What is your favourite plugin for 'analog' style saturation?

[lukeio]

I'm a sucker for anything that emulates tape saturation. Just pushing the input a bit hot to get that subtle compression and harmonic distortion really brings digital synths to life.

[lfm]

why not use an analogue device for analogue style saturation?

Yes, like Elektron Analog Heat, saw some YT vids for mastering with that.
- or you can "re-amp" tracks as you please as well
- they have some clever handling into computer as I understand
- like a insert plugin even if I understood it right

I think they are up to mk4 by now.

[Heiner44]

I love the plugin alliance black box, all the tape machines from UAD and of course the Soundtoys stuff. Cant go wrong with these.

[TIMT]

Rave Generations Sonic Sweep 2 is pretty decent. The gainstaging is practically spot on to how it behaves in a mid tier project studio solid state desk like a Mackie VLZ/CR series console, or Soundcraft Ghost mixer which gives it an insane amount of creative and mixing potential than you would usually expect of a plugin.

[bermudagold]

I'm a sucker for anything that emulates tape saturation. Just pushing the input a bit hot to get that subtle compression and harmonic distortion really brings digital synths to life.

you can try a real thing for cheap...u can get a Hifi VHS recorder for pennies...record from daw out and back in...i know people that still do this and say they like the results lol

[kernaudioio]

lukeio's framing is pretty accurate. what saturation mostly does is add harmonics that were never there, which fills out the spectral space between the fundamentals. a pure sine or clean digital patch can be technically correct and still feel thin because there's just... not much happening in between.

whether you call that "warmth" or "harmonic density" is a matter of vocabulary. the physics is the same either way.

[buchertaudio]

Disclaimer: I'm the developer — but I built Warmth Engine because I couldn't find a saturation plugin that let me shape where the harmonics sit in the spectrum. Most just add drive uniformly. Spectral tilt control was the solution for me. Whether that's useful for everyone is another question, but the thinking behind it might be relevant to this thread.

[oneguitarband]

I am kind of stack with PSP MixPressor and PSP MixSaturator.
These plugins are more than 20 years old but they can still do the job...

[simon.a.billington]

I don't have any one favourite, but I do like the iZotope Plasma for its mid-side and distortion shaping tools. On the extreme side of things Waves Berzerker also has some great shipping capabilities and Magma BB Tubes is great for its simpler odd/even distortion approach with Oversample options.

At least, thats what coming to mind at the moment. There are so many great options out there, though.

[bmanic]

For anybody who uses Reaper, you really need to check this out:

https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=305604

.. and this, which is by the same author and complements the above.

https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=305713

[TechHaus]

I'm a sucker for anything that emulates tape saturation. Just pushing the input a bit hot to get that subtle compression and harmonic distortion really brings digital synths to life.

you can try a real thing for cheap...u can get a Hifi VHS recorder for pennies...record from daw out and back in...i know people that still do this and say they like the results lol

Might have tempo sync issues? (*same with when I fly stuff out to my Tascam 424 MKII)

[TechHaus]

For anybody who uses Reaper, you really need to check this out:

https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=305604

.. and this, which is by the same author and complements the above.

https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=305713

Appreciate you! I have to hang out over there more.

[BCollins]

For anybody who uses Reaper, you really need to check this out:

https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=305604

.. and this, which is by the same author and complements the above.

https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=305713

Pure gold for a penny! The spectral pack is amazing, too!

Buy now: https://ko-fi.com/docshadrach/shop

[zedeloc]

For anybody who uses Reaper, you really need to check this out:

https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=305604

.. and this, which is by the same author and complements the above.

https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=305713

It seems that the developer of this plugin is currently undergoing cancer treatments which is truly unfortunate. Here's to hoping for a quick and full recovery. Genius use of JSFX and the way they all can all access and interact through a shared memory in Reaper.

[Karakhi]

Soundtoys Decapitator is an absolute classic for a reason, but lately, I've been leaning toward FabFilter Saturn 2 when I need precise multi-band control over just the low-mids.