- Discover the best free saturation plugins available in 2023
- Understand the difference between tube saturation and tape saturation
- Learn how to use saturation plugins to enhance your mixes
Whilst many mixes are best left clean and direct, saturation plugins are ideal tools for creating an extra feeling of warmth and intensity in your music.
Engineers for top bands or hit records will often use saturation plugins in a controlled and purposeful way to provide more interesting and stimulating results than the average mixdown.
It takes hands-on practice to understand how these plugins can be used to full effect. However, many of them come with a premium asking price that most of us wouldn’t be willing to casually shell out.
Luckily, we’ve found 6 of the best free saturation plugins in 2023 and laid them out in this article, making them readily available and easy to download in just a few clicks!
We’ll review these top picks based on three main breakdown criteria: Audio Quality, Musical Effect, and Ease of Use. Following this, we’ll wrap up by taking a closer look at how to approach using these plugins like the greats.
Let’s dive in!
What Are The 5 Best Free Saturation Plugins in 2023?
Here’s a brief run-down of our 5 best free saturation plugins available in 2023:
- Ferric TDS MKII: A great plug-in for harmonic tape distortion and dynamic control.
- Klanghelm IVGI: Fantastic for anything from crunchy overdrive to subtly driven warmth.
- ChowDSP CHOW Tape: Offers a plethora of additional ‘artifact’ FX on top of the normal saturation.
- Shattered Glass Audio SGA1566: Great for top-quality, high-octane tube distortion.
- TBProAudio GSatPlus: Suited for audio engineers, with lots of custom controls on offer. An audiophile’s dream.
Time to dive a little deeper! Let’s review each plugin and their individual specs.
1. Ferric TDS MKII (Best Overall Tape Saturation Emulator)
Saturation Type: Tape Machine
Ferric TDS MKII – DOWNLOAD LINK (Windows 32-bit and 64-bit)
- High-quality tape distortion with natural harmonics
- Great dynamic range and an easy-to-use dynamic control knob
- Option to set recovery speed, similar to Release on a compressor
Audio Quality: The audio quality capabilities of the Ferric TDS MKII are fantastic, with more of a natural saturation coming through than any other plugin on this list.
You can get some proper bite if you ram the saturation and dynamics to 100%, along with pulling the input gain back by about -12db.
The signal does break up fairly early on when trying to achieve distortion, but this is to be expected of a tape saturation plug-in. Keeping the signal ‘together’ while applying natural distortion is more the job of tube saturation!
Musical Effect: Depending on what you’re wanting to achieve in your music, the Ferric TDS MKII can offer two main audio impressions.
Firstly, you can achieve a really pleasant warmth suited to Rock and Pop by pushing the dynamics and saturation knobs up by about 30% and knocking the input gain back by about -5db – along with the recovery speed adjusted to a little over halfway (towards ‘Slow’).
Secondly, you can grab a beautifully gritty distortion tone perfect for any Dubstep bass sound or modern electric guitar solo by pushing every knob up – except for the input gain knob, which you’d knock back quite drastically.
Ease of Use: The Ferric TDS MKII is pretty easy to use, although it would be even more ideal to have regular and consistent number markings on each knob. Nonetheless, you can get a great sound with minimal effort.
2. Klanghelm – IVGI (Most Versatile Saturation Plugin)
Saturation Type: Tape Machine
Klanghelm IVGI – DOWNLOAD LINK (Windows and macOS)
- Versatile usage, from anything between soft warmth to aggressive distortion
- Features a ‘Relaxed’ mode – ideal for Lo-Fi and Hip-Hop style saturation
- Pleasing visual profile, with shining dials that are also number-marked!
Audio Quality: The IVGI tape saturation plugin uses the same algorithms as the ones featured in Klanghelm’s flagship saturation plugin, ‘SDRR’.
These are state-of-the-art, responsive code systems that can pick up on impulse responses in a single tick and reflect changes in the saturation and limiting of your track to a truly professional degree.
Musical Effect: IVGI works both as a subtle analog-style saturation effect on the master bus and an aggressive distortion effect for sound design.
It sounds excellent in both scenarios, delivering analog-style warmth and character in the comfort of your DAW (digital audio workstation).
