used in advanced virtual analog (VA) modeling to reduce high-frequency foldback in waveshapers

[Zeisner]

This reminds me that I still have to test the apulSoft and Chowdhury DSP stuff. So much work and so little time. I wished there was a company that does all the software tests and you just pay for access to their data base.

But yeah, we're slowly getting somewhere regarding aliasing. The harmonic purity of analog gear combined with the ridiculous high S/N ratio of DSP was always the final goal. 99 % of all the where-is-this-ugly-sound-coming-from problems I had were caused by aliasing. I spent way too much time trying to notch out those artifacts without succeeding.

[Igelhaft]

AI says is also in these:

• apShaper (by Audioyeti): Specifically noted for using ADAA for efficient, low-aliasing distortion.

• Cenozoix Compressor (by Sonic Academy): Cited as the first compressor plugin to incorporate ADAA.

Not particularly reassuring that AI wasn’t aware that apShaper is apulSoft, not Audioyeti, and that Cenozoix is TBT not Sonic Academy. TBT uses ADAA in several plugins, I believe. Fuse Audio in the OCELOT Clipper, ADPTR in Hype (Jatin again), etc.

[simon.a.billington]

Hmmm from you.. High praise.
You mentioned how ik mm does it in stillwell's thread..
I didn't want to ask there, but which ik mm plugin (s) were you referring to?
rsp

They have two transformer models in the Saturator X plugin.

The Transformer modes are more subtle, but I do like them and opt to use them if I feel the music needs it

[Uncle E]

Not particularly reassuring that AI wasn’t aware that apShaper is apulSoft, not Audioyeti, and that Cenozoix is TBT not Sonic Academy. TBT uses ADAA in several plugins, I believe. Fuse Audio in the OCELOT Clipper, ADPTR in Hype (Jatin again), etc.

Agreed, plus I'm not having great results with its suggestions.

[Igro]

Not particularly reassuring that AI wasn’t aware that apShaper is apulSoft, not Audioyeti, and that Cenozoix is TBT not Sonic Academy. TBT uses ADAA in several plugins, I believe. Fuse Audio in the OCELOT Clipper, ADPTR in Hype (Jatin again), etc.

Agreed, plus I'm not having great results with its suggestions.

AI doesn't test plugins. It's just a bot that uses databases (internet, digital libraries, knowledge bases). It is quite stupid by its own.

[La Mato]

HOFA Colour Saturator, Brut or something by Korneff