Ableton Forum

Is there a good plugin for tube and solid state saturation? I know Antares Tube is pretty good, but are there others that you can recommend? Also, please state if your recommendation is available for PC and/or Mac.

I like Trash but maybe it's more than you're looking for.

Yeah, Trash is great for distortions, but I'm looking for recommendations on how to get analog saturation in the recording process of a DAW. Thoughts?

Aaaahh, I read ya...

How about Vintage Warmer or Mix Pack (Mix Saturator)?

i hate to say it, but:

analog gear?

Yeah, I was looking at the PSP stuff. The only gripe I have is that most of those plugs have latency and they tend to be high on CPU. But the MixPack seems to be what I'm looking for. I'll test it out. Thanks.

Also, regarding analog gear, sorry bro, I'm mixing in my DAW only. Analog is for pussies. j/k - it's purely a convenience thing these days.

nebulae wrote:Is there a good plugin for tube and solid state saturation? I know Antares Tube is pretty good, but are there others that you can recommend? Also, please state if your recommendation is available for PC and/or Mac.

Are we talking full on distortion or subtle warmth?

If it's the latter, and on a PC, check out:

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

lives saturator plug does most of the everyday tube sounds for me, i love it, havent found anything better for most stuff

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supster wrote:lives saturator plug does most of the everyday tube sounds for me, i love it, havent found anything better for most stuff

.

I'm inclined to agree with Supster .
It can go from exceptionally subtle to aggresive and can almost act like a waveshaper on Impulse or Simpler output if needs be also.
I haven't found a need for any others myself.
Infact I find most of Lives effects hugely useable given the routing options within Live itself.
Apart from the Odd freeware effect ala Luxonix LFX-1310 the MDSP (ducking series of delays / verbs / flangers etc) some Ephonic stuff like Lo-fi and Retrodelay + Glaceverbs Dasample and some general Smex FX I have not yet seen the need for ANY payware FX.
I use the FX supplied in LIVE.
Some Reaktor based Ensembles for Multiband Comp'ing etc and Granular work and whats supplied in Reason 3 via Rewire when working with Reason.
The ONLY other FX system I use is KarmaFX - Modular synth in FX / Auidio input mode where I can create custom modular processing patches very easily from scratch that process audio based on midi input.
Otherwise I'm hard pressed to find anything that can't be done and done well I might add within LIVE.

FaX-01 wrote: and can almost act like a waveshaper on Impulse or Simpler output if needs be also.
I haven't found a need for any others myself.
.

waveshaper...now wouldnt that make a good addition to the saturator


I agree here, in fact I'm a bit perplexed as to why an old timer here like nebulae would ask such a thing!? shame on you!

I think the saturator is awesome and have personally ditched all the plugs I used to use for the purpose - I particularly like getting the settings on a controller and setting it to sine and getting busy with the tweaking - can do some mad stuff - but that's not what you asked

I dont use PSP vintage, trash, amplitube, baxxpander etc etc whatever now that Saturator's there, it's da bomb

Lives saturator is good, no doubt about that, but the one i'm really fascinated with is NI's B4 II. you can use it as FX now and it has some absolutely amazing cabinets and tube warmer (distortion). i don't know if those were used in Guitar Rig as well (don't have it), but are very well worth checking them out.
i must add that this FX is cpu hungry. at least with L5.

w

WebSite! wrote:Lives saturator is good, no doubt about that, but the one i'm really fascinated with is NI's B4 II. you can use it as FX now and it has some absolutely amazing cabinets and tube warmer (distortion). i don't know if those were used in Guitar Rig as well (don't have it), but are very well worth checking them out.
i must add that this FX is cpu hungry. at least with L5.

w

aaahh! good point, I've not thought of doing that - I think I only have B4 1 (Komplete2) but I'll def give that a shot!

Nod wrote:

nebulae wrote:Is there a good plugin for tube and solid state saturation? I know Antares Tube is pretty good, but are there others that you can recommend? Also, please state if your recommendation is available for PC and/or Mac.

Are we talking full on distortion or subtle warmth?

If it's the latter, and on a PC, check out:

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

This looks interesting...I'll give it a shot. Thanks.

FYI, I'm not looking for distortion, I am looking for something that creates warmth like analog gear.

forge wrote:I agree here, in fact I'm a bit perplexed as to why an old timer here like nebulae would ask such a thing!? shame on you!

Aaah, nothing quite like a good kick in the nuts to really wake me up in the morning...I guess I deserved that one

The reason I'm asking is that I just watched a video at a friend's place about how to mix "like a pro" (whatever the hell that means) and one of the things mentioned was that in an entirely digital environment, what's missing is tube, tape, and solid state saturation. Basically, the distortion that was added to the very clean digital environment creates harmonics which are smooth and pleasing to the ear. I was just wondering if you guys (1) gave a shit, and (2) had any suggestions.

So I'm not really asking about hard distortion, for which there are many options, and Saturator is a great one. But would you use Saturator on EVERY mix in the master bus to emulate tube or solid state warmth? (BTW, by solid state, I mean that the sound emulates an analog mixing board.) How about tools like T-Racks that's supposed to have very analogish qualities? How about the Sonalksis compressor, which is supposed to be Neve-ish. PSP seems to have some nice options. Also, Voxengo has some good tools that have tube warming...thoughts on those?

In short, what plug would you put on the master bus to reduce the "cold digital harshness" of pure digital mixing? Again, I take these comments from a "mix like a pro" video with a large grain of salt.

nebulae wrote:

forge wrote:I agree here, in fact I'm a bit perplexed as to why an old timer here like nebulae would ask such a thing!? shame on you!

Aaah, nothing quite like a good kick in the nuts to really wake me up in the morning...I guess I deserved that one

The reason I'm asking is that I just watched a video at a friend's place about how to mix "like a pro" (whatever the hell that means) and one of the things mentioned was that in an entirely digital environment, what's missing is tube, tape, and solid state saturation. Basically, the distortion that was added to the very clean digital environment creates harmonics which are smooth and pleasing to the ear. I was just wondering if you guys (1) gave a shit, and (2) had any suggestions.

So I'm not really asking about hard distortion, for which there are many options, and Saturator is a great one. But would you use Saturator on EVERY mix in the master bus to emulate tube or solid state warmth? (BTW, by solid state, I mean that the sound emulates an analog mixing board.) How about tools like T-Racks that's supposed to have very analogish qualities? How about the Sonalksis compressor, which is supposed to be Neve-ish. PSP seems to have some nice options. Also, Voxengo has some good tools that have tube warming...thoughts on those?

In short, what plug would you put on the master bus to reduce the "cold digital harshness" of pure digital mixing? Again, I take these comments from a "mix like a pro" video with a large grain of salt.

me personally I dont, I'd be more likely to do it on a track by track basis and now only have L2 on the master

but seriously, play about with saturator! try some subtle settings in that context and you might be surprised, it's not all about the distortion at all

I tried PSP vintage warmer and totally went of it, never saw the good of t-racks, always sounded like shit to me, never been bowled over by Isotope Ozone either despite everyone going on about it

I really like the L2, it gets shit loads of gain really transparently - but that's not the analog warmth you're talking about

I do know what you mean, but I would do that to individual tracks more than on a master - but that's just me
what WebSite! said about using NI B4 as fx sounds like something worth checking out