Ease of Use: The plugin is easy to set up, providing instant saturation when switched on. That said, the user can fine-tune IVGI’s saturation characteristics by adjusting the frequency response, symmetry, and drive amount.
3. ChowDSP – CHOW Tape (Best Plugin for Saturation Effects)
Saturation Type: Tape Machine
CHOW Tape – DOWNLOAD LINK (Windows, macOS and Linux)
- Offers a range of saturation effects such as ‘Thickness’, ‘Spacing’, ‘Flutter’ and ‘Wow’
- The bias between dry and wet signal can be controlled with the Bias knob
- Brilliant for adding vinyl crackle-style noise to tracks, for added atmosphere
Audio Quality: Although the CHOW Tape initially utilized a physical model of the Sony TC-260 tape recorder, the current algorithm can simulate various analog tape machines which currently rule the market (like FabFilter’s Saturn series and the SoundToys Decapitator).
Musical Effect: The CHOW Tape targets the saturation behavior of traditional tape recorders, as well as harnessing their most desired ‘Lo-Fi’ properties.
Although not ideal for achieving biting distortion, this plugin is perfect for any track you’d want to bless with that extra trippy, laid-back atmospheric sound. Play around with all its features!
Ease of Use: The CHOW Tape is fairly straightforward to understand – with a short guide available for each knob or feature when hovered over with the mouse – but it isn’t all that easy to use.
The grabbing of knobs and sliding of scales is fairly clunky at the best of times, which is a shame considering the awesome potential for sound in this plugin.
4. Shattered Glass Audio – SGA1566 (Best Distortion Tone)
Saturation Type: Tube Preamp
SGA1566 – DOWNLOAD LINK (Windows and macOS)
- Highly authentic, lifelike tube distortion and saturation capabilities
- Features a two-band Bandaxall Equaliser for frequency control
- High-performance circuit stimulation for a fast response – but high CPU load!
Audio Quality: The SGA1566 uses high-performance circuit simulation to deliver the saturation characteristics of a single-channel vintage tube microphone preamp.
Its components and coding are sophisticated and belong on the top end of the market. With that in mind, it’s surprising this plugin is completely free.
Musical Effect: The SGA1566 sounds highly authentic. It captures the essence of distortion and tone found in a vintage tube preamp.
Make use of the Input and Gain knobs to enhance your recordings and make virtual instruments sound more lifelike – but beware of whether you’re using Mono or Stereo mode if placing the SGA1566 on the master bus.
Pretty much nobody in the modern music production scene wants their master bus to be set to ‘Mono’!
Ease of Use: The only drawback of the SGA1566 is the CPU hit taken when running the plug-in. It requires a fast processor, and it’s likely to slow down your DAW.
Thankfully, the plugin offers two different CPU performance modes. The Low-CPU mode drops the sound quality a little whilst ensuring improved stability and compatibility with less powerful machines.
5. TBProAudio – GSatPlus (Most User Controls and Features)
Saturation Type: Tape Machine
GSatPlus – DOWNLOAD LINK (Windows and macOS)
- Range of cool user features including ‘Character’, ‘Fluctuation’ and ‘Oversample’
- Provides the ability to manipulate harmonics using Odd and Even Frequency dials
- Can perform well in a variety of mixing tasks, from Pop to Jazz to Classical!
Audio Quality: The GSatPlus is a feature-packed plugin, but that doesn’t stop it from having a downright awesome sound to it.
While the Saturation feature is activated, the input and output knobs can be toyed with for some great vintage granular distortion and warmth.
Musical Effect: Although other plugins on this list usurp the GSatPlus in terms of pure saturation capabilities, we don’t think they come close with regard to creative scope.
The amount of potential hidden away in this plugin’s features is massive – particularly the Oversampling feature, which can create robotic, bit-crushed results perfect for Euro-Funk bass (pertaining to music by Daft Punk and Justice).
Ease of Use: Although maybe a little cluttered and bunched together, the GSatPlus is otherwise easy to understand and use. Its amount of different dials and controllable aspects don’t compromise the ease of use in the grand scheme of things.
However, before a bit of practice, you might find yourself scratching your head for a short while – no thanks to the lack of guide for each feature!
Tape Saturation vs. Tube Saturation – What’s the Difference?
Tape Saturation
Tape Saturation or Tape Machine refers to plugins that emulate the much-loved effect of an analog tape machine recording or playing back its contents while saturated with a slight (or drastic) excess of input gain.
