Do you guys know some saturation vst that generate smooth even harmonics? I don't want the fullness of the tape and other common saturation like blackbox pentode. Something like a portico preamp, with more presence on the midrange and high frequencies, if you know what i mean. I struggle to find something that is not an analog emulation of something that produces those kind of harmonics. Thanks!

 

Blyss from Kush might do the trick. Theres also a free SSL buss processor with saturation from Acoustica audio ( which I highly not recommend to get into their buying sect unless you have unlimited cpu ressources) but that one is free as far as I remember.

LOVEEND from analog obession is great for low end.

And finaly the new Antares Vocal EQ might help you get some frequencies in that saturation plugin range effortlessly with their new harmonic dynamic EQ follow up tech. Its not fool proof tho and sometime miss a few peaks in the process but its decent enough for the consumer hear afaik.

Hope that help.

 

Basically check neve emulation plugins. Or tube cirquit. noisash's need 73 pre is pretty good

 

Thanks for the answers, guys; I know kush's blyss, and that's exactly the kind of harmonics that i want, although, the eq is kinda heavy on cpu, and i don't really want the EQ section.

I love neves, they are already on my main drums. But i want something more modern for melodic instruments (keys, synths, guitars, strings, etc). For those i don't want order harmonics, just clean saturation that's respectful to the sound source. I hate using those kind of words, but i want something "silky" on the midrange and more modern than neves

 

If you want 'not analog' then Airwindows Tube2 will add even and odd ordered harmonics without adding randomness, noise* or EQ.

HoRNet Harmonics lets you pick your own order of harmonics and add them at will.

If you want multi-band saturation for your midrange, then Fabfilter Saturn or Wavesfactory Spectre will do.

 

kit plugin neve is smooth, imo.

 

If you have odd/3rd harmonic creating saturator, you can make even/2nd harmonic creating..... Hint how to make: have you seen a dc offset or 0Hz stuff on analysers? It is asymmetry. DC offset one half of wave, saturate, DC offset vice versa as it was before, so you saturate one half mostly. One saturator used after dc gives you more colors than just one saturator without dc....imagine dc offset as a tool to create, not as artefacts. Imagine saturation as distortion of one half of wave, or both, symmetrical, or asymmetrical...

 

Have you tried Klanghelm's IVGI or SDDR? They're great and low on CPU.

u-he Satin is great. Very versatile and sounds awesome. That's my favourite.

Also, Airwindows has many different saturators that sound pristine and great like Channel7, Console7, Tape, Totape6. they+re easy to use and low on CPU, but it's recommended to use oversampling with these.

and ChowDSP tape is pretty good and very versatile. Maybe too much.

 

Last edited: Jan 30, 2023

Except that it produces mostly odd harmonics. It's strange how NoiseAsh has modelled the saturation of the Neve plug-ins. They are pretty heavy on the odd harmonics, and the even ones are barely there.

@Riddim Machine Check out TBProAudio GSat+. Set it to Warm mode, 5 stages and about 50% even harmonics (0% odd harmonics). It will get you pretty close to the kind of harmonics you'd get in a 1073, or at least from the kind of readings I've seen from people who actually owns one. I don't know what kind of harmonic structure a Portico has, but it's probably similar to that of the 1073, 1084 etc.

 

Yes try Kush Omega plugins or as Sinewave write Klanghelm is very good

 

Acustica Nebula

 

Have you tried Tone Projects Kelvin?
Beside other things I really love it's respectfulness towards the sound source. It is easy to get different kinds of saturation, that don't do too much to the sources. It is also a case where a plugin comes with a bunch of very useful presets - many of them are more on the subtle side and somehow "clean" up (...although saturation is applied) your signal. Just some more shiny presence, without boosting the signal.

EDIT: if CPU consumption is important, there are modes - low latency, good, high, pristine ... and: "render at pristine" ... the high setting never gave me any problems, pristine is quite heavy if you use more than one instance (which I do in most of my projects, it sounds that good to me)

 

Last edited: Jan 30, 2023

Free GSat+ by TBProaudio has you covered. You can specifically dial in even order harmonics only:
https://www.tbproaudio.de/products/gsatplus

Or you use the Tube parameter in the free BPB Saturator. A revamped version is coming soon, but in the meantime you can use v1: https://bedroomproducersblog.com/free-vst-plugins/bpb-saturator/


Personally I find that only even order harmonics (= tube saturation) muddies up the mix too much. But a hint of even order harmonics with more odd harmonics gives you that crispy classic tape / transistor saturation.

 

Thank you, i already got covered! Liked all suggestions, some i already use like airwindows (all of them), the neves and some tube pres and tapes. But i think the ones that i tested that fulfilled most of my needs were the GSat+ (the @Arabian_jesus preset is killer) and Kelvin (Hygge 1, clean mode). Both are low on CPU, have the smooth sound that for me, respected the source and gave the "shine" i was searching.

 

I saw people recommend Kazrog KClip 3.
If not this try their different plugins

 

I was bit curious and tested with Sonimus Burnley 73 (which is supposed to be a good Neve 1073 emulation). I found that in order to get a very similar overtone distribution / harmonic saturation with GSat+ it's best to use the "Clean" character mode and around 80 - 90% percent of even order harmonics.

I tested it with a Sine test signal at C3 (130 hz). Burnley 73 used with the Mic input at 40 (quite hot signal) produced two overtones at around 260 hz (2 times the fundamental tone) and 390 hz (3 times the fundamental).

Using the warm character mode in GSat+ will not get you sufficient amount of overtones to simulate the Mic input's behaviour*, but is suitable if you want to use the more modest Line input saturation.

*basically the saturation gets lowpassed and attenuated too much when using the "warm" mode, so that it can't emulate the Mic Inputs stronger saturation

 

Last edited: Jan 31, 2023