Best type saturation vst for 2025?

[db3]

If I'm looking for tube saturation I typical reach for Fuse Audio Labs VPRE-2C, Arturia Coldfire, or Process Audio Spice Rack (the latter 2 able to do more than just tube).

[Morty-C-137]

Better is subjective

Demo a few

Damn straight. So many good options to choose from now as well (including ones that come with your DAW.. most of em anyways).

More recent great ones for me are:

Logic ChromaGlow
UAD Verve Analog Machines
UAD Topline Vocal Suite

Tried an tested multipurpose and multiband:

Logic Phat FX
Cableguys Shaperbox

[jens]

For 2025 I recommend Arturia Silverdrive, Goodhertz EgoBooster and Neold Machtmacher.

[mothra]

I'm waiting until 2026's best one comes, I wont be distorting anything this year.

[vitocorleone123]

One of the best is The Scream.
Can be very subtle or, well, screaming.

[Erik_Lucas]

For clean, pure, digital saturation.. apShaper.

[jens]

For clean, pure, digital saturation.. apShaper.

Actually Adrian prides himself on having come up with state of the art (idealized) analog emulation(s).

[Benedict]

Not sure whether they fixed it, but last time I checked, Softube Saturation Knob aliased like nothing else. Really great if you are into inadvertently degrading the fidelity of your production

Either run at a higher rate - OR - I really wonder how hard one must be running Satty to get audible aliasing. Listen to the famous and ever-so uber-cool Virus and then talk to me about aliasing

[BackInCheck]

Not sure whether they fixed it, but last time I checked, Softube Saturation Knob aliased like nothing else. Really great if you are into inadvertently degrading the fidelity of your production

Either run at a higher rate - OR - I really wonder how hard one must be running Satty to get audible aliasing. Listen to the famous and ever-so uber-cool Virus and then talk to me about aliasing

Interesting, since I personally strongly dislike the "ever-so uber-cool" Virus sound.

When I checked Softube Sat Knob for good old Ali As, I was testing it with common input levels. And it stood out compared to other saturation plugins in the way it would produce significant, noticable aliasing at those levels. The only one I ever tested that was as bad or even worse, is the free Klevgrand FreeAmp one.

Hence I'm a bit surprised why anyone would recommend Softube Sat Knob out of all the ones that are freely available,? GSat+ for example has much higher fidelity and is more flexible. Voxengo Tube Amp, sounds better and doesn't suffer from an extra dose of aliasing. Not to mention the Variety of Sound Thrillseeker and Tessla ranges of plugins, if you are on Windows. Fuse Audio has a superb sounding free preamp plugin, which goes far beyond anything that Softube Sat Knob has to offer (= beyond generic waveshaping saturation).

[motomotomoto]

Haven’t you heard? Extreme aliasing is the new retro sound. Very desirable.

[martiu]

he speaks the truth

[Stokely]

I don't know how many plugins capable of saturation/overdrive are in Logic, but it's a fair few. Tape delay, the compressor, Phat fx, the guitar pedals and amps, the vintage EQs, and of course the new Chroma glow just off the top of my head. I'm guessing it's a similar situation in other DAWs. I have no idea how these stack up quality-wise to other dedicated products.

[Benedict]

I don't know how many plugins capable of saturation/overdrive are in Logic, but it's a fair few. Tape delay, the compressor, Phat fx, the guitar pedals and amps, the vintage EQs, and of course the new Chroma glow just off the top of my head. I'm guessing it's a similar situation in other DAWs. I have no idea how these stack up quality-wise to other dedicated products.

Logic's devices are all good. Most reputable DAWs devices are good. Digital is digital so a one is a one and a zero is a zero. The only differences are (in order of power/relevance):
1. Marketing Hype incl sneakies like adding hidden gain
2. Tone Changes often hidden under marketing hype
3. Different Code seeing many use the same library code (esp Clippers) under a hyped GUI
4. Different Overtones ie one may be making more Odd another more Even tones
5. Oversampling which in reality is often doing more of Points #1 & #2 than affecting what people would actually be hearing. Aliasing does exist but mostly below what average listeners care to perceive. Oversampling changes more than just reducing bounceback. Most hear that more than aliasing or lack of.

The reality is that most hear "Different" and perceive that to be better. We may like a certain difference more but in this point: Different is merely different. Not better per se.

TL:DR we could (and many do) simply make a VST that adds a dB and does an EQ change and most would on A-B say that the VST sounded better. Even if the new sound was practically worse

[HcDoom]

I don't know how many plugins capable of saturation/overdrive are in Logic, but it's a fair few. Tape delay, the compressor, Phat fx, the guitar pedals and amps, the vintage EQs, and of course the new Chroma glow just off the top of my head. I'm guessing it's a similar situation in other DAWs. I have no idea how these stack up quality-wise to other dedicated products.

Logic's devices are all good. Most reputable DAWs devices are good. Digital is digital so a one is a one and a zero is a zero. The only differences are (in order of power/relevance):
1. Marketing Hype incl sneakies like adding hidden gain
2. Tone Changes often hidden under marketing hype
3. Different Code seeing many use the same library code (esp Clippers) under a hyped GUI
4. Different Overtones ie one may be making more Odd another more Even tones
5. Oversampling which in reality is often doing more of Points #1 & #2 than affecting what people would actually be hearing. Aliasing does exist but mostly below what average listeners care to perceive. Oversampling changes more than just reducing bounceback. Most hear that more than aliasing or lack of.

The reality is that most hear "Different" and perceive that to be better. We may like a certain difference more but in this point: Different is merely different. Not better per se.

TL:DR we could (and many do) simply make a VST that adds a dB and does an EQ change and most would on A-B say that the VST sounded better. Even if the new sound was practically worse

So many misinformation, but some truth as well.

Btw, I hope you are aware there is no aliasing in analog gear - and lets leave that thought here without any further discussion. Let it simmer a bit.

[zerocrossing]

These days, a lot of stuff is good or great. What you need to look for is aliasing, which can be prevalent in plugins that do distortion of any type. Decapitator is one of those plugins that was considered great in its day, but in modern times it doesn't really hold up due to a lack of internal oversampling. It's easy to check for. Just run some high notes though a plugin as you turn up the distortion amount and you'll start to hear the weird inharmonic garbage that aliasing creates.

Other than that, it's all about flavor. Aliasing can be part of that, too. The aforementioned Decapitator can be great on drums, that aliasing providing some extra grit. Here are some that I find that I personally like the sound of.

First off, just buy the latest bundle from IK Multimedia. It's a phenomenal deal and comes with a lot of fantastic saturation plugins. In addition, it's full of other great effects and instruments. I just bought it, even though I own a lot of what it comes with, because with my JamPoints it comes to $100, which is a lot less than what I would pay for the remainder of things that I don't own. If there's a better deal out there, I don't know it. FYI, Tonex and Amplitude are

https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/t ... udio-4-max

I also like all the saturation plugins from Arturia, including the preamp emulations, which I use a lot. The Culture Vulture emulation is a stand-out for me. Coldfire is fantastic for experimental stuff too.

Waves' BB Tubes is a good and simple plugin that is fairly flexible. It got panned because it shipped with a bug that had its 8x oversampling render at a lower rate, but it was quickly fixed and now sounds great. If you find the video demo where the guy says it's not really doing anything, ignore it. That dude has no idea what he's doing and shouldn't be regarded at all for any opinion. He complained it didn't do much, but was running it in a way where the input gain was low, which is exactly like a hardware device would work.