This is one of my favorite topics. Saturation is such an incredibly important aspect in mixing, and yet it’s not very well understood by most. If you’re someone who mixes mostly ITB (“In the box” aka “in the computer”), saturation is a great secret weapon in creating warm, rich, 3D sounding mixes. Any big time mixer mixing mostly ITB definitely uses some form of saturation, and is probably very tight-lipped about his technique.
Basically, saturation helps get you a more analog and less sterile/digital sound. To achieve this feat, it adds a harmonic distortion and a few other fun things depending on what plug-in or summing box you use. I personally don’t like to use the word distortion because it used to confuse me about what saturation really is. When I think of distortion, I think of a ripping Marshall amp cranked full gain. But, when I refer to distorting the sound with saturation, don’t think of it like a distortion effect/pedal. The term distortion, when used to describe saturation essentially means “changing the sound.” Digital mixing has been known to leave the mix feeling slightly cold, sterile, thin, etc. What made analog mixes sound so great to us was the little imperfections that all this physical gear had. It all added up in a very pleasing way that made things sound warm, rich, more 3D and just all around bigger. Digital is a perfect representation of the sound source. Every time you play back a recording, it’s perfect and exactly the same. Think of it as a new pair of shoes – usually they need to be broken in a bit, molded slightly. That’s all saturation is really doing – just wearing in the sound to be a little more pleasing to the ear. Another example I always like to give is to imagine that digital is like a reality show. Notice the way reality shows are filmed: everything looks very real, very much like everyday life. Now, take a look at a huge Hollywood blockbuster movie. It has that better-than-real look – that beautiful dream like quality. Saturation produces the same effect for audio. It helps take the sounds out of boring ol’ real life, and gives it some better-than-real qualities.
Check out these saturation plugins. You should definitely own at least one when mixing in the box.
URS Saturation
Slate Digital Virtual Console (Coming Soon!)
DUY (Coming Soon!)
