Hy Guys!

I'm mixing some songs and I've started using a lot of saturators, like Saturn, Neutron exciter, and others.
I really like the color it gives to the songs, I feel that it gives life and also colors them, that is to say, I don't need to eculize practically. I have also realized that it works as a kind of maximizer. Some of these things I already knew, but I had never applied them in a project and now I really like how it looks. The question is.
What are the cons of using saturators? I mean, it may sound nice now, but maybe later I'll realize that I sacrificed some of the sound that I'm not realizing now.

 

Quantity is often the enemy of the quality

 

If you add saturation to the entire mix and overdo it, you'll be adding way too many harmonics and that will clutter the mix. Don't take that as being stingy with saturation (I do actually add a tape emulation to every track and bus on my mixes), but be smart when pushing the drive and think if what you're doing can be achieved with an EQ or compressor. It's very much like doing EQ in solo mode, context is key.

 

The cons of saturation : it saturate the sound
the pros : it saturate the sound

But if it sounds good, then it is good. You can ruin a sound the same way with EQ or compression, so at some point you have to trust what you're hearing. Your critical listening will improve with experience, maybe you'll have better monitoring system at some point, so no matter what you do now you will still later have the impression that you didn't make the right thing cause you are always evolving. But you can still make a back up of the original sound.

The best is to use reference, various track, not just one, take some break to come back with fresh ear, so you hear better if you're overdoing something. Having you're own track as reference with the pre-mix is also a good thing, so you can see if your mix go in a right direction or not.

Don't hesitate to use parallel mode, multiband saturation and other trick to make it more subtle, adding the harmonic without losing the original quality of the sound. Another thing you can do when you set you're drive intensity is to back up a little bit everytime after pushing it, that way it prevent you a little more to overdo it, and do it always in the context of the mix, not every sound need to be loud and in front, even in very saturated genre like heavy dubstep or big room techno.

Also don't sleep on EQ, even if it seems to sounds good without it, the added harmonics (if you saturate every sound) will add up and can create issue for the mastering engineer (maybe "future you" if you doing both mix and master).

 

Depends on what kind of saturation, there are so many for so many different reasons which will squash or only give just a bit of flavor to your mix. Really matter if you use it on individual channels for a sound design/tone chasing goal or on your overall mix in post.

You can double & just destroy your entire mix with too much. It's extremely easy to overdo & hard to find the sweet spot after referencing every monitor you have to your name + your dealers massive bluetooth speaker that can be heard from a mile away.

Saturation translates in an unforgiving way on my end, can't vouch for anybody else. But too much on a reference set is the first thing I hear. That overdosed squash that sounds like Bobby Hills ass after eatin' the carbs outta them potato chips in my profile picture, mang. Just imagine an all butter sammich and have some mercy on your own ass & arteries man. It's your own mix so handle that shit with care. Salad light, like new Gucci Mane; should your post saturation mane.

Also if you do any type of saturation beforehand + saturation during your mixing and maybe even your mastering phase, which will add up & multiply tenfolds, so go easy on the strawberry butter on each bread, man. Or at least have a hand at the amounts you're giving at each stage, it will overlap in the nastiest ways.

I don't like to do crazy saturation during my mixing/mastering stage, if any at all. Like if I'm making metal, then I will probably not add any saturation in post because my dirty guitars are crusty enough on their own without needing anymore *shudders* warmth in my mix, in the end.

 

Last edited: Mar 29, 2023

As they say, too much of a good thing is a bad thing. If your every sound is a sausage that also takes up all of the spectrum, your mix will become very cluttered and very stale quite quickly.
Also you have to look out for aliasing and, if you saturate subgroups and a whole mix, for intermodulation distortion, which are both inharmonic, can build up and shittify your sound. Technically IMD is not always inharmonic, but it definitely is if you saturate the mix bus.
That being said, you can potentially use clippers and saturators instead of compressors in your mix, including the mix bus, and achieve great results with it.

 

How it can ruin the harmonics in the mix?, that's what I still don't understand.

If that's what I'm doing now, I put a little bit of saturation on each track and play with the eq and then on the bus, but something more subtle.

