Stacking saturation plugs, overkill?

[mirflee]

Hello all,

I've got a huge dilemma where my mixes are dense and having alot going on got me thinking, the mutliplied 'warmness' I get from my saturation plugs in my channel strip could be the cuplrit. I'm a huge fan of Will Putney's work and the sponginess that you hear from his mixes with saturation/distortion going all over his records.

I have the NLS - Decapitator - Kramer MPX on most of the channels and loved them enough to let them go, essentially though, what would be 'proper' in saturation chains?

I hope that made sense! Apologies if it seems like a stupid question.

Best regards!

 

[crillemannen]

If you have a dense mix saturation will only make things smear and you'll loose all separation. Ofc saturation is needed if you're doinga ITB mix but i've been using less and less and I've been doing my best mixes ever!

 

[Vihaleipä]

If you have a dense mix saturation will only make things smear and you'll loose all separation. Ofc saturation is needed if you're doinga ITB mix but i've been using less and less and I've been doing my best mixes ever!

+1

 

[He's Dead, Jim]

It's not necessarily an either/or. You can always turn the wet/dry combo down or, if it's like the Slate VCC controls, turn the amount of saturation or the triggering threshold (Slate sets it at the equivalent of 0dbVU IIRC) up.

 

[Max Morton]

In my opinion, using saturation everywhere in the mix is like typing in all capital letters. Capital letters are just losing their sense this way. So does saturation. If everything is saturated, you stop noticing the effect saturation gives. It's cool to saturate only elements that demand it (vocals, bass, snare, etc). And perhaps something very subtle on the masterbus for more "glue" and "fat". But I personally prefer not to saturate my masterbus.

 

[Donovan S.]

Maybe I'm weird, but I saturate literally everything, pushing a lot of things into the red on VTM and VCC.

 

[HOFX]

I find saturation (VCC + VTM) "fuzzes" the edge of tracks and makes them sit together more - of course, all subtle and cumulative. For the saturation effects, then I look at distortion plugs.

I see how modern metal mixes thrive on instrument separation, particularly with very technical material - however, this requires a sharp guitar player and an excellent singer as a foundation, i.e. a good, clean performance.