Why should you be using saturation in your mixes?Īs already stated, saturation will take your music from sounding in the “digital” realm to sounding warm, analogue, with added depth and character. (Notice the example wave with saturation is fuller and fatter without peaking any higher).
![softube harmonics vs fabfilter saturn softube harmonics vs fabfilter saturn](https://www.sageaudio.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Screen-Shot-2021-03-11-at-11.22.14-AM-1024x493.png)
On the left-half is the signal with no saturation applied, and on the right is with saturation:
![softube harmonics vs fabfilter saturn softube harmonics vs fabfilter saturn](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/JKiCYsN1-ns/sddefault.jpg)
I like to think of it like the saturation control on a television it makes the colours more intense and vivid, right? Saturation plugins do the audio equivalent. Saturation simply enhances the frequencies that are already in a sound. There are different types of saturation – and they all have their own character – but the premise is the same. In the audio plugin world, saturation involves emulating the audio being driven through analogue hardware equipment, adding harmonic distortion.
![softube harmonics vs fabfilter saturn softube harmonics vs fabfilter saturn](https://i.imgur.com/GifsQSG.png)
#SOFTUBE HARMONICS VS FABFILTER SATURN PROFESSIONAL#
Well, not to put too fine a point on it: It can mean the difference between your music sounding like it was created at home on a laptop, or sounding like it was created in an expensive, professional studio. Of course, the distorted sound of electric guitars is known to us all, but what about using saturation and distortion (being two heads of the same beast) in a more subtle way? What does it do in the mixing process?
#SOFTUBE HARMONICS VS FABFILTER SATURN FREE#
There are some incredible free plugins out there on the market, and I’ll share them with you later in this post. Saturation really is an integral part of the process when it comes to creating amazing-sounding mixes, and it doesn’t even have to cost you anything. Saturation is one of the most misunderstood and underused plugins in mixing – it adds warmth, punch and depth to your mix, and can give it a high quality, “expensive”- sounding sheen.Īt some point in the music production journey, EVERY successful producer and engineer I know has at some point stumbled across the revelation of saturation and distortion.