
Sure, everyone sorta knows about saturation. But let's drill down, give some audio examples that really get the point across, and explain how saturation can help everything from individual tracks to master tapes. Really.
To be clear, we're not talking about the distortion that flat-tops a waveform. Fig. 1 shows a comparison of unsaturated, saturated, and distorted versions of the same waveform (using version 4.5's new smooth waveform view feature).
Figure 1: The gray waveform is unsaturated, the blue saturated, and the yellow distorted.
Comparing the three, in the section outlined in red, the saturated version is louder but the waveform isn't all that different from the unsaturated audio. The distorted waveform is louder than the saturated one, but the peaks are flattened. This is particularly noticeable with the negative-going peak highlighted in black. Flattening peaks produces the kind of nasty digital distortion no one really likes, but saturation is a different animal as the audio examples will show.
Before going any further, if you don't have the free Softube Saturation knob, go to your PreSonus account and download it from Products > Add-Ons (Fig. 2).
Figure 2: What are you waiting for? It's free.
It's a pretty basic module-turn the knob clockwise for more saturation (but I've never turned it up as high as shown in the picture!). Keep Low means it will apply more saturation to high frequencies, Keep High means more saturation for low frequencies, and Neutral means equal-opportunity saturation for all frequencies.
Saturation is great with drums, including mixed drums. You'll get more punch and level (Fig. 3) that helps drums stand out in a track, without any of the artifacts (like pumping or breathing) associated with some dynamics processors.
Figure 3: The waveform for the drums audio example. Unsaturated is blue, saturated is red.
Now listen to the audio example. The first four measures are the unsaturated version, the last four measures the saturated one. Note that both were normalized to the same peak value. Even though the waveforms don't look all that different, the saturated version really punches through-yet doesn't sound distorted. This same kind of approach can also work well for bass.
Now, let's move on to saturating a two-track master. This may sound like a bad idea, until you realize that tape emulation plug-ins are basically just adding saturation, although some do it with a bit more finesse than a simple saturation plug-in (e.g., the Waves J37 provides different virtual tape formulations and bias settings). Fig. 4 shows the audio example's waveform.
Figure 4: The two blue, four-measure groups are unsaturated; the two red, four-measure groups are saturated.
The audio example is excerpted/adapted from the song All Over Again (Every Day). I added a very slight pause between the unsaturated and saturated sections, although I'm quite sure you'll hear the difference anyway. (To hear the final, mastered song-which of course was done in Studio One-click on the link.)
For this kind of application, you don't want to apply too much saturation-a little bit goes a long way. As you turn up the knob you may think it's not really making a difference, but it is. Toggle bypass frequently for a reality check. Fig. 5 shows the settings used for the master tape example.
And there you have it-we've done our shoutout for saturation. If you've missed out on the fun, load it in a track, and listen to what happens. You just might like what you hear!
More from PreSonus
16/08/2024
By Craig Anderton
Keyswitch keys enhance expressiveness by letting you trigger various real-time articulations for instruments like strings, brass, guitars, an...
09/08/2024
By Craig Anderton
The Channel Editor places all of a mixer Channel's elements-level fader, inserts, sends, individual effects, input controls, routing, mac...
02/08/2024
By Craig Anderton
Yes, just click here to download 25 Analog Cab IRs.zip. The IRs are 1024 samples long, 48 kHz, 24-bit, and mono, so they work with pretty muc...
26/07/2024
By Craig Anderton
It's been a while since we've had a post for sound design fans. So, let's create some crazy FX for sci-fi/suspense/horror movies,...
24/07/2024
The Black Dahlia Murder guitarist and New Jersey native talks about taking his leap.
A life in music requires passion, creativity, dedication - and for many cr...
19/07/2024
By Craig Anderton
There's no right or wrong way to mix. For example, many successful engineers adjust individual tracks, and then mix groups of tracks....
12/07/2024
By Craig Anderton
I admit it: the following tips are based on personally embarrassing experiences. I like to work fast to keep the creative juices flowing, but...
05/07/2024
By Craig Anderton
You've probably seen ads for packs of MIDI chords that claim to help you write hits that will make your listeners' jaws drop in amaze...
28/06/2024
By Craig Anderton
Some of my favorite guitar sounds involve using Ampire's amp, bypassing its cab, and adding a cab from the Helix Native plugin. Others in...
26/06/2024
The self-taught multi-instrumentalist and St. Louis native talks about taking his leap.
A life in music requires passion, creativity, and dedication - and for ...
21/06/2024
By Craig Anderton
Sure, you can follow your virtual instrument with an audio compressor. But there's a problem: an instrument's dynamics and expressive...
20/06/2024
Watch the independent artist and Wiz Khalifa producer cook up a song in a single day
Imagine meeting someone for the first time and making a song together. Tha...
14/06/2024
By Craig Anderton
Announcement: The 2nd Edition of The Huge Book of Studio One Tips and Tricks is now available as a free download for owners of previous versi...
07/06/2024
By Craig Anderton
Usually, the Vocoder inserts into a track that provides the modulation, and the Vocoder's sidechain receives the carrier. But why be norm...
06/06/2024
The GRAMMY-winning fiddler, songwriter, and New Orleans native talks about taking his leap.
A life in music requires passion, creativity, dedication - and for ...
31/05/2024
By Craig Anderton
Let's get right to what this sounds like. It's not quite feedback or tape reverse, it's well, listen to what it does in this blue...
