Best saturation available in Reason?

[kooshan]

I’ve decided to make a multiband saturation combinator patch , I prefer to use only reason racks and not vsts. So which one is better? Thor saturation - malstrom - softube or ….?
Thanks

[crimsonwarlock]

I did something like that: viewtopic.php?f=69&t=7525742

I used Mr Overdrive (it's a free RE), so my combinator is a three-band overdrive, but it can do very subtle saturation as well.

[Loque]

Difficult question. Pulverizer always sounds good out of the box. Scream4 needs careful tweaking of the Damage control. Thor's Sin Shaper has its place. I like the Tube in The Echo, but its probably based on Scream4...There are tons of distortions and stuff in Reason alone. Ryan made a video about a lot of them.

Check this out
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7526951&hilit=The+e ... ow+existed

And then, EQing and Gain has a massive impact on the overall sound. I guess, you try something and create a nice sound to fit a specific need.

[kooshan]

Thanks
I find the ones in Thor’s shaper very capable and subtle sounding if used minimum amount . Anyone interested?

[TritoneAddiction]

I think kHs Distortion is underrated. It's great for both very subtle saturation and more distorted sounds. It's very quick and easy to use. Unlike some other distortion/saturation devices there are no audible weird phase issues with the dry/wet knob.

And it's free.

https://www.reasonstudios.com/shop/rack ... istortion/

[BRIGGS]

If you want 4x oversampling, try the shaper in complex-1.

[Mattvank]

If you want 4x oversampling, try the shaper in complex-1.

Wow! That sounds really good.

[Jackjackdaw]

I mentioned this is another thread just the other day, but PSP vintage warmer is far and away the best saturation device I have ever come across. The closest thing to it in Reason is probably Pulveriser, which I also love but is much more of a blunt instrument.

[Mataya]

As always with such questions, you'll get all of them mentioned and recommended at some point. Try them all and decide for your self. Want tube, tape, solid, transformer...?

M

[Jackjackdaw]

As always with such questions, you'll get all of them mentioned and recommended at some point. Try them all and decide for your self. Want tube, tape, solid, transformer...?

M

Totally true, so many different flavours out there. I like it when the device lets you control the compression as well as the drive. The ideal device for me squashes, heats up and drives the audio to taste. Arturia comp vca 65 is another good one. ( I know op wanted Re’s , lol)

[Mataya]

I often reach for compressors input when I want to saturate. In lot's of cases they get that part right and the result is pleasing and you still have a compressor for level control if needed.
Prefer tube sat in most cases. Tape is not that ballsy for my taste.

M

[Art.Allisone]

Audiomatic Retro Transformer shouldn't be forgotten either I believe...there are many great devices to achieve saturation...I suppose, the answer is as always...it depends...

[wendylou]

Selig ColoringEQ has nice saturation features.

[dvdrtldg]

If you want 4x oversampling, try the shaper in complex-1.

Wow! That sounds really good.

Complex-1's Function module is also a great crazy distortion generator iirc (don't own it, trialled it a while back)

[BRIGGS]

Complex-1's Function module is also a great crazy distortion generator iirc (don't own it, trialled it a while back)

Thanks, I need to try that now!

[turn2on]

Try Phatsat Saturation FX RE:
https://www.reasonstudios.com/shop/rack ... ration-fx/

[bitley]

You guys are too modern I have a bunch of REs but I always forget about using them when in production mode lol. So my goto tool is Scream really, I use it heavily on lots of stuff. Mostly the Tape setting. But that orange module is great too, long time ago since I used it, don't remember its name right now. The one with icons you know like VHS etc. Great stuff. Also the master saturator at the top right is awesome as well. And then I take my tracks to Logic for finalizing / and then I take them to Spotify and Youtube etc. Better storing them for public views than in the digital drawer I guess

[Josdams]

A friend of mine recommended me Decapitator vst as the best saturation plugin. I haven't try it yet but at 200 euro I guess it must be very good. Maybe I'll give it a shot one of these days

[BRIGGS]

Ruina is nice at lower settings.

[MrFigg]

You guys are too modern I have a bunch of REs but I always forget about using them when in production mode lol. So my goto tool is Scream really, I use it heavily on lots of stuff. Mostly the Tape setting. But that orange module is great too, long time ago since I used it, don't remember its name right now. The one with icons you know like VHS etc. Great stuff. Also the master saturator at the top right is awesome as well. And then I take my tracks to Logic for finalizing / and then I take them to Spotify and Youtube etc. Better storing them for public views than in the digital drawer I guess

Aaaa...there you are. I mentioned your name on a forum only yesterday (praise for WBF) and then suddenly as if from nowhere here you are. Speak of the devil and he's sure to appear .

[bitley]

Oh I didn't know I've been snooping around.

Thank you very much for reminding people of my work, most kind of you! May I ask where it was?

