What's your favourite saturator that use not a lot for the color but for adding perceived loudness instead?

my favorite are sonnox inflator (old school goldie) or the "saturation module" in fast limiter / sonible limiter (visually awesome)

 

I like to use the FabFilter - Saturn 2 VST.

I heard that millions of users swear by this one:

 

Saturn is nice, but i've never liked its autogain… what settings do you use for the loudness purpose?

 

be sure to try Airwindows weight, you'll be surprised, trust me

 

in no order:

1 - Kclip
2 - Newflanged's Saturate
3 - DMG TrackLimit
4 - UrsaDSP Boost
5 - Voxengo's OVC-128

You will probably notice that I mentioned 2 limiters... just a reminder that limiters can also do the job.


edit: I have no idea why there are attached files in my comment lol

 

i find console emulation plugins can do that very nicely, but only a few do it well tho, imo:
- Sonimus consoles (A-Console (API), Britson (to be soon replaced by N-Console it seems.. Neve) and Satson (SSL i believe))
- Lindell 80 & 50
- FrontDAW
- Kazrog True Iron
- Tone Projects Kelvin
- Slate Digital VCC (can be a hit or a miss tho imo)

i feel like i can get to a point where they tame all the peaks and kinda squash everything together nicely, thus allowing me to push it more into a limiter or a clipper

 

An even Harmonics generator.

 

I only use the Oxford Inflator for my old 32 bit plugins in Synapse Audio - Orion.
I only use the left knob to boost the volume by about 4 dB.



MY FX
01 Nomad Factory - Program Equalizer EQP-4 | 02 FabFilter - Pro Q2 (Equalizer) | 03 FabFilter - Saturn (Saturation)
04 Maag Audio - EQ4 (Equalizer) |05 Millennia - NSEQ-2 (Equalizer) | 06 FabFilter - Timeless 2 (Delay)
07 Sonalksis - StereoTools (Imager) | 08 FabFilter - Pro-R (Reverb) | 09 Brainworx - VSC-2 - VCA (Compressor)
10 SSL - Bus Compressor | 11 Brainworx - BX Masterdesk (Mix) | 12 Brainworx - BX Limiter

 

I use a few different ones depending on what Im trying to achieve.

I use the 1073 Preamp from UAD when I try to get more perceived Mid low (150 to 400hz).

I cant remember when I tried to saturate the highs other then achieving competitive level so really just some dynamic EQ (or filter or Transient designer) in a clipper then limiter on a Bus. The issue is actually usually the opposite. Oversaturation which is where I need to put in more work to get something creamy yet aggressive.

I like to use the Studder 800 and Ampex 102 from UAD to broadly rebalance a Bus by using the bias and hitting the red softly.

 

I've neither found a switch for this, nor is it mentioned in the manual. You're sure about it?

Since heavy saturation leads to distortion and (unpredictable) waveshaping, I'd simply use a clipper. It also leads to distortions at some point, but the shaping is predictable and you know straight away that you need some serious oversampling.

For just a bit more upfrontness any saturation with only a few added harmonics should do the job.

 

The red cross is not entirely correct because this way you're using it as a hard clipper.

 

Thank you @No Avenger for your knowledge and the correct position. And again I have learned something.

 

the new Airwindows Huge

 

Exactly, I mentioned Weight, but I meant to say Huge.. Either way, both are very useful tools in the end.

 

For perceived loudness, huh.
StandardCLIP or apShaper. See exactly how much peaks you're cutting off and hence how much you can boost the signal. Variable knee if you want control over dynamics and harmonics.
Venn Audio V-Clip or even FreeClip aren't bad either.
Analog-modeled saturators aren't precision tools - they're more for flavour.

 

Pulsar Modular P42 Climax

 

Big Clipper 2
Newfangled Saturate

 

Last edited: May 21, 2023

I always tought that was on by default, because the gain by increasing the saturation is never too much (instead of the other plugins), but it definitely increase

 

Ah, this you mean. Saturn applies heavy compression and then limiting very quickly. If you load the def preset and pull down all four Tone knobs, the signals get lowered by ~ 24dB. But if you raise them all, it's only amplified by ~ 5dB.
I know, you're talking about the Drive, but the principle is the same.

 

FireCobra, MiaMuscle, Airwindows Loud/ADClip7/NC-17/Focus, SPL Vitalizer, FAST Limiter, Ursa Boost.

I tried it but when I level-matched I always preferred the dry version