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Are there any comprehensive guides on saturation or reel-to-reel tape warmth?

I've read a lot of people talking it up, how it helps blend sounds together etc., but I've no idea how to effectively use it. I've downloaded a couple of trial vsts to test out on a drum channel, but after aimlessly twiddling settings I can't really pinpoint what exactly impact it's having.

You could try this one:

http://audio.tutsplus.com/tutorials/pro ... fectively/

It's not too wordy, and there are audio examples. Helped me out a lot.

Well, as someone with a whole side project dedicated to bare audiphililidome, Ill try some pointers...

one, think like a tape op, even though your using plugins, imagine how theyd be utilized in a real world studio... So like, you said drums... In a real world hardware studio, you would be recording each of your individual drum hits to either a sampler or to tape to be cut, so start out by putting a small amount of saturation on to a few key bus's in your drum-area of the mixer, like, bus all your kicks together and saturate them, then bus all your snares together and saturate them, and all the hats... Then, in a real world hardware studio, you would sequence the recorded sounds and record the whole drum-track to a tape... so, bus all your little individual busses together, hats, snares, kicks, ect and saturate that group a bit... Now what youve done is essentially emulate the saturation tha twould occur getting each sample into a hardware sampler, and the saturation that would occur sequencing them to a reel to reel.

Two, dont just stop at tape saturation though, every stage of a hardware studio would color the sound a bit, and there are loads of amazing (and free) emulators for things like tube re-amping, electro-coil amping, colored compression, ect ect... Something as menial as lowering the gain to nonexistance and then reamping the signal with a coloring plugin can go far.

Three, dont be too heavy handed with the coloring unless you specifically want that sound. It can be very tempting to overdo saturation to the point it sounds like those old DMC cassettes you love, but trust, that doesnt fit well in overtly electronic sounding genres... Consider it a bit of tint to meld things up unless you are going for something creative.

Four analogue reverb emulation sounds shit. IMO.

Five start with good samples, and then worry about enhancing them...

I've been wondering about Saturation as well. Thanks basic A. I've only been putting a Saturator on and then turning up the drive by about 3.

eldoogle wrote:I've been wondering about Saturation as well. Thanks basic A. I've only been putting a Saturator on and then turning up the drive by about 3.

All about using saturation on individual instruments/bus's, all the little artifacts add up in the end to glue everything together well.

Sorry to hijack the thread but could anyone recommend me some good sounding saturation plugins?

I have recently been listening to music which was recorded on analogue tape through
large format consoles. Now I think the quality that I hear is not tape saturation but just... tape. (+ good analogue desk
and great instruments, engineering and musicians, a sum of parts.)

You have to agree with me... it does seem a little unlikely that a £50.00 plug in will replace those
aspects when slapped on a stereo bus? A couple of million pounds of equipment and engineers of such experience
and professionalism that they will make a mockery of some of todays DAW based mixes.
Single tracks and groups would be the way to go, in differing amounts and that means plenty of DSP.

I think the saturation thing is a little blown out of proportion, one thing I dislike is the "warm fuzz"
that is appearing on certain releases. A cheap blanket of fuzz which destroys nuance, detail, seperation and
transients, like B+Q budget DIY woodchip wallpaper being slapped on.This is not at all what good analogue sounds like IMO,
it is something else completely.

If you are at all interested in listening to a really good sounding bit of music recorded onto tape get in contact somehow.(it would help if you had Spotify, the Youtube version is worse sounding, but even then the same quality shines through) It's not everyone cup of tea musically and it is not dubstep (that is for sure!) but it does represent excellent sound quality in part due to high end analogue tape recorders, remember these machines cost £25,000.00 new.

Good luck in your pursuit of the analogue sounds.

I think there is a new Studer emulation by whatsitsface card jobby dsp thing.

safeandsound wrote:I think there is a new Studer emulation by whatsitsface card jobby dsp thing.

That is actually supposed so sound really really good.

URS's saturator is supposed to sound pretty good.

Ferric I think it was called was free. Can't vouch for the quality. Don't even know if it is free anymore.

I love using Camelcrusher, use the subtle master as a starting point and then tweak from there. Really helps thicken sounds up.

ToxicBass wrote:Sorry to hijack the thread but could anyone recommend me some good sounding saturation plugins?

As noways said, Ferric is free, as is the Tessla plugin... Oh, and the compressors Modern offers... very nice.

Basic A wrote:
As noways said, Ferric is free, as is the Tessla plugin... Oh, and the compressors Modern offers... very nice.

Will check them out, thanks.