[selig]

Complex-1's Function module is also a great crazy distortion generator iirc (don't own it, trialled it a while back)

Thanks, I need to try that now!

Me too - I DID, and it's quite nice. I'm building a combinator with two Complex-1s for stereo saturation, and playing with a very interesting idea along the way that works with any saturator. You use two identical EQs, one pre and the other post saturation. In the Combinator programmer you assign one knob to both EQ gain controls for any band (try a midrange band for starters). The 'catch' is one EQ gain is inverted from the other, such that they are applying equal boost and cut. If you bypass the saturation you won't/shouldn't hear any difference with any boost or cut because the opposite curve is applied as well. But when you add a non-linear processor such as saturation or compression between the two is where the 'magic' begins.

It's difficult to explain exactly what happens when you do that, but I'm adding a low, mid, and high band control for this Combinator because they are all equally useful for different things. The basic idea is that if you boost pre and cut post, it's more distorted at that frequency but actually more subtle than the other way around. Conversely if you cut pre and boost post, it's more exaggerated, and the frequency being boosted is LESS distorted than the rest.

It's also cool to just boost/cut pre/post and hear what that does, but this pre/post EQ effect is inspiring me to investigate further - would be interested to hear if others have tried this or similar 'add ons' to generic saturation?

Also, the different algorithms in Complex-1's shaper have useful possibilities as saturation/distortion effects.
Final note, I needed 2 samples delay on the "dry" path for my dry/wet 'blend' control due to processing delays going through Complex-1. I'm not 100% sure that is the exact setting since it still wasn't a 100% null even bypassing the Shaper section completely inside Complex-1 and simply routing input to the Output Mixer. Will report back if I find anything else interesting about this setup…

[crimsonwarlock]

You use two identical EQs, one pre and the other post saturation. In the Combinator programmer you assign one knob to both EQ gain controls for any band (try a midrange band for starters). The 'catch' is one EQ gain is inverted from the other, such that they are applying equal boost and cut. If you bypass the saturation you won't/shouldn't hear any difference with any boost or cut because the opposite curve is applied as well. But when you add a non-linear processor such as saturation or compression between the two is where the 'magic' begins.

[BRIGGS]

Me too - I DID, and it's quite nice. I'm building a combinator with two Complex-1s for stereo saturation, and playing with a very interesting idea along the way that works with any saturator. You use two identical EQs, one pre and the other post saturation. In the Combinator programmer you assign one knob to both EQ gain controls for any band (try a midrange band for starters). The 'catch' is one EQ gain is inverted from the other, such that they are applying equal boost and cut. If you bypass the saturation you won't/shouldn't hear any difference with any boost or cut because the opposite curve is applied as well. But when you add a non-linear processor such as saturation or compression between the two is where the 'magic' begins.

It's difficult to explain exactly what happens when you do that, but I'm adding a low, mid, and high band control for this Combinator because they are all equally useful for different things. The basic idea is that if you boost pre and cut post, it's more distorted at that frequency but actually more subtle than the other way around. Conversely if you cut pre and boost post, it's more exaggerated, and the frequency being boosted is LESS distorted than the rest.

It's also cool to just boost/cut pre/post and hear what that does, but this pre/post EQ effect is inspiring me to investigate further - would be interested to hear if others have tried this or similar 'add ons' to generic saturation?

Also, the different algorithms in Complex-1's shaper have useful possibilities as saturation/distortion effects.
Final note, I needed 2 samples delay on the "dry" path for my dry/wet 'blend' control due to processing delays going through Complex-1. I'm not 100% sure that is the exact setting since it still wasn't a 100% null even bypassing the Shaper section completely inside Complex-1 and simply routing input to the Output Mixer. Will report back if I find anything else interesting about this setup…

Sorry, I couldn't find the 'like' function.

[selig]

You use two identical EQs, one pre and the other post saturation. In the Combinator programmer you assign one knob to both EQ gain controls for any band (try a midrange band for starters). The 'catch' is one EQ gain is inverted from the other, such that they are applying equal boost and cut. If you bypass the saturation you won't/shouldn't hear any difference with any boost or cut because the opposite curve is applied as well. But when you add a non-linear processor such as saturation or compression between the two is where the 'magic' begins.

Wow, that's a "different" way of doing it (the Reaper way), was SO much quicker in a Combinator IMO. Plus he didn't show the coolest part where you flip the polarity of the saturated signal and blend it with the dry. Is it difficult to build that sort of thing (parallel processing with dry/wet control) in Reaper and save it with the EQ/Saturation setup? Glad to see he also covered using compression between the EQs. While this is an ancient technique, I've only been able to do it real time starting with the introduction of the Combinator, which makes the technique far more useful IMO.

While both approaches have their pros/cons, I still find myself leaning towards the Reason/Combinator approach for building these sorts of devices.