Softube make some of the best plugs around. No Joke. Being able to grab this Saturation Knob for free should be taken advantage of immediately!
Get the Saturation Knob --SFT/SatKnob
If you have never downloaded anything from Softube or Slate Digital there isa bit of a process to get the knob, but it is well worth it.
The three modes, Keep High, Neutral and Keep Low give you three kinds of characters of distortion. If you want to squash a drum loop but keep the bass drum fairly intact, you can for example use the Keep Low mode.
“My response when they told me the Saturation Knob is a free plug-in was—are you nuts? Seriously? It’s too good to be free! I use it to make guitars fatter and more aggressive, snares naturally brighter, kicks punchier, vocals warmer. Basically, it’s good on just about anything. Saturation Knob should be renamed Attitude Adjuster! If a plugin can be addicting, the Saturation Knob is it!”
– Michael Brauer, Seven Grammy awards, Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Coldplay
How can I get it?
Saturation Knob is available for free! Simply sign in to your Softube/Gobbler account and click the ‘Get Your Free License’ button at the top of this page.
Then go to [their] Download page and install the Gobbler App, which is used to install [their] software. Sign in to the app using your Softube/Gobbler account and click the ‘Install’ button next to the Saturation Knob to install it. This will make it ready for use in your DAW.
Propellerheads Reason users can get it from the Propellerheads store: shop.propellerheads.se/product/softube-saturation-knob
Despite the advancing years, vintage sounds will be forever carved into the music industry. Most of the very top records produced in prestigious studios are created using vintage equipment originating from the 80’s or before. This aged gear is renowned for making music sweeter, warmer and more authentic or lively with additional depth. In the digital world, where most of us do our work on DAWs, this authenticity is missing. Fortunately, there are so many options available to really warm up overly clean and clinical sounding recordings using vintage emulation plug-ins.
Softube Saturation Knob
Saturation knob by Softube is a nifty little plugin that can saturate your audio authentically. It’s free and is pretty much as simple as it gets. There’s just one knob to control the level of saturation and then just one switch. This allows you to apply saturation to more of the higher frequencies or more of the lower ones, which neutral in between. There’s enough control to apply this to any number of sources for a pleasant output distortion that fattens bass or adds grit to treble. By excluding bass from the processing, you can affect a drum loop whilst leaving the kick as it is, for example. The Saturation Knob can be used when mixing guitars to get a killer lo-fi grit also. It’s great for all types of instruments and can be pushed gently or hard!
Waves J37
Saturation Knob Torrent
The J37’s Abbey Road related reputation precedes it and this plugin by waves does all the business when it comes to tape saturation and vintage emulation. There are tons of controls to help you really build your track into a more authentic and warm recording. All tape controls are there: speed, noise, saturation, bias, wow and flutter. You can tweak this plugin for serious distortion, creative effects or subtle warm sweetening. It also has 3 different tape formulas with their own unique sonic signatures. The formula’s unique frequency responses come with their own harmonic behaviours, and Waves also added a tape delay module to boot. J37 works well on individual tracks, busses or the whole mix and has tons of useful presets. When combined with amp modellers, you can get quality vintage sounds from guitars. The only thing you have to watch for is CPU usage, it’s pretty thirsty!
Waves NLS – Non-linear Summer
This plugin faithfully and meticulously recreated 3 legendary mixing consoles so you can apply their complex effects to your session. The consoles in question are the EMI 12345 mk4 console, a custom Neve 5116 and an SSL 4000g. The top mixing engineer owners who lent the consoles to Waves vouch for the plugins every function. The plugin has two parts, a plugin you place on each of your channels to emulate the consoles channel function and a summing unit. The summing unit sums every channel you’ve used the NLS on together for global control. The NLS is spectacularly well done and has plenty of flexibility for turning your tunes into something sweeter and warmer, it’s vintage emulation at its best.
PSP Vintage Warmer
This digital simulation of analog warmth really is authentic and genuine. It’s a single or multiband compressor/limiter use means you can achieve anything from soft knee compression or brick-wall limiting with analog warmth squeezed into the signal. Ideal for mixing, this plug-in can provide an extra ‘something’ to groups or your entire mix. The Vintage Warmer’s analog characteristics include an overload processor which creates effects similar to tape recorders. Many bank on this plugin to liven up an overly clean and transparent digital sound. It can be used sparingly, or to apply serious analog-style fattening to tracks.
