In this four-part series of free video tutorials, brought to you with the support of Waves, we talk saturation plug-ins, which countless engineers find incredibly useful for making tracks and mix buses sound edgier and more sonically distinctive.
The digital audio age gave us the means to track and mix very clean audio, but at times things can be just too clinical. Luckily there are countless saturation plug-ins we can now use to instil a sense of analog vibe in our mixes and we are going to look at four of these in this article.
That said, we are going to steer clear of tape and console themed plug-ins as we want to focus solely on saturation plug-ins that can provide subtle warming effects through to extreme distortion.
We’re going to run through this plug-ins in order of complexity, starting with the simplest of the bunch…
1. Waves OneKnob Driver
OneKnob Driver is as easy to use as a water pistol, point and squirt. The main dial gives the impression that the higher the value the more distortion you’ll get. While this in part is true, you’ll notice the tone of the distortion change as well throughout the range.
Waves describe OneKnob Driver as a distortion plug-in inspired from guitar pedals. This can be a very creative tool that can easily provide a range of gritty possibilities, especially if the main dial is automated.
2. Waves Manny Marroquin Distortion
Manny Marroquin Distortion neatly combines three processors to make up a very capable saturation plug-in. A compressor firstly runs into a simple EQ module then into the drive section. Dialling in the drive isn’t as intuitive as you would first think in Manny Marroquin’s Distortion. The main drive dial sets the amount of signal sent to the distortion. The distortion level fader controls the level of the signal post drive.
It’s important to note that raising the distortion level won’t dial in more distortion instead it increases the level of the distorted signal, just like adjusting the level of an effects return. Finally, the output is the sum of the direct level and distortion level.
3. Waves Berzerk
Berzerk provides plenty of different saturation characteristics, along with EQ, compression and a cool filter section that can instil a sense of synthesis into your tracks.
Of course, subtle warming effects can be easily dialled in if your tracks need a little fire lit underneath them, however, this plug-in’s credentials lay in its ability to creatively overdrive audio well beyond the subtle.
4. Waves Butch Vig Vocals
In this final part of this article, we take a look at Butch Vig Vocals. Never mind the vocals bit, this is a very capable channel strip plug-in with serious saturation credentials.
At the bottom right of the plug-in are two saturation controls, one for dialling in warm analog-style tube tones, the other for solid-state saturation. What’s nice is that these can be blended together in the chain while incorporating the other EQ and dynamics controls making this a one-stop-shop for tone shaping.
Butch Vig’s Vocals is by far the most complex of the four plug-ins we’ve looked at, not because of it’s processing but because of its UI design… Even after several years of mixing with this I still struggle to get my head around the design.
What Do You Think?
There you have it, four different saturation plug-ins you can try for yourself the next time you mix a song that you feel needs some extra edge. Out of these videos, which of the plug-ins did you prefer the sound of the most?
Do you already use any of these plugins? If so please share how you use them in the comments below.
Visit Waves more information on the plug-ins used in this article.