I’ve been checking out Kalifornia Dynamic’s Alkane Saturation VST and am curious about your experiences. They say it’s a 'game changer' (of course, like always), but I’m not sure if it really brings anything new to the table or if it’s just another plugin with a shiny marketing angle. Has anyone tried it out? How does it stack up against your usual saturation tools? I’d love to hear your honest thoughts.

I tried the demo now against Kelvin, for example, and I especially like it on drums or more percussive material; also, for shaping electronic bass, it seems very nice.

Looking forward to a solid discussion!

 

I don't see anything "special".
There are countless plugins with different algos.

It will depend on sound itself, because saturation is one of the hardest things to reproduce right.

 

Hmm...

 

what's different from my good ol decapitator?

 

$249.00 Too expensive, how much is it really worth? After a year at the latest, the price will probably fall rapidly due to market saturation. The company only offers one product, what if the company goes bankrupt, then they won't get any more updates.

My recommendation is: Fabfilter - Saturn 2 are available from € 129 and you know what you're getting!

 

sry, i didn't know it was unknown because i saw it everywhere at some point

 

It's good, i really liked it. I didn't really pay much attention to it during december so i don't know if they had a sale of sorts, so i wouldn't be surprised if they were going the PA/UAD/Waves/Etc path and just throwing sales every now and then. If $249 is their only price though...Hell no, not worth it.

 

Kelvin was my main go-to for saturation, but these days I seem to get most of it from TBTECH Deep Vintage emus, Machine Head/Arturia J-37 and Newfangled Saturate when I need the inflator effect. Most of the time just one of the deep vintage preamps and a compressor will add enough saturation for me. Love the MHB Green and Kiive KC-1 for that.

 

Wow, I didn’t know about TBTECH Deep Vintage emulations—need to check this out. To explain myself further: I recently tried the demo of Alkane because I kept seeing it all over social media and used it on drums and bass. I wanted to convince myself that I didn’t need it, but unfortunately, neither Kelvin, Vertigo Sound VSM-4, nor Decapitator could achieve a similar sound, as they always ruined the lows.

I checked in Plugin Doctor and found that, depending on the amount, an EQ is engaged that seems to leave the lows untouched while still generating harmonics (even in the bass range). The only explanation I could come up with is that a finely tuned EQ is placed before the saturation stage.

Regardless, it was incredibly easy to get the sound I had in mind with Alkane—but of course, it’s way too expensive. I also understand the “going broke” aspect of the company (similar to Arts Acoustics).

I was wondering if anyone else here has tried it.