What are people’s favorite dirt plugins? Anyone have any good suggestions for an ITB Analog Heat alternative? I tend to be partial to tape/tube-style saturation myself. Sound Toys Decapitator is high on my list at the moment, particularly because I missed the Izotope Trash 2 sale.
I thought this was an interesting look at the Heat and Decapitator, among others.
Acustica Audio’s Crimson is really CPU hungry, but sounds incredible. I’d suggest getting into Nebula 4, and checking out the Cupwise, TimP, and AlexB libraries. Nothing sounds better than Nebula and Acustica Audio libraries imo.
Soundtoys have Little Plate on sale for $29 just now. If you’re thinking about going for the bundle at some point, it’s worth picking up as you get really good discounts as an existing customer, even if you only have one plugin. I think I got Soundtoys 5 for way under half price.
Also, Little Plate sounds fantastic.
I think the sale might end tomorrow though.
I’ll second what finalform said as well. Radiator is my favourite of the bundle along with Little Plate. I use them on everything.
Hard to have a favorite when each one is so unique.
I tend to prefer more subtle, less heavy handed stuff on the software side…
Kush 458a, Waves NLS (3 different consoles’ drive, solid transformer modeling), Wave Arts Tube Saturator 2.
For distortion instead of overdrive/sat, I like hardware.
Elektron Analog Drive, DOD Gunslinger, Zoom MS-50g , and I just won a raffle for a Big Muff Pi. Cost me $7 in raffle tickets.
Softube Saturator is nice and simple. Just one knob and it adds a good bit of grit. People love Decapitator of course, but lately I’ve been more a fan of Devil Loc Deluxe…I’ve been putting it on too many things lol. I put it on a vocal track recently to great results.
I’ve had my eye on it for a while and it’s finally half off. A lot of times I want to make drums or guitar sound “creamy” and “old” but my other saturators just make them sound distorted…This seems like it’ll do the trick. I think I’ll try it right now!
i’ll echo the decapitator reviews, it’s fantastic for drums/bass. being able to tweak the output and mix levels really allows for anything between subtle warmth and crazy distortion. i bought the soundtoys bundle when it was on sale in november and i use decapitator the most (and they’re all really good). best purchase i’ve made in a while.