Techivation released T-Saturator, a free saturation effect for Windows and macOS.
T-Saturator is a smart level-independent saturation plug-in that gives you precise control over your track’s tone and character and it is available for free.
Ah, saturators, you’ve got to love how spoiled for choice we are these days. Techivation is a regular presence here at BPB and has given away some stellar freebies over the last few years, including the excellent T-Puncher.
They’re back again with their latest T-Saturator. It is a perfect choice for someone looking for a more flexible saturation plugin than their DAW’s stock stuff.
The T-Saturator has four primary modes. These are Tube, Tape, Clip, and Fold.
As you might imagine, each mode has different sonic qualities when it comes to applying harmonics to an existing signal.
I found myself reaching for the Clip and Tube quite a bit, especially at lower settings.
This is the sort of plugin that easily dips into crushing distortion, similar to Kazrog’s KClip Zero or Decapitator. A little goes a long way.
Tape and Fold sound good to my ears, especially for their intended use. I just found myself jumping to Tube and Clip a little more, depending on the material I was testing the T-Saturator on.
Smash and Crunch are interesting controls as they apply to the dynamic processing and character of a distortion algorithm once selected.
Smash focuses on how the saturation affects the dynamics and transients of your signal. At 0, nothing happens. As you start to apply positive values, the saturation starts to hit the transients. Negative values actually make the transients less saturated than the rest of the audio.
Crunch really brings out the flavor of a chosen algorithm. Lower values are more mellow, while higher values bring in more aggression and color from the algorithm.
All this comes together with a set of controls that allow you to specify the frequency range you want to saturate.
This isn’t anything new for a plug-in, but it’s great to see in a freebie like this. Thankfully, Techivation has also included an auto-gain function, so you won’t get too loud when applying it to elements in your mix.
In short, this is a fun freebie that requires little effort to get up and running.
Download: T-Saturator (FREE)
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