24/05/2024
By Craig Anderton
A Pro EQ3 stage's gain can respond dynamically to incoming signal level, so that louder inputs kick the gain higher (or lower). But Studi...
22/05/2024
If you're a PreSonus user, you're probably pretty hands-on in producing ...
17/05/2024
By Craig Anderton
When I heard about binaural beats, I was interested-I like beats, and I'm into binaural audio. But this has nothing to do with either o...
15/05/2024
Professional drummer, producer, and New Orleans native talks about taking the leap.
A life in music requires passion, creativity, and dedication - and for many...
08/05/2024
Take the Leap with the Next Generation of PreSonus Audio Interfaces
MEET THE ALL-NEW FAMILY OF QUANTUM AUDIO INTERFACES
The culmination of nearly 30 years of ...
08/05/2024
Take the Leap with the Next Generation of PreSonus Audio Interfaces
MEET THE ALL-NEW FAMILY OF QUANTUM AUDIO INTERFACES
The culmination of nearly 30 years of ...
03/05/2024
by Craig Anderton
About four years ago, I did a tip on multiband gating. Although it was a cool effect, it was guitar-centric, cumbersome to edit, and time-con...
26/04/2024
By Craig Anderton
With this technique, when you play a standard 6-string electric guitar, you'll hear the rich, vibrant sound of a 12-string guitar. The pr...
19/04/2024
By Craig Anderton
Impact XT can launch clips, which is great for songwriting (see the blog post Songwriting with Impact XT). But few people realize that Impact...
12/04/2024
By Craig Anderton
Good mixes often depend on carving out a unique sonic space for each instrument, so you can hear them clearly. Sometimes carving out that spa...
05/04/2024
By Craig Anderton
MIDI guitars are a niche product, because the learning curve can be daunting for some guitar players. However, I'm surprised how many pro...
29/03/2024
By Craig Anderton
As the universe of Studio One users grows, so do opportunities for collaboration. But your collaborator may not be using the same version of ...
22/03/2024
By Craig Anderton
Over three years ago, I wrote a blog post on how to make a drumcoder. Its design was somewhat like a vocoder-drum audio served as a modulat...
15/03/2024
By Craig Anderton
One of Atmos's coolest features is scalability. No matter how complex your Atmos project may be, you can render it as Binaural, 5.1, 5.1....
13/03/2024
Watch the Brooklyn Synthpop duo remix their song Blame in Studio One
Less than 24 hours after meeting each other, producer Luke Moellman and vocalist Jon San...
10/03/2024
By Craig Anderton
The impetus behind this design was wanting to add envelope flanging to amp sims like Ampire. But there's a problem: most amp sim outputs ...
01/03/2024
By Craig Anderton
Supplementing close-miking techniques with room mics gives acoustic sounds a life-like sense of space. Typically, this technique involves pla...
27/02/2024
Notion Mobile v3 took mobile music creation to the next level with support for iOS, Android, Windows, Fire OS and macOS. Now v3.3 adds many enhancements and fix...
26/02/2024
Logic's Grammy-nominated producer breaks down his Sweet Spot.
Before he found success as an avant-garde hip hop producer, 6ix was just 30 units shy of a de...
25/02/2024
The Grammy-nominated multi-Platinum producer breaks down his Sweet Spot.
From the studio with chart-topping artists like Aerosmith and The Fray, to empowering ...
23/02/2024
By Craig Anderton
Do you think of mixes in absolute terms, or relative terms? Knowing the difference, and when to apply which approach, can make a huge differe...
16/02/2024
By Craig Anderton
Calling all beats/hip-hop/EDM/hard rock fans: This novel effects starts with drums modulating the Vocoder's white noise carrier, and take...
09/02/2024
This tip is about working with stereo, NOT about Dolby Atmos or surround-but we're going to steal some of what Atmos does to reinvent stereo panning. Stud...
07/02/2024
The GRAMMY-winning recording and mix engineer shows us how he uses Studio One to create an artful immersive mix.
Jeff Ellis is a force to be reckoned with. The...
02/02/2024
Presence's sound library includes a fine acoustic 12-string guitar, but not an electric one. So, perhaps it's not surprising that one of the more popula...
26/01/2024
At first, this might not seem too exciting. But follow the directions below, and try comping using this method-I don't think you'll be disappointed. Thi...
19/01/2024
You know the feeling: You're tracking or doing an overdub with a virtual instrument or amp sim, but you're frustrated by the excessive latency inherent ...
12/01/2024
Recording audio using more than one feed from the same source may create phase issues. For example, when miking a bass amp and taking a DI (dry) input, the DI...
05/01/2024
If you haven't experimented yet with mid-side stereo miking, you'll be in for a treat when you do. Here's why:
Record background singers with gorge...
29/12/2023
This complements the tip Better Ducking for Voiceovers and Podcasts and the tip Why I Don't Use Compression Anymore. It applies the concept of voiceover duc...
22/12/2023
Engineers sometimes advocate using high-pass filters to clean up the low end and tighten the sound. Others believe that because of issues inherent in highpass...
20/12/2023
The GRAMMY-nominated artist, producer, and songwriter shows us how he uses Studio One to cook a musical idea from scratch.
Josh Cumbee is a triple threat: The ...
15/12/2023
This wasn't a conscious decision, or something I planned. But when I looked through my last few songs while seeking candidates for a book's screenshots,...
08/12/2023
First, a follow-up: In the October 13 tip about creating Track Presets for parallel processing, I mentioned that Track Presets can't include buses, which is...