Hi,

What are the best saturation plugins in 2021?

Saturn
Kuassa
Crushstation
Kelvin

Abbey Road Saturator

There are probably literally hundreds of great plugins out there that employ saturation in various ways, these days. I've bought a huge number of them over the past couple years, for a variety of reasons.

Lately, the one that gets by far the most use by me is the very simple, straightforward, and great-sounding Fuse Audio VPRE376.

Others I've enjoyed a lot are NEOLD Big Al, NEOLD V76U73, Black Rooster VPRE73, Klanghelm SDRR, Waves REDD, and of course the various Soundtoys like Decapitator and Radiator. Good tape sims like Flywheel and Magnetite have lovely saturation capabilities, too.

For precise, ultra-modern control, Saturn is probably unbeatable, but that's one I don't have.

Adding to the list:
• Black Box Analog Design HG-2MS
• Goodhertz Tupe
• Kush Audio Omega Transformer Model TWK
• PSP Saturator
• Softube Overstayer M-A-S
• Vertigo Sound VSM-4

Kelvin is definitely the one I’m using the most : incredibly versatile, equally intuitive to operate and sounds stellar.

Man im for sure oversatuurated.

Saturn
Kelvin
Oversatyer mas
Culture vulture


Pre amps
Kit bb 105
Uad 1073
Uad api preamp
Uad Manley preamp
Fuse audio vpre 2c

Tape
All 3 uad tapes
Fuse flywheel

On my to buy list

Goodhertz tupe
Vertigo vsm4

Have for sure alot more that I dont use anymore or only once in a while.

Tupe, Saturn, Kelvin cover most of the bases here. Flywheel for tape and also the saturation in the Molot comp is awesome.

Decapitator
Saturation knob
IK tape collection

Try Analog Obsession's newest version of TuPre. Just try it. Even on the mixbus.

In approximate order from heavy to subtle (though most of these can cover quite a bit of ground in either direction):

Soundtoys Decapitator
Soundtoys Radiator
Kush Omega 458a
PA Black Box HG-2
PA Neold V76U73
Black Rooster VPRE73
IK Tape Machine (24, 80, and 440)

I also have Softube Saturation Knob and IK Saturator X, but I don’t find them as useful as the above. Ditto Black Rooster Magnetite—it’s a nice color box that’s CPU-light enough to use on individual tracks, but since I’ve had the IK tapes, I don’t use it nearly as often.

Kelvin
Climax P42
Kush Omegas
Hornet Tape

P42 Climax truly did change the game for me.

Kelvin,
Molot GE saturation circuit,
Klanghelm DC8C3 saturation circuit,
Chow Tape.

anyone try the new Klive distinct yet? its cheap but im just wanting some opinions

P42 Climax
Kush Omegas, Blyss, UBK-1

Kelvin. Saturn. HG-2. Although I mostly use hardware.

SansAmp is a classic and still great. Saturn is great. Kush Reddi isn’t just for bass guitars. Wave Arts Tube Saturator is nice. Sound Toys Radiator.

GSatPlus

Kazrog True Iron (especially RCA transformer setting), Black Rooster V73 and Magnetite, IK Tapes

Favorites are.

Softube Harmonics
Soundtoys Decapicitator.

And more...

Lots of great hw emulations mentioned here, i´ve been checking out lately more precise saturation options eg. waveshapers without too many other artifacts. Standardclip has cool precise saturation slider, want more complex and have more time in hand then play with Kclip. Taip might go into that category aswell, cause you can really turn all the wild tape characteristics off and enjoy multiband-ish saturation.

Burier is cool new toy, maybe it´s still free?

Shaperbox 2 in crush and drive settings is probably most useful one i got. Dynamic saturation ftw!

some gems that gets good use still SGA 1566 (free), Bus Driver, Spectre, Shapeshifter, apShaper, Filterfreak2 output section, Omega TWK and Goodhertz plugins Wow/Trem/Vulf outputs colors, to name a few.

my favourite ..
Saturator-X
& ..
Valves

or i'll plugin a vox-tonelab.st ;-]

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might be worth a read : [ gs thread ]
Low-CPU Saturation Plug-in That Can Be Used Across A Mix
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