You say it's the same as an eq and a compressor. But you know, that's what I've been doing, using eq and compressor. But I don't feel like it does the same thing. I feel that the saturation "revives" the sound without affecting the dynamics so much or making it "artifactual". But well, I'm a guy who gets fooled a lot when there's a new "toy", that is, I've always been very traditional, using eq, compressor, limiter.

I did not understand this part
what do you mean by going back and back a little bit, that after putting saturation, take a little bit out? that?

I did not know that this could happen, I will look for information about it. Yesterday I searched what were the cons of using saturation, but I didn't find anything. Now I will look with what you mention

 

thank you all for taking the time to respond.

Today I opened the project again with my ears reset, and I heard again that "compact" sound I heard yesterday after mixing. I don't know how to describe it, or maybe I'm just getting a suggestion. But I feel that the harmonic distotion makes everything sound more "musical", is that possible, or am I just being suggestible? Because it usually happens to me that I see VSTs that are "pretty" and I think they sound good. Anyway now what I do is to close my eyes and with the mouse I click on "activate" and "deactivate" the effect, while I have my eyes closed and I listen, to realize if it really sounds better, or it just seemed to me at first sight.

So, I will trust my ears and follow your advice not to overdo it.

But I'd like someone to clarify that for me. Is it possible that saturation makes a song sound more musical? I feel like the sounds sound "more professional" i.e. like they are better recorded or of better quality.

 

It does. Depending on the type of harmonics you're adding, it will give the sound an extra flair that is not originally there. Think about it this way: when you add saturation, you're actually adding extra notes to the sound. The more you drive it, the more you get. Once it gets really hot, you get visible compression since it's soft clipping the audio. It sounds musical, the same way a CMaj chord can sound less musical (again, context is key) than a CMaj7 chord would. Saturation adds that roundness that gives the sound a pleasant feeling.

 

Flubby low end; muddy, dark congested low-mids; harsh high-mids, harsh, brittle highs; loss of transient definition, are just a few. Of course this depends on the type of saturation which can vary a lot - tape, tube, transistor, digital.

My suggestion is to listen to what it adds with fresh ears - you get used to the saturated sound very quickly which makes it tempting to keep adding more! Aural Exciters are a classic example of this "more, more, more" problem.

Cheers!

 

Yes, of course, people have been using saturation to improve the sound of recordings for a long time. It can make things sound louder, clearer, warmer, more forward.

 

Think about it this way: When you play a G2 (~100hz) and saturate your signal to add a 2nd harmonic, you're now playing G2 and a quieter G3 (~200hz) at the same time. When you add second and third harmonics at the same time, you're playing G2 (100hz), G3 (200hz) and D4 (300hz). Or a pretty quiet power chord with a doubled bass. If you were to stack a fifth harmonic, you'd have yourself G2-G3-D4-B4, a major chord, with the major third an octave higher. Harmony out of a single note!

(I hope I got that right)

 

Too much saturation will take out the natural dynamics of the sound. Saturation is basically waveshaping and decreases the micro-dynamics (the small little transients peaking out of the mix). Especially for modern genres this can be a good thing. But it's also the exact opposite of high-fidelity. Think of a well-recorded jazz or classical album, where high-fidelity (capturing the details of the sound) is crucial, you wouldn't want to use a lot of saturation there.

 

The cons are, that you need many plugins for saturation, because of many different saturation types xD... Often it sounds more nice to use more saturation algorithms than just one plugin in a track.

 

Frequency masking of other audio signals.

 

Sättigung ist Verzerrung. Es ist immer irgendwie ermüdend.

 

You insert plugin for saturation on a track, you adjust all controls to find sound you like and then you lower a bit the level of saturation (how many your plugun saturate a track). You make saturation a bit less audible. As a result you hear the effect but its level is a bit lower (queiter) than you have assigned it initially. The difference may be even (almost) unnoticable.

This is a common techique and the best way to avoid overdoing something. It's recommended to use it with reverbs too.

 

Controlling your previous work in the same circumstances isn't a really good idea. It makes sense but must not be a usual practice.

Try to listen with other sources (headphones, speakers, phone or tablet etc.). How does it translate?

Change level (increase or decrease it) significally (for example in your audio interface). Try to listen it from far corner of your room or even from a neighbouring room.

 

Hi.

There are no cons of using saturation. End of the conversation.

Sincerely, an EDM producer.

 

You can easily kill transients if you abuse