In the 1970s and 1980s, you would have a giant analog tape machine taking up a whole wall of your studio.
It would work extremely hard to write its recorded contents to the tape, and the slightly crackly, distorted effect was often merely a sonic artifact of the imperfect hardware.
When ramped with input gain, however, these imperfections started gaining a lot of audible warmth.
Soon enough, the effect became a favorite among music producers and is now available in the form of emulator plugins, which we are looking at.
Tape saturation can give you a punchy, mix-cutting sound and works well on kicks, snares, guitars, or any sound that requires a bit more ‘bite’ or needs to be brought forward in the mix.
Some tape saturation plugins give you control over additional features such as tape speed, noise, and bias, which are found on professional hardware tape machines.
Tube Saturation
On the other hand, Tube Saturation or Tube Preamp is the effect of passing an audio signal through a tube amplifier which, again, became a favorite of music producers and engineers and later took the form of emulator plugins.
Tube saturation plugins are a great choice for adding analog warmth to your recordings. Increasing the amount of drive can give you some nice distortion, while particular tube saturation plugins can also be used as a saturating peak limiter.
Peak limiters control the loudest points of the audio playback by clipping the biggest ‘peaks’ in volume off at a user-determined point.
Tube saturation plugins are both simple to use! The drive control increases the digital input gain. Play with the balance between the drive and output gain to control the amount of distortion created.
How To Use Saturation Plugins Like Top Music Producers
When using saturation plugins in your music production process, it’s really important to notice where you’re putting the plugin amidst your chain of other VSTs (also known as the science of gain staging).
More often than not, it’s a safe bet to put your favorite saturation plugin right at the beginning of the plugin chain on any instrument or bus – and even the master bus if you’re performing a mixdown from within your DAW.
Putting your saturation plugin at the start of your VST chain will cause any excess input or output gain – plus any modeled saturation effects that the plugin may offer – to be pumped through the rest of your plug-ins that come afterward.
As long as you have tweaked the output gain and reduced it to a point where the input gain is being controlled – ie, there is no resulting clipping or volume overload on the instrument/bus fader when playing the track back – then the resulting saturation should provide a soft, warm, somewhat fuzzy quality to your music.
You can play around with the input-to-output balance on most saturation plugins to achieve different sonic effects.
For example, Skrillex will use tube saturation plugins on his signature ‘wobble’ Dubstep bass sounds. Premium plugins, admittedly, but it’s still not impossible to achieve the same effect using the free VSTs listed above (particularly the SGA1566).
The input gain could be set to about +8db, with the output gain set to about -5db. This will provide a throaty quality of distortion which complements the synthesized nature of the sound he used to make the bass track.
Meanwhile, Skrillex’s drums may be better treated with tape saturation plugins, like the Ferric TDS MKII or the Klanghelm IVGI.
On the TDS MKII, for example, Skrillex could achieve a brighter, more ‘energetic’ sound and punch to his kick drum by setting the plug-in up like so:
- Dynamics knob to about 80% for a bright, punchy quality
- Saturation knob to about 45% for a bit of muddy warmth but not too much
- Input Gain knob to around -4db for enough clear headroom
- Recovery knob to a little rightwards of halfway across, i.e., towards the ‘Slow’ side
- Limiter knob to about halfway for dynamic control on the heavier kick hits
Wrapping Up
After taking an in-depth look at these top five free saturation plugins, we hope you’re feeling inspired and ready to get practicing with your gain staging and creative saturation techniques!
Try out each plug-in on the same track, playing around with their respective available user controls and functions.
See whether tube distortion or tape distortion suits your instrument track/bus better for the quality you desire, and compare the merits of all five plug-ins for achieving the same tasks – almost certainly providing different results.
If it’s rip-roaring distortion you’re after, the Shattered Glass Audio SGA1566 is your go-to.
If you’re seeking a subtle-but-effective warmth to your drum tracks or synth chords, try the Ferric TDS MKII or Klanghelm IVGI.
Meanwhile, the CHOW Tape can really pump out the hazy analog saturation effects like ‘wow’ and ‘flutter’, perfect for authentic Lo-Fi and Trip-Hop compositions.
Have fun – and happy saturating!