Vinyl Emulation
The final thing on the list for many is getting a vinyl-esque sound. Kenny rogers albums list. Vinyl player’s crackle, their warmth and their character really liven up a song. There’s nothing like sticking a record on a turntable. Some decide to just layer a vinyl crackle under their song but this really isn’t the best way! There are many vinyl plugins ranging from free ones like Izotope’s Vinyl plugin to Wave’s Abbey Road Vinyl. The Abbey Road Vinyl plugin emulates everything in the vinyl production and playback process. It has plenty of flexible options – there are two different turntable types and an EMI TG12410 console which you can place in the chain for extra analog warmth and saturation. Izotope’s free vinyl plugin basically ages your records in a few seconds. It adds essential light scratchy sounds, crackles and other analog quirks which can bring tracks alive in the digital world.
Experiment with Vintage Emulation
Finding that analog sound is tricky and experimentation is key. Most music, regardless of what genre, could benefit from some authentic saturation, warmth or other vintage processing, though. As well as providing the sonic glue that really gels your mix, vintage processing can add quirks to your sound which will help it sound more professional and refined, a bit like a fine glass of vintage wine!
Previous4 Tips for Achieving a Wonderfully Warm MixHere’s a roundup of some of the best saturation & distortion VST you can get.
Izotope Trash 2.$99.
Trash 2 by Izotope combines multi-band, dual-stage distortions and advanced post-filtering for extreme sonic transformation.
Ohmnicide. $117.
Ohmnicide is multi-band distortion on whole other level. It has recently received an interface upgrade and new live performance-oriented features, which opens up a ton of possibilities!
Fabfilter Saturn . $154.
It doesn’t matter if you need warm tape saturation or mad multiband guitar amp effects. This one does it all in a neat, clean user interface.
Virtual Tape Machines.$149.
Probably the best tape machine emulation that you can get. Send something through this plugin and it gets fatter, warmer, richer and more exciting. It’s beauty of recording onto a piece of magnetic tape all within your computer.
RC-20 Retro Color. $80.
We’ve recently reviewed the RC-20 Retro Color and love it as a creative effect plugin that adds life and texture to your recording. Not as focussed on realistic, nuanced emulation, this one let’s you get more creative and is much more than just a saturation VST.
Looking for a free Saturation & Distortion VST? Read on…
Softube Saturation Knob. Free.
If you need to impart a bit of warmth to your tracks, you should immediately avail yourself of Softube’s wicked Saturation Knob. Ridiculously simple, this one does just what you’d think: it adds a modicum of saturation to any incoming signal.
Audio Damage FuzzPlus3. Free.
Feeling dirty? If so, you’re going to love FuzzPlus3 from Audio Damage. This delivers filtered filth of the first order. You can never have too many quality distortion plugins, so it’s a shame that Audio Damage discontinued the equally awesome Defacer Distortion Plugin… Maybe you can find another download link somewhere. FuzzPlus 3 is a great free option to really destroy your audio and add some unique flavour to your tracks.
Tritik Krush. Free.
Looking for something extreme? We’ve previously covered our affection for Krush, one of the best free bit crusher plugins around. If offers three simple controls for distortion – Drive, Crush & Downsample. The included low-pass and high-pass filter is a great for handling unwanted frequencies after you crank up the distortion. Especially in electronic music you will want this plugin in your arsenal!
MeldaProduction MbitFun. Free.
MeldaProduction MbitFun is a serious tool for extreme distortion lovers. It converts the audio into limited fixed-point precision form, from a 1 single bit up to 16 bits per sample, and lets you access each bit, applying several operations.
Greed Smasher. Free.
The Greed Smasher is a stompbox type plugin which emulates the Mesa/Boogie Grid Slammer overdrive. It offers the common Gain, Tone, and Level controls found on most stompboxes and is a great ITB option for an overdrive pedal.
Filtergrizzly 2. Free.
Finally, after some years in the dark the all-new FilterGrizzly 2 is available as free filter VST plugin! Rich on character and warmth, the completely overworked filter module is loaded with a tube-based filter drive unit for saturation, followed by an analog modelled 4-pole lowpass and 2-pole highpass filter with a passive controlled feedback circuit! All samples in the demo are taken from the SOR Minimal Techno Revolution Vol.3 sample pack!
If you have any suggestions to include in our list of best saturation & distortion VST, then let us know please!