Saturation is an often misunderstood process, sometimes written off as basic distortion effect, too subtle for most uses. While this isn’t entirely inaccurate, saturation has a lot to offer and can impart a true analog flavor on our mixes if used correctly. Most saturation plug-ins are pretty simple devices, but the real key to using the effect is understanding how it works. Let’s take a look at the process in detail and then we can go through a few examples of a few saturation plug-ins in action.
Step 1 - What is Saturation?
Saturation is a process that has its roots firmly in the analog domain. Mix engineers using tape would print ‘hot’ levels to create a type of compression, which is known as tape saturation.
When tape is driven in this way and the level meets 0db (and a fair way beyond) the level clips, but in the analog realm this is known as ‘soft clipping’. The end result is a satisfying, fuzzy overloaded signal which displays natural compression and limiting characteristics. Engineers would use this as a tool on certain elements on the mix.
Digital systems are generally a lot stricter and really anything above 0db is considered as hard clipping. Anything beyond this brick wall should create digital distortion. Of course this isn’t technically accurate when it comes to modern DAWs and interfaces, as many of them incorporate a soft clip algorithm in their channels and master buss. This is why, for the most part, you don’t experience a huge problem if you induce small amounts of clipping in applications such as Logic, Cubase or Reason.
The soft clipping that occurs in these situations is certainly better than digital distortion but doesn’t create the effects we are looking for here. If we wish to recreate classic tape or tube saturation then a dedicated plug-in or hardware processor is called for. Of course you could go all out and invest in some real tape or tubes but as most of us are now producing ‘in the box’, let’s look at some purely digital options.
Classic tape machines are famous for their saturation effects
Step 2 - Saturating Drums
Saturation can work in pretty much any mix element but it really shines on a few specific things, drums being one of them.
A great drum performance recorded through pristine mic pre-amps into a 24 bit DAW can be a beautiful thing but sometimes during mixing they can lack a little attitude and grit. Saturation can supply exactly the right amount of edge without overly coloring or affecting the piece’s original feel.
Most saturation plug-ins work well as inserts and are extremely simple in nature. Once you understand the process of saturation you should know when and where to apply it and to what degree. Ideally you are looking to strike a balance between saturated sounds and cleaner, less colored elements. Of course you could plaster saturation effects across your entire mix but only if you want your mix to sound as if it was recorded to tape!
For this demonstration I have used the excellent URS ‘Saturation’ plug-in on an acoustic drum loop at a few different settings. Hopefully this will give you an idea of what is possible when you are presented with various different flavors of saturation.
The models used are a tube pre-amp at about 30%, followed by a tape machine model at 100%.
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Drums with no treatment
URS tube saturation
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Drums with URS tube saturation
URS tape head saturation
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Drums with URS tape saturation
Saturation in any form adds harmonics to the sound. The perceived volume is also raised as natural compression and limiting occurs when the effect is introduced. These combined effects add up to what could be called ‘fatness’ or a ‘warm’ analogue feel. Whatever you call it, it certainly works in both examples here.
The plug-ins I’ve used in this tutorial range from high-end to bundled DAW products. I’m sure there are some interesting free products that offer similar features, so if you know of any please feel free to share links.
Step 3 - Heating Up Synth Lines
Another great way of using saturation plug-ins is to treat synth sequences. Virtual analogue instruments can be brought a little closer to the real thing and most sounds will be given a more upfront, edgy quality.
Here I have fed one of Logic Pro 8’s stock Apple loops through the SPL ‘Twin tube’ saturation plug-in. The sounds that come out of this plug-in are truly amazing and you could be convinced you’re listening to hardware. I’ve barely used the harmonics parameter and have simply dialed in a decent amount of saturation.
The end result is a fuzzy, loud synth loop with a retro feel. This is what most synth lovers strive for and it’s something that’s often difficult to achieve with soft synths alone.
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Synth line with no treatment
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Synth line with SPL saturation
The synth is treated with an SPL twin tube processor.
