What's your 'go to' distortion/saturation plugins?

[_leras]

And that shit even produces 5 pages of discussion here... jeez.

distortion and saturation can be amazing tools.

I've been using
UAD Moog filters, amazing drive tones, Culture Vulture
Soundtoys Decapitator, Radiator, Devil Loc
NI Dirt and Driver
PA Phils Cascade
Blackbox HG2
Vertigo VSM3
Trash 2
Uhe Uhbik Runciter filter that also distorts
d16 decimort

sometimes the shattered glass distortion - which sounds fantastic but uses sooo much cpu....

[_leras]

currently
iZotope trash 2 - i know this gets a lot of love, i also use it quite a bit but never was the hugest fan of it, it does have a certain sound to me that is a bit overused. still hoping to get to use it in the future and a real its getting discontinued, this one is really a cult classic

I agree this has a certain sound - to me it can be a bit 'plasticy'. I find on somethings it just doesn't work for me - but on some sources, occasionally, it can be brilliant!

[Samuel583]

Still love Decapitator the most after all this time. Also a fan of Black Box from PA and the newer SSL x-Saturator... but Decap remains the go to.

[worldfever]

currently
iZotope trash 2 - i know this gets a lot of love, i also use it quite a bit but never was the hugest fan of it, it does have a certain sound to me that is a bit overused. still hoping to get to use it in the future and a real its getting discontinued, this one is really a cult classic

I agree this has a certain sound - to me it can be a bit 'plasticy'. I find on somethings it just doesn't work for me - but on some sources, occasionally, it can be brilliant!

yeah agree. sometimes its brilliant but its not what i usually reach for

[Pawel L]

https://d16.pl/devastor2
https://www.pspaudioware.com/products/psp-saturator

[Michey]

Cassiopeia is superb and an absolute bargain at €19 not in your face but just does something really nice.

Yea, it's nice.

Only problem is that TBProAudio's GSatPlus do the exact same thing - and for free.

[carrieres]

Predatohm but it is mono

[worldfever]

https://d16.pl/devastor2
https://www.pspaudioware.com/products/psp-saturator

devastor is great! i love that one for clipping things

[simon.a.billington]

Trash is no longer on my list. iZotope recently announced they will be dropping it. Now's. good time to be considering alternatives.

Currently top replacements for me would be Arturia Coldfire, Unfiltered Audio Dent and Waves Berzerker (with MultMod or StudioRack for multiband processing).

[Aiynzahev]

Cassiopeia is superb and an absolute bargain at €19 not in your face but just does something really nice.

Yea, it's nice.

Only problem is that TBProAudio's GSatPlus do the exact same thing - and for free.

Cassiopeia has a free version too that’s almost as fully featured

[BONES]

Trash is no longer on my list. iZotope recently announced they will be dropping it.

??? Is it going to suddenly stop working because iZotope stop active development/support? It's been working for me for years without any updates or upgrades or need for support, why would that suddenly change?

Anyway, I bought Schwa's Oligarc last week and it is awesome!! I also appreciate that you get separate plugins for some of the individual modules. The Drive has such a great sound, probably the best I've ever heard. It's so crunchy!

[simon.a.billington]

Trash is no longer on my list. iZotope recently announced they will be dropping it.

??? Is it going to suddenly stop working because iZotope stop active development/support? It's been working for me for years without any updates or upgrades or need for support, why would that suddenly change?

Anyway, I bought Schwa's Oligarc last week and it is awesome!! I also appreciate that you get separate plugins for some of the individual modules. The Drive has such a great sound, probably the best I've ever heard. It's so crunchy!

It'll keep working for a while, but think about it for a sec, it only has a VST2 version so its days are numbered for VST users since that has been officially deprecated almost a year ago. It's inevitable that AU will stop working for people too, if not that then it won't be compatible with newer Apple M1 style computers.

So the thing is to recognise that it has a timer on it. To wake up one day, need it, only to find it not working isnt a very desirable thought for me. I believe it's far better off to recognise that the writing is on the wall to look for new alternatives while you have time and you don't have to rush into any purchases out of desperation.

[BONES]

This doesn't make sense. Studio One supports VST 2.x now and if they ever drop support, I'll stop upgrading. OK, eventually it might get to the point where I have to upgrade but that point will be at least a decade away, probably more, by which time I'll be well and truly over Trash and every other plugin I am using at the moment. That's the thing, I'll lose interest in it long before it stops working.

[chk071]

This doesn't make sense. Studio One supports VST 2.x now and if they ever drop support, I'll stop upgrading.

Would be interesting to see which VST's and VSTi's I own which are not VST3 by now... can't be much really.

Don't worry though. It will be a while until Studio One stops to support VST2. I can't see that anytime soon. Pretty sure you're safe for the next 5 years.

[BONES]

Of course I am, especially if I don't upgrade. I've not upgraded to 6 yet and probably won't unless/until they offer the upgrade much more cheaply. Moreover, there's one really good reason to keep using VST 2.x and that's the fact that, in Studio One, you can't access presets in VST3 plugins, unless they have their own preset handling. Whilst most instruments do, a lot of effects don't, so it's likely Presonus will have to do some work before they drop VST2 support.