Saturation & Color
Vibe, Heat, Texture
Top Saturation & Color Plugins
by Canvas Audio
The Canvas Audio Zenbox is a balls-to-the-wall rock amplifier that is responsive and expressive. Built with an emphasis on creativity and efficiency, it packs a punch right out of the gate.
by Smart Audio Solution
Emulsion BOX is a highly accurate emulator of four highly acclaimed converters; it also offers colour mix-and-match functionality and a digital harmonic THD section that can be used across the various modules
by Audiotoolshed
Add thickness, volume and air without compromising impact with all the control you need.
by Canvas Audio
This take on a legendary bass overdrive pedal is designed to give your tone a rich, full sound with just the right amount of everything you crave.
All Saturation & Color Plugins
Audiotoolshed
Add thickness, volume and air without compromising impact with all the control you need.
Audiotoolshed
HarXciter will add thickness, presence, air and volume without compromising impact. In fact, HarXciter can shape the tone in such a smooth way that you can easily overdo it without you realizing!
Audiotoolshed
With AirXciter, one knob does it all for you. AirXciter easily adds air to vocals, sheen to cymbals, life to dull guitars, and much much more.
ShaneRoss
Dark Authority is a producer-focused creative multi-FX built to turn ordinary sounds into darker, heavier and more cinematic textures. Shape your sound through five signature engines — CORRUPT, MALFORM, DOMINION, ABYSS and POSSESS — controlling destruction, movement, dominance, depth and demonic tonal character from one intuitive interface.
ShaneRoss
MENACE is a one-knob creative FX plugin built to drag ordinary sounds into darker territory. As the MENACE control rises, the signal progressively darkens, saturates, destabilises, widens and descends, introducing deep pitch-shifted character inspired by the possessed tonal treatment of Dark Authority. At lower settings, MENACE adds subtle shadow and weight. Push further and harmonics thicken, movement creeps in and the stereo image begins to spread. At maximum intensity, a deeper pitch-shifted layer gives the source an ominous, almost demonic presence while controlled filtering, saturation and clipping keep the transformation musical. Designed for melodies, pianos, bells, guitars, synths, samples, pads and vocals, MENACE gives producers instant access to a darker version of their sound without pages of controls.
ShaneRoss
808 Authority is a producer-focused 808 processor for deeper weight, cleaner translation and tighter control. Shape sub energy, create kick space, lock the low end to mono, tighten tails and add signature Authority.
Smart Audio Solution
Emulsion BOX is a highly accurate emulator of four highly acclaimed converters; it also offers colour mix-and-match functionality and a digital harmonic THD section that can be used across the various modules
Carve Audio
Forge is a transformer-inspired tone shaper that adds subtle warmth, density, and character to your tracks.
Smart Audio Solution
box of color, a platform to shape your sound like no others
Canvas Audio
A faithful, high-end tape machine emulation focused on tone, weight, and depth without the exaggerated warble, drift, or hiss often associated with tape plugins.
About Saturation & Color plugins
Saturation plugins add harmonic distortion to a signal. Rather than changing level or frequency balance directly, they generate new harmonics related to the source, which the ear reads as warmth, weight, density or grit depending on the circuit being modelled and how hard it is driven.
Tape emulation adds both even and odd harmonics along with a degree of compression and high-frequency softening. Tube and valve saturation leans toward even harmonics and a rounder top end. Transformer and console emulations add a low-mid thickness that helps a track feel anchored. Harder clipping and distortion push much further and are used as an effect in their own right rather than as a finishing touch.
Saturation is usually most effective applied in small amounts across many tracks rather than heavily on one. The plugins in this category on Audioloom are built by producers and engineers modelling the specific hardware they use in their own rooms.
A saturation plugin adds harmonic distortion related to the incoming signal. Those added harmonics make a sound feel warmer, denser or more present without a large change in level, and they also soften peaks, which is why saturation often makes a track sit better in a mix.
Tape emulation adds even and odd harmonics with gentle compression and a softened top end, often with subtle pitch instability. Tube saturation emphasises even harmonics and tends to sound rounder and more open. Tape suits glue across a bus, tube suits adding weight to a single source.
Less than it is tempting to use. Saturation is cumulative, so small amounts on many tracks usually sound better than a heavy setting on one. A useful test is to bypass the plugin and check whether the sound feels smaller without it rather than just quieter.