#Tape Saturation Trial Techno Styles

And this post will introduce a few of them to you.In either case, and whether your budget is $0.00 or $200+, there’s something for everyone here. So one of your best bets is a tape emulation plugin. It allows you to control and shape dynamics, saturation and limiting of the signal.Or you want to take your analogue experiments up a notch while still keeping everything In The Box?Category: Free tape saturation plugin logic. FerricTDS is probably the most neutral of the bunch. They have TeslaPRO, NastyVCS and FerricTDS, all of which will add tape saturation to your mix in a different way.

Choosing one of the five lettered buttons engages a different saturation algorithm modelled after each of five pieces of classic gear. As with other Soundtoys plugins, it’s easy to set up several settings and demo them against each other with the “compare” knob.Beyond this, Decapitator also has a really cool “Style” selector feature. Recommended!Available for: Mac, PC | VST, VST3, AU, AAX, RTAS BUY NOW via Plugin Boutique.Excellent sound, great interface and simple controls. The latest update, Saturn 2, saw the interface get a welcome refresh and improved modulation visualisation, new subtle saturation and linear phase processing for mastering, and a range of additional distortion types in the processing Style menu.

It’s basically a very cool and unusual channel strip plugin in disguise!But what makes it so good for saturation duties is the degree of control you have to sculpt the processing to your preference. Even the delay Echoboy, with delay amount dialled back to zero, can make an extremely useful saturator, with its multitude of colouration types for quick and dirty processing and sound design.Available for: Mac, PC | VST, AU, AAX, RTAS BUY NOW via Plugin Boutique.Trash 2 can apply everything from extremely subtle tape-style saturation to the heaviest tube amp and digital crunch, fuzz and general destruction!As I mentioned in our recent Sound Design series article on Distortion, Trash 2 is extraordinarily versatile, featuring a series of switchable filters, multi-band dynamics, waveshapers, LFOs, envelopes, and even delay alongside the distortion algorithm sections. Between the Style selection and the simple Mix, Drive and EQ/Tone knob controls, you have just the right number of options to quickly find the vibe you’re after without getting bogged down.From the name you might suspect Decapitator to want to tear your head off with distortion the whole time — and it can indeed easily do this, with the Punish button! — but when you’re after more subtlety, it’s amazingly good at just sitting quietly too and adding that warm analogue vibe to any part or track.If you get Decapitator as part of the Soundtoys 5 Bundle (which I definitely recommend, as featured in our Best Bundles roundup), you’ll also get other plugins that can provide a number of alternative saturation colours with the likes of Devil-Loc Deluxe (great on drums!) and the tube amp-modelling Radiator.

Softube offer something for everyone when it comes to saturation, starting with the Saturation Knob — which is free! Simple and light enough to use on many channels throughout a full production.Like Decapitator above, it also features five different distortion models to choose from, but unlike that plugin Harmonics covers a broader (and less model-specific) range of saturation source types: Solid State, Transformer, Master, Tube and Modern.Available for: Mac, PC | VST, VST3, AU, AAX BUY NOW via Plugin Boutique.Another fantastic all-rounder for your saturation needs, SDRR centers around its four modes: Tube, Digi, Fuzz and Desk. Softube Saturation Knob, Harmonics and TapeI couldn’t decide between these so decided to just include all three under one listing. Couple this with the algorithm menu and the ability to treat any of 4 user-defined frequency bands independently, and you have everything you need to add warmth and punch in any sound design or mixing scenario.4.

Tape Saturation Trial Techno Styles

In the regular Studio mode, you can assign each instance of Satin to one of the eight groups, with each group behaving like a multitrack tape, ‘remote-controlled’ from any instance in that group — great for real-world applications when you want to apply tape saturation across multiple tracks in a full mix/project setting, which is often the case.You also have Delay and Flange modes, making Satin a multi-effect plugin with authentic tape delay and tape flanging effects!Something a little different from the typical tape and tube-modelling saturation plugins, the Sonnox Inflator is — even after many, many years! — something of a secret weapon, and still particularly popular amongst media and film composers who are often processing strings and orchestral elements, largely acoustic mixes and other things where the typical compression and saturation tools and settings might produce unwanted pumping and other unwanted colouring.When you want the power, warmth and modern presence that is typically associated with “saturation” but you also want to maintain a relative transparency in the processing, check out the Inflator.I won’t pretend to know how it actually works its magic, but the sonic usefulness of the Inflator has definitely outlived its original, distinctly Windows 95-style interface…Available for: Mac, PC | VST, AU, AAX, RTAS, UAD DSP BUY NOW via Plugin Boutique.The HG-2 was already a highly coveted analogue hardware unit before it’s makers, Black Box Analog Design, partnered up with Brainworx to do the painstaking software modelling for the also-highly-regarded plugin version.Typically used on the overall mix buss, the HG-2 adds a magical mixture of loudness, parallel tube saturation and highly controllable harmonics, the latter controlled with dedicated Pentode and Triode dials.Available for: Mac, PC | VST, VST3, AU, AAX BUY NOW via Plugin Alliance. Recommended, especially for electronic/techno producers and anyone who processes a lot of synth sounds.Also definitely check out two other D16 plugins for alternate flavours of distortion-type processing: Decimort 2 is my personal favourite for bit-crushing, and the multiband distortion unit Devastator 2 is particularly good for harder and industrial techno styles, amongst other uses.Available for: Mac, PC | VST, AU, AAX BUY NOW via Plugin Boutique.As well as being extremely fast and simple to operate — you can basically get away with only touching the Input and Output dials while watching the nice VU meter 90% of the time — Satin is certainly up there with the very best-sounding tape emulation plugins.Of course you can get under the hood when you want to, opening up the Service tab and messing with the finer parameters to your hearts content, from the amount of hiss and wow & flutter to setting a tape EQ “Bump” and changing the specific tape type and speed.Satin also has some other cool tricks up its sleeve. The Pre Filter and Preamp sections, together with the knobby 4-band parametric EQ, mean you have a deceptively huge amount of control to shape the overall tone and select the frequency points at which the saturation starts to break up the signal when driven harder.And all without any flashy animated visual displays! Which is not to say the GUI isn’t great — in fact the skeuomorphic controls and hardware unit-style brushed metal faceplate are actually very inspiring for diving in and tweaking out parameters while keeping your attention fixed firmly on the sound. Plus, its the thoughtful details, and things like the clear controls and easy size, quality and calibration options that all add up to make SDRR a pleasure to use.Also check out Klanghelm’s free IVGI saturation & distortion plugin, for a streamlined but excellent taste of what SDRR offers.Available for: Mac, PC | VST, VST3, AU, AAX BUY NOW via Klanghelm.Redopter models hot-rodded vintage vacuum tube guitar amplifiers to impart that distinctive creamy, growly tube saturation to your sounds, which is quite different from some of the tape saturation plugins we’ve looked at so far.

Free Tape Saturation