Avoid This Saturation Mistake

Join the Sage Audio Membership here: www.sageaudio.com
If you’re new to Sage Audio, we’ve been providing industry-leading audio engineering services and education for over two decades and created this channel to help you make professional songs.

[@anything4280]

Implying that this matters is more than a stretch. And I don't think a saturator generates harmonics just from the fundamental frequency. I don't think saturators can even tell what the "fundamental" note of a given sound is. And I have never in my life managed to make a mix or (any sound really) sound out of tune by using a multiband saturator.

[@tnbeats5154]

The three-stage mixing tactic you gave at the end was pure gold, thank you!

[@axelezequiel97]

how is? can you resume ?

[@twitchyboneselectronica2375]

Using the softer 6db/octave slope on the band cutoffs also helps.

[@TROYVIXIOUS]

tuning saturators is crazy

[@cosignsessions3141]

Wavesfactory Spectre handles emphasis/de-emphasis within the plugin.

[@baileys6346]

Spectre is a fantastic parallel multi-band Saturator

[@mikelo303]

That was very intyeresting. Thank you!

[@negvey]

Glad you found this and pointed it out, thanks

[@dyonissiszoes3747]

Wow! Thanks 🙏

[@rafalvarezsevilla]

the emphasiz de emphasiz trick is an awesome idea!!

[@joelarmendariz8876]

Definitely a home run technique with this, the clarity at the end with the emphasis/de-emaphasis technique is great... great insight and video!!!

[@joshy909]

That's going to help my music no end. And full credit for your honesty.

[@ENDOFFEB]

Literally anytime I do any sort of frequency specific saturation I am picking individual pieces of consonants n letters within a phrase to accentuate n shine/crunch/drive etc. depending on what saturation characteristic i am trying to emphasize . Not necessarily transients because those vary but very specific points of words . i.e., the initial formation of the letter 'R' in the word 'rolling' or the backside of the letter f in 'muhfuckin'

[@KristohanongBisdakMusic]

Very informative. Thanks for this!

[@DorkAhoy]

Fantastic info!

[@lawinter1949]

I have been wanting a sidechain input and filter on a saturation plugin for a long time. I can’t believe this doesn’t exist yet.

[@Griuofficial]

Thanks for the video , I’ve never thought about this

[@DylanBretzJr]

Literally had my palm to my face at one point watching this… thanks for figuring this one out for us!

[@maciejkoslinski2923]

neverf thought of that. glad to have come by this video much love

[@Yohmss]

thank you very much, it's so true, and you just gave me the key, it's so obvious, why didn't I think of it sooner? Thank you

[@user-lg3kg5vf8i]

Spectra manual explained this also.. In which it uses the emphasis/ de-emphasis route ...

[@sparkplugrecs.official]

it would be amazing to see a "fundamental" mode alongside the linear mode or other modes that had these ideas incorporated into the function of where the bands "set" internally for uses like this. maybe an even/odd option or other types of harmonic modes on top of having the bands react to one fundamental across the plugin...

[@shawnsteven1869]

mannnnn at some point we have to get our own sound 😂 if there are no rules.. thank you for all the tips over the year

[@xrabbz2010]

Something I never really thought about, makes a lot of sense though!

[@whyyoumakethissohard]

Fantastic

[@cazalorganism7020]

Mind boggling realization you had. How exactly did you find this out?

[@reisaki18]

When using emphasis de-emphasis technique, it is better to input it in parallel.

[@JamesJones-th3ml]

This might explain some things for me too. I always hated how my voice sounds dry through a Digital DAW and a regular live PA. I never knew about Saturation until the last couple years. When I first added Saturn to my vocals, I got lucky apparently and it really sounded like my tone in vocals went up a few notches like everything everyway I was singing sounded like it was SUPPOSED TO! HAHAHA But the next few times I tried it, it never sounded the same. Good but it never gave me that wow effect. I used the multiband in a different spot. It was the highs. I wonder if I just put the split in the wrong spot! I'll look into that. Thanks for the info!

[@LBJedi]

Could you also put saturators in series? Like a full spectrum followed by one only saturating everything above a particular note.

[@moleex5759]

I realised it wasn't saturating the previous band, but i assumed they stacked from left to right. it all makes more sense now.

[@KebabTM]

The easier solution to this is use a separate saturator instance for each band so the next saturator sees the fundamentals from the previous one.

[@7traccs159]

The only thing you should know is that if it sounds good, do it

[@lewchootrain]

Do you know what the signal looks like when you use something like Little Radiator from Soundtoys?

[@1masterfader]

I wonder if you can use Torgue to shift certain harmonics to where you want them? This is deep. I can hear the results

[@micromando4669]

Would it make sense to saturate in parallel and insert an autotuning device?

[@kidsonicofficial]

This is really interesting.

[@You-ud2fp]

Just add scaler eq after sauration, you're welcome guys

[@TheKhoirentakBrothers]

Regard saturation i guess it works best with vocal and drums only i guess it doesnt go that well with instrument tracks tho but distortion works on bass.

[@iamcookbook]

would be interesting to use Scaler EQ before Saturn to bring up frequencies that are in key and then use Saturn to generate harmonics based on those frequencies

[@mr369beats]

Can I record through the preamp plugin.?

