When and why would I use a saturation plug in?

[DJErmac]

@djermac:

Saturation is literally adding harmonics

Yes, because when you saturate a signal, it produces distortion, which produces harmonics.
But it doesn’t need four pages for this, I think everybody got the point.

[MadDogE134]

i will state again about 'hearing' saturation 'clearly'

"my advice is to put it on and listen for a while and while it is playing bypass (turn off) the saturation plug and listen for the difference in the output. it is easier to note it NOT there than it BEING there imo."

cheers

[Ploki]

Developpers make saturation AND distortion plugins. So that’s NOT the same thing.
Saturation means volume non-linearities. It can produce distortion (most of the time it does).
Distortion means harmonics creation.
It’s simply a matter or using the right word at the right moment. If your volume is too high, you’re saturating, you’re not distorting. But you can probably hear a bit of distorsion.

That’s simply not true, but ok


Agree with maddog and ninjatoon so I’ll stop at this point

[vurt]

you all get a gold star for effort

[MadDogE134]

been a looong time since i got a gold star... THANKS! lol

[MadDogE134]

and to think... i could be watching "Baywatch"

[Aloysius]

and to think... i could be watching "Baywatch" in my mankini

[jamcat]

First of all, if audio gear is high quality it DOESN'T distort.
Second, plugins are just as REAL audio equipment as hardware is in 2021. It's pointless gatekeeping to call hardware "real".

All electronics introduce some level of harmonic distortion. That's just physics.

Real means: tangible, not artificial, not imaginary.
Software is not tangible. Digital emulations are artificial. The mathematics of digital circuits heavily involve imaginary numbers.

[JerGoertz]

Do imaginary numbers create imaginary sounds?

[Unaspected]

Do imaginary numbers create imaginary sounds?

It's just a phase.

[Aloysius]

Trust the science.

[fese]

Trust the science.

[Aloysius]

[ghostwhistler]

You could look up YT for some ideas. What are YT people using it for? Read a review. What does the reviewer recommend it for? Etc.

One example. May not be the best. It was the first one that showed up in my search.

I mean, it's not complex - there are only a few dials. My problem is I don't hear them doing anything until it's excessive. Now maybe that's my tinnitus speaking, or that I don't have good quality cans.

I mean you're telling us you have tinnitus and bad cans now?

Ok so you should be able to pick up details like saturation instantly even on mediocre headphones, how bad is your tinnitus exactly?

Getting better headphones would be a good start.

Remember if you are new to production it will take some time to train your ears/brain. Everybody struggles to hear compression for example in the beginning. If you have been doing this for a while I dunno what to tell you. Get a hearing test?

I do have those things (not necessarily bad cans), but do you see the smiley face?

[vurt]

Do imaginary numbers create imaginary sounds?

let me just ask my imaginary friends, might be a while, theyre busy at my menagerie