Best saturation/excitement plug-ins

[Ermz]

Now there are quite a few of these out there because the companies have caught onto cashing in on the 'warming up cold, lifeless digital' gimmick.

Which ones, in your experience, are the very best? Tape, tube and transistor saturation.

I've tried a ton of these from Magneto to Vintage Warmer to Tessla.

I currently use Magneto and Tessla when needed to grit or calm things down, as needed. But I can't escape the feeling that there may be some thing better, or more authentic out there. I would prefer not to trawl through the myriad of options!

 

[~BURNY~]

http://www.kvraudio.com/get/1740.html

 

[Charles J]

Picked this up from Plec, but, whenever I think something may rock a little more and benefit from a little saturation, I use PSP's MixSaturator on the TAPE3 algorithm.

According to Plec, this sounds verrrry similar to his Fatso. I can't comment, but I do like it on Kick, Snare, Vocals and sometimes guitar! Drive it a bit, then mess w/the wet/dry control and viola!

Other than that, I'm not too into most of the tape sat. plugs. I just don't like them all that much. I'd rather just get the effect from plugs that already have it built-in.

BTW, if you haven't already, check out PSP's new compressor oldTimer. It's got to be one of the best native compressors I've ever used. Sounds like hardware!!

 

[Ermz]

Yeah I've checked out Old Timer actually, man. I tried it in place of the T-Racks3 Fairchild I had on lead vox and it didn't quite work out the same. Tried it in place of Stillwell's Rocket on backing vox and once again it didn't quite do what I needed.

I hear great things, I'm just trying to find the right purpose for the damn thing! (I like attack and release controls damnit!)

Good to hear PSP's mix sat brings the love. Those guys seem to be pretty good at bringing the analogue vibe. I recall being pleased by how the Vintage Warmer smoothed things out in the past!

 

[greyskull]

ive got massey tapehead and McDsp Analog channel.
Definatly prefer analog channel. But Massey rears its head here and there

 

[Fox Mulder]

I currently have PSP MixSaturator and Voxengo TapeBus. Ironically, Voxengo TapeBus sounds a bit too digital. Or maybe I'm just not doing it right.
For tube saturation I stick to the MixSaturator. I too would love to figure out if there are more kick-ass stuff out there. That + RTAS. I hate wrappers. TLs Saturated driver seems interesting. And I'm curious to try out oldTimer.

Like seriously, I can't wait to go legal on saturated plugs. So come on people, help me out here. Help me find the 'Plug of my dreams'.

 

[freddrik]

You should try URS Saturation Ermz, plenty of different algorithms, Tube's, Tape deck etc

http://www.ursplugins.com/ursSAT.html

 

[Ermz]

^ I've heard that one could be considered one of the 'best'. I however don't like URS after they tried to screw us with the 'input' options on the CSP. There was no harmonic distortion, just different EQ curves (or impulses) used! I've not really used any of their stuff since. I'm not partial to the 'offer a lot of options, but not make any individual one very convincing' method.

 

[Jind]

I've been using TL-64 Tube Leveler that came with Sonar 8 - I really like the results quite a bit for an included plug.

 

[kev]

I'd go with PSP mix saturator from what I have experienced and read recently. I've been using the "tape 3" algorithm for a while now and it brings things to life nicely. Just a hint of it.

 

[006]

^ I've heard that one could be considered one of the 'best'. I however don't like URS after they tried to screw us with the 'input' options on the CSP. There was no harmonic distortion, just different EQ curves (or impulses) used! I've not really used any of their stuff since. I'm not partial to the 'offer a lot of options, but not make any individual one very convincing' method.

Crazy, Machinated gets some killer mixes going and he uses URS CSP religiously.

 

[Charles J]

I use URS' CSP on almost everything, haha. I love that fucking plug! It's cool to mix and match w/the Waves SSL stuff for different flavors.

The input thing does kind of bug me too, but, whatever, I really like the EQ's and Compressors in it.

 

[Trevoire520]

Massey Tapehead is pretty cool. I really need to get some cash together to but the full version tbh...

 

[Jevil]

Does it makes any difference using this kind of plugins to a track/mix?
Bought the Voxengo Warmifier and can't notice any difference.

 

[006]

You should hear it doing something.

 

[Soundlurker]

Ozone's exciter has a tube\warm\retro setting iirc, ever tried it?

 

[gabriel g.]

a friend of mine has the Cranesong tape-outboard thing....

This thing is amazing, you can realy push the mix and give it a nice colour, but way toooooo fucking expensive!!!!
Cranesong made a TDM plugin but I it costs almost as much as the waves scc....?????

I use the waves vintage (neve) emulations to colour my stuff.
Works great!!!

 

[ahjteam]

a friend of mine has the Cranesong tape-outboard thing.... This thing is amazing, you can realy push the mix and give it a nice colour, but way toooooo fucking expensive

Everything is too expensive if you're poor and/or doing it only for a hobby

 

[Machinated]

urs saturation is great. many flavours and i have a use usually for all of them.

so what if the CSP doesnt have harmonic distortion......thats what i have the sat plug for. besides the input stage on the CSP does affect the compressor so its not totally useless.

 

[Plec]

My fav plugs for "warming" and "messing" are PSP MixSaturator, iZotope Trash and UAD EL-7 FATSO!