Saturation & Distortion
Acustica Audio Taupe
There are lots of tape emulation plug‑ins and many of them do something useful. Some of them probably even sound like tape. But there’s a subtlety, depth and complexity to the sound of Taupe that I have never heard in another plug‑in. It can shape timbre, mix balance and dynamics in ways that help bind a mix together, but it never sounds like straightforward EQ or compression. Sam Inglis
€249.€249 (about $299).
Audiothing Reels
Whether you want warbly lo‑fi delay or to limit the bandwidth of a track, this emulation of bad and broken budget reel‑to‑reels from Audiothing is just the ticket. Great for putting backing vocals in a strange space or grunging up guitars, I often have many instances in one project. JG Harding
€59. Discounted to €38.35 when going to press.$59.
Avid SansAmp PSA‑1
Possibly my favourite processor on DI’d bass, this emulation of the classic hardware guitar preamp has a huge range of tonal and distortion options. I’ve also found uses for it on all sorts of sources it wasn’t designed for, including drums, vocals and acoustic guitar. There’s arguably a little too much range on its controls (I tend to use it with the drive control near the bottom of its travel), but when you find its sweet spot it can work wonders on all sorts of instruments. Also, if you use Pro Tools, you’ve already got it, so you have no excuses for not giving it a try! Chris Korff
Free.
Celestion Speaker Mix Pro
The World isn’t short of IR‑based cab and speaker emulations but Celestion’s approach makes their system responsive to playing dynamics, for a more natural feel. They’ve also managed to emulate the coupling between amp and speaker, to reproduce that sense of low‑end looseness felt from the real thing, and you can combine multiple speakers to shape your own sound. Paul White
£199 including VAT.$199.
IK Multimedia Saturator X
One of those it‑just‑sounds‑better plug‑ins: it’s big, yellow, radioactive and glowers at you with a single eye as it grills your audio with warmth, gooeyness and without the need for subtlety. Drop it in anywhere on any track and it’s like adding seasoning to your cooking; it makes everything more flavourful. It can bring in a nicely saturated feel or you can pump it up to some epic distortion. The Gain and Output knobs are inversely tied together, so as you dial in the grit and distortion it never overloads the channel. Robin Vincent
€79.99. Also included in T‑RackS 5 from €149. Prices include VAT.€79.99 (about $96) Also included in T‑RackS 5 from €149 (about $179).
Kazrog True Iron
One of the nicest things about using hardware is transformers improving sound without you having to do anything. They have a larger‑than‑life effect that seems hard to capture fully in a plug‑in but Kazrog True Iron is one of the best: thickening, tightening, driving and making a sound ‘occupy’ its mix space more fully. Simple, inexpensive, lightweight and brilliant, I use it in spades. JG Harding
$49.99. Discounted to $39.99 when going to press.
Klanghelm SDRR
Klanghelm’s IVGI is probably my favourite freeware distortion, and its big brother SDRR is rapidly becoming my first‑call distortion plug‑in, full stop. I use it as a parallel channel for mixing purposes, where it’s brilliant at enhancing thickness and presence without drawing too much attention to itself. Crucially, it doesn’t introduce masses of phase‑shift (none at all in its linear‑phase mode, in fact), so adding in the distorted sound never seems to hold any unwelcome surprises. Mike Senior
€23.€23 (about $27).
Line 6 Helix Native
There are many good amp emulation systems but I find Helix Native easy to use and capable of good results. The presets don’t really do it for me, but creating your own patches is quick and easy, and importing your own speaker IRs can make a worthwhile difference too. Paul White
Full price $399.99. (Discounted for owners of Helix hardware.)
Positive Grid Bias Amp 2
Each year, guitar‑amp emulation gets better and better, and my attitude has now almost totally changed from “reamp if I have to” to “I prefer to work with the DI, please”. Using a real amp and room is amazing fun, but unless you’re really good you’ll probably get better results with Bias Amp 2. As with most of my picks, it’s quick and simple to use, yet you can change almost anything about your amp in a way that encourages experimentation and fun. Most importantly, it sounds brilliant. JG Harding
Elite £214, Pro £143, Standard £71. Discounted to £128, £85 and £42, respectively, when going to press. Prices include VAT.Elite $299, Pro $199, Standard $99. Discounted to $179, $199 and $59, respectively, when going to press.
Slate Digital Virtual Tape Machines
I can’t claim to have done exhaustive A/B comparisons between Slate Digital’s tape emulation and a real tape machine, but many’s the time I have placed it on my mix bus and used the Bypass button to confirm that it really does make a positive difference. Its effects are both dynamic and timbral, and nine times out of 10, it really does make things sound better at the click of a button. Sam Inglis
$149. Also included in All Access Pass subscription, from $9.99 per month or $149 per year.
Slate Digital Revival
This harmonic enhancer really shouldn’t be free! Without doing anything to the controls, it adds a little by way of harmonics and high‑pass filtering. Turn up Shimmer to add some seriously smooth brightness (seemingly a combination of harmonic distortion and a chunky air band boost) or crank up the Thickness for more warmth and body. Categorised in Slate’s Virtual Mix Rack as a mastering plug‑in, Shimmer is far more versatile than that, and I’ve found it great for waking up dull‑sounding vocals. Matt Houghton
Free.
Softube Harmonics
Once upon a time, the cleanness of digital recording and mixing was seen as a positive. Now, it’s fashionable to saturate everything in sight. There are lots of excellent tools for this, but Harmonics is one of the best. Not only can it recreate many different styles of analogue warmth, but Softube’s Dynamic Transient Control makes it one of the best transient shapers around. Sam Inglis
$149.
SoundToys Decapitator
The idea of using saturation in subtle ways to add life to ‘in the box’ mixes was fairly new when Decapitator appeared, but as a means of achieving this, it’s still up there with the best. I particularly love the Low Thump option, which is perfect for adding welly to anaemic kick drums or simulated cabinet thump to bass instruments. Sam Inglis
Individual price $199. Included in Sound Toys 5 bundle (21 plug‑ins) $499.
Steinberg Quadrafuzz v2
This hidden gem of a multiband distortion plug‑in comes bundled with Cubase and sees more service in my studio than similar ‘paid’ plug‑ins. Initially, I wasn’t keen on the default settings and many presets, but if you learn to unpick them, you’ll unleash a real beast of a multiband saturator, tape sim, distortion effect and stereo‑width enhancer. Matt Houghton
Included with Cubase 11.
WavesFactory Cassette
Cassette tapes are back in fashion! They sound weird and wobbly and wonderful, but they’re also inconvenient and don’t like to do as they’re told. Enter Cassette, with three cassette types, simple front‑face controls and countless useful extras under the hood, it runs the gamut from subtle lo‑fi to total audio destruction. JG Harding
£51.85 including VAT.$59.