GSatPlus is better than most saturation plugin

[bitflipper]

Well. I am embarrassed to be on the wrong side of Andrew Scheps. Can't argue with an Album of the Year Grammy, which presumably used digital saturation.

But I'd counter with the observation that just because Andrew Scheps can make something sound good doesn't mean that you or I will produce comparable results.  I'd challenge anyone who routinely uses saturation to try taking it off a completed mix and  do a blind A/B between the clean and distorted versions. See which one you like better, or if you can even discern a difference.

[tom]

6 minutes ago, bitflipper said:

Well. I am embarrassed to be on the wrong side of Andrew Scheps. Can't argue with an Album of the Year Grammy, which presumably used digital saturation.

But I'd counter with the observation that just because Andrew Scheps can make something sound good doesn't mean that you or I will produce comparable results.  I'd challenge anyone who routinely uses saturation to try taking it off a completed mix and  do a blind A/B between the clean and distorted versions. See which one you like better, or if you can even discern a difference.

I mean 99% of the time I prefer the mix with saturation on. It will make a mix cohesive and glued, that’s why we  do it, no? Distortion is something else but a gentle saturation to tame peaks on tracks and then on the 2 bus make my mixes sound polished. I mean compressors saturate too so it will be tough to do a mix without any saturation unless clean EQs and Comps throughout, but then where’s the fun in that ?

[smallstonefan]

Double post

Edited December 19, 2022 by smallstonefan

[smallstonefan]

For clarity he wasn’t referring to saturation on the mix bus but on individual tracks. I’m visiting my folks in Florida at the moment but when I’m back home I’ll find the notes I have and share them. As Bit said - no guarantee you can pull off what he does but I’ll share what I learned. 
 

edit : I was able to access my notes remotely. I forgot how much gold is in there!

Here is what I had on saturation:

 

Q: When do you use Saturation/distortion?

“Always reach for a saturator” if something doesn’t sound like I can hear it well. Reach for it BEFORE he goes to EQ or compression. Goes for the Omni channel for it right away. 

…and just so you don’t think he is pumping his plug-in I had this note as well:

Says his limiter in his plugin sucks. Lol Had to have zero latency to be used live, so no look ahead.

some other tidbits:

He said EVERYONE falls for adjusting knobs and thinking they are doing something when the effect is not engaged!

Heavy setting on his channel strip is based on “Lo Fi” which he really loves. Decapitator is amazing but he never could tweak it to his liking. Saturn is good. Tape emus and Pheonix. “These all fill in the harmonic spectrum”. 

He has a Drums Dirt bus that is parallel distortion (used Trash 2 and never used that for anything before or since)

Your brain is a “Predictive Engine that Runs on Sandwiches”

 

 

 

Edited December 19, 2022 by smallstonefan