[@alessandrogarofalo8699]

Ciao SA, I think saturation generates harmonics over the full audio spectrum and not just from the lowest foundamental

[@SoundPeaks]

I like to think about saturators as something that makes a square wave of a sine wave.

[@KaraokePro0001]

Its means that the resonance are those notes wich are not in our Scale key I am right????

[@ewr34certxwertwer]

it is always best to avoid multiband processing on the master bus

[@vycashh]

I never liked the saturn. Now I know why.

[@marianlech3378]

So when i distort the whole mix and everything starts to scream, youre telling me its just the harmonics of the bass and the thump of the kick, really?

[@Luckyrrul]

Yes

[@ahmedabduallah3603]

How did you discoverd this ?

[@TCmadethis]

So u gotta tune my saturators now 😢

[@alphaoscillator]

we want soothe2 but with a scale menu, so the in-tune freqs wont be supressed !11!

[@XRaym]

Another solution: parallel processing, putting the dufferent saturations on fullbands, and using frequency splitting and joining after. EDIT: just tested, it sounds quite different in fact. Not sure it is in a expcted ways, the sounds is more compressed (the lower frequencies takes lots of space with saturation)

[@shaferproducergod]

So what I gather from this if instead of inserting this directly on the signal, instead send it to a bus and generate harmonica on the whole signal. Then use post eq to eq the harmonics into just the ranges you want the harmonics to exist. Blend this bus in with the original dry signal and you will have much more musical saturation (if that is what you are looking for)

[@Reggi_Sample]

In essence, use multiband saturators to saturate one band at a time eg the mids but not the highs and lows. Otherwise use full bandwidth

[@ManjyMusic]

still waiting for a video about sends.. reverbs..delay.. to have very clean smooth spaces =)

[@jobulog4545]

Dig that tune you’re using

[@amp4105]

Is there a saturation plugin that works with eq bands like soothe?

[@rawpoweraudio]

Wavesfactory Spectre. And it’s really good

[@alexmouthon6806]

Damnnnn amazing

[@phantom_him]

That's smart, but just checking: you mean one EQ instance, then the Saturn, then afterward another EQ with the opposite curve? Right? So an EQ either side of the saturator, right?

[@elijahlucian]

What did this mistake cost you?

[@djcrote76]

but less intermodulation distortion.

[@KYTHERAOfficial]

Spectre!

[@genesisnkaidence8519]

What initially thinking was ? How’d you not know that 😂..

[@josepe217]

Interesting for a single instrument, but for a whole mix I don’t know man. There are happening so many things at the same time that is very difficult to Saturn just saturate one pick from the spectrum. I would say that saturation on mastering stage is a decision purely esthetic, you know.. is about how sounds and feel.

[@larsthomasdenstad9082]

This is indeed interesting and not at all how I thought it worked. I personally use Spectre by Wavesfactory more than I use Saturn and I am curious if has the same issue. It makes sense that these problems occur if the multiband saturator creates a frequency window into the signal before doing saturation. However, saturating the whole signal first and then applying the windowing to the saturated signal would fix this issue, right? And my gut feeling is that that is what Spectre does, but I might be talking out of the wrong end here. Anyway, thanks a lot of the information.

[@anything4280]

"not at all how I thought it worked" - And you were right. A saturator does not distinguish between fundamental and non fundamental frequencies. That's not how a saturator works.

[@larsthomasdenstad9082]

​@@anything4280 I appreciate the response, are you saying the whole original video is wrong? Or did I say something stupid again?

[@anything4280]

@@larsthomasdenstad9082 Yup the video is wrong. What matters is which frequencies are the most dominant (in terms of amplitude). Whichever they are would be more emphasized by the saturation plugin. This is a pretty common technique that's used in guitar amps (which are essentially saturators). E.g if you boost around 200hz before a guitar amp, the resulting tone is going to be flabby and loose. If you cut around 200, it's going to be tight and percussive, etc. A saturation plugin (or a hardware unit) by itself does not and cannot distinguish between fundamental and non-fundamental frequencies. And I don't know any mixer who "tunes" saturation/distortion plugins. If your mixes sound shit, this is probably the last place you would look at.

[@viktorlarzev3528]

well that actually means a band saturation on master bus have nothing to do there! also with these "trick" with pool up and cut again, cause you don't want to add ew only for treagering s saturator. How it always was, good sounding track is made in mixing area!

[@Chamber_xo]

Ha I thought this also

[@user-hm2ub3ve1y]

omg

[@narantmuzik]

🤨🤔🤯

[@shinyisshiny7780]

lmao....

[@mineraljunction]

lmao what

[@user-xm6sd4iz7f]

Saturation is great, but I wouldn't listen to the music used in the video anyway, as it's already so loud that it sounds distorted. It's very clearly audible on the keyboards. Why is it that you sound engineers talk about sound clarity, yet you don't care about very loud distortion that is audible even on consumer devices? What's the purpose of this, to get a couple LUFS? But my ears hurt. You are the reason why many people find modern music hard to listen to.

[@farhanhosseini3881]

First comment.

[@Durkhead]

This channel must be blowing up. I clicked on don't show in my feed and it still showed up in my feed