Step 4 - Vocal Treatment
Surprisingly enough even vocal recordings can benefit from a good dose of saturation. To show it’s not just third-party plug-ins that can deliver the goods in this area, I have used the ‘Bitcrusher’ plug-in from Logic to achieve a similar effect.
With the resolution at full and the bitcrushing off, the drive control adds gentle soft clipping and saturation. This makes the vocal fuller and also quite a bit louder.
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Vocal with no treatment
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Vocal with Logic’s bitcrusher
Logic’s bitcrusher is more than capable of some nice saturation effects.
Step 5 - Saturation in Mastering
A very common use of saturation is to strap it across the master mix buss. This can give your entire mix an analog quality and can even fool the most discerning ears into thinking hardware was used in the process.
A favorite amongst many for this sort of critical buss and mastering work is the PSP Vintage Warmer. I’ve spoken to many producers who absolutely swear by this box of tricks and use it for most of their buss limiting and saturation duties.
The Vintage warmer has a lot more to offer than just straight forward saturation and is capable of compression, limiting, tape effects and even basic EQ. The audio examples below use only saturation and limiting. This means the overall volume of the parts is boosted considerably but you can certainly hear the saturation effect clearly.
What I’ve done to demonstrate the Vintage Warmer is play all the demo material together and strap it across the master buss in Logic. There are no other effects here apart from some filtering on the synth and the saturation plug-ins that have been covered.
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Mix with no treatment
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Mix with PSP Vintage Warmer 2
The PSP Vintage Warmer is a favorite amongst producer for mastering duties.
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User Comments
( ADD YOURS )Eng June 30th
Whenever A-B’ing two different samples, it is crucial to level match them. By not doing so, it is easy to sway the listener into thinking the louder sample sounds better. If you really want to compare the effect of anything in your signal processing chain, always make sure your samples are the same perceived loudness.
( )Mo Volans June 30th
Hi Eng… this can certainly be the case with many treatments and often we perceive louder as ‘better’..
but to effectively level match a dry piece of audio with one that has been limited, maxmized, compressed, saturated or distorted (etc etc) you would actually have to boost it a few db as these processes obviously make the audio appear louder even at the same (matched) level.
all the files in this tutorial are normalised so effectively they peak at the same level but in many cases the processed versions will appear to be louder, as you point out this is only a perceived raise in volume.
definitely worth remembering when using any process that reduces dynamic range.
( )Ben July 27th
Obviously you can’t boost the unprocessed file, as it is already normalized to 0 dBFS. Therefore you need to attenuate the processed file so that the two files have the same RMS level. This is the only way to actually hear the tonal effects of the saturation apart from the increase in loudness.
Scott July 1st
This is a simple tut that I really like, Its great to have someone explain the corners of some plugings that we all see but my not really understand where they came from and why. thank you.
( )Mo Volans July 1st
Glad it helped clear some things up Scott.
( )kev on music July 1st
Thanks for these tips Mo!
( )daso July 1st
Fantastic tut Mo, thanks! I gotta agree with Eng, though. If I want increased gain, there’s a number of ways to do that other than saturation (including just turning the fader up), so I’d really rather isolate the sonic character of the saturation by equalizing the apparent volume of the examples. I wish I could hear the examples presented in this way.
( )Mo Volans July 1st
Unfortunately the very nature of saturation increases the apparent gain in the majority of circumstances. This is part and parcel of the effect / process.
Many people actually use it for this purpose as opposed to limiting etc… it has been used to increase perceived volume since the days of tape.
Of course you can increase gain in other ways but these different methods for different results…. and as i said earlier these examples are equalised in volume they are all normailised, what you are hearing is an apparent difference in volume due to reduced dynamic range, not an actual one.
( )LC July 1st
Well if you apply tape distortion (so compression) I’m not sure you can tell levels are matched just with normalization ?
Anyway nice tut.
I’d like to try the URS Saturation plugin. A bit expensive though.
Eng July 2nd
Mo, I think you maybe misunderstood my comment.
I understand saturation and compression is a way to increase perceived loudness, but it is of course not the main reason for using these effects. I mean, if I simply wanted the sample to be louder, I would push up the fader a few dB.
I was saying in order to hear how the saturation effects are affecting transients and the overall sample, it is a good idea to level match the unaffected sample with the saturated sample.
That way, you know the differences you are hearing are not just due to perceived loudness, but to the processing applied to the sample.
I simply encourage listeners to turn up their speakers in order to level match the two samples, so they can really focus on the effects of the saturation vs. dry samples.
lys July 1st
very usefull post!
( )Iankoo July 1st
I like this tutorial. Thanks Mo!
( )I have a question: What should I do If I use a saturator plugin on the vocals, drums and synth, then another one, as an insert effect, on the main volume? My track would become oversaturated? Or, if I use saturation on every track of my song, I shouldn’t use it on the master too?
Mo Volans July 2nd
Hi Iankoo… You’d be surprised how much saturation you can get away with in a mix to be honest, obviously don’t overcook things but I know producers who drive every channel in their mix with some kind of saturation.
I’m not advising this is the way forward but it goes to show if you use small amounts here and there you can certainly give your mix character.
If I were you I would start with small amounts. If things start to sound a little fuzzy and you lose transients… then you have gone too far
It’s not an exact science but over time you should be able to tell when things are too driven.
( )Iankoo July 3rd
Thank you for your advice. Until reading your tutorial, I wasn’t paying enough attention to saturation. From now on things are clear.
kev on music July 2nd
by the way, what is Perceived Volume? anyone?:)
( )Mo Volans July 2nd
Hi Kev. Basically when we use limiters, compression, distortion, saturation or induce clipping etc… in fact any process that reduces the dynamic range of a sound we will get an increase in perceived volume.
This simply means that our ears (and brain) tell us that the sound with less headroom and a high average level is louder. Even though these sounds peak at the same level you will effectively think the processed sound is louder.
The sounds in this tutorial for example are all normalized to peak at 0db although the saturated ones appear louder as their average level is higher.
Hope this helps… there is some interesting reading here about it :
http://www.pleasurizemusic.com/
and a free plug in to attempt to get you to mix and master tracks with more dynamic range.
I guess there maybe a tutorial in this subject somewhere!
( )andi July 3rd
As Mo said, plus it also depends on the frequency content since our ears are more sensitive to some freqs than others. One way of looking at percieved loudness vs actual volume – if you play a soft flute sound at the same volume as a chainsaw, the chainsaw is going to seem far louder to us.
( )(Sean) Audio Hire UK July 4th
Hey Mo,
Superb Tutorial – loved the audio demos – PSP vintage is one of my fave vst’s alongside Waves L2.
A follow up post on using alot of compression & saturation (Justice style) would be awesome…
( )classic cult July 10th
ableton saturator FTW
FREE MUSIC FTW
( )Burt July 13th
Excellent tutorial.
I was thinking of purchasing a tube preamp to record my acoustic guitar as I want a thick warm tone.
After reading this, I am thinking maybe I can record my guitar in to my [clean] duet preamps and use the above plug ins to warm it up.
What do people think?
( )Mo Volans July 15th
Hiya Burt… well this is certainly a viable option many would argue that using a dedicated preamp will produce more pleasing results but there’s no doubt this approach can save you more than a few $£.
The duets pre’s are really good to be honest as are the pre’s on a lot of interfaces in this league so applying saturation, cabinet and distortion effects on clean recordings is becoming a more and more realistic option.
( )Marc July 27th
hey Mo, exellent tutorial, i was wondering though if it would be possible for you to do a tutorial on a pitched chorused/flanged/phasered and reverbed snare roll? lol, but seriously
( )Adam Ashleigh December 17th
I think the fact that saturation increases the perceived volume in a a way much different than raising the gain is what makes Saturation such a great tool. As well as the tonal/character change from the extra harmonic content. I find this very useful in my dance music production.
Great tut and thanks.
( )