MS Saturator 2.0: a new interface and new controls for mid and side

MS Saturator 2.0 is out today for Mac and Windows, free for everyone with a licence. With 1.1, the plugin offers the update in its window within a day. Otherwise download it from your account. It installs over 1.x and keeps your licence and presets.

Projects saved with 1.x open in 2.0 but can sound different. Console and Tube no longer fold back at high drive, Tube has a soft ceiling, and Auto gain and the overall Mix knob are gone. If a project has to stay as it is, bounce or freeze its MS Saturator tracks first.

Two views, three displays

The main view, Line, shows everything at once, with the mid above the line and the side below it. Route draws the signal path from input to output, with every control on the wire it changes.

In Line you pick a display. Curve shows what comes out for what goes in, and the ring on it is the handle for Drive. Harmonics shows what the curve adds to a test tone, so you can compare characters with nothing playing. Live shows per octave what the curve adds to your track.

MS Saturator 2.0Drive the sides hard and keep the centre clean.MS Saturator — €69

New controls for mid and side

Clean below keeps everything under a frequency out of the saturation, so kick and bass hold their shape. Mix sets how much of what the curve adds you keep, so you can drive hard and bring it back without losing volume. Emphasis picks the part of the sound the curve works on hardest, highs or lows.

Sidechain

Route a track into the sidechain and it switches itself on. A ring around each Drive knob shows where the sidechain has it right now, and Input sets how loud the sidechain comes in.

Volume match and Delta

Saturation makes things louder, and louder tends to sound better. Volume match moves Output until what leaves is as loud as what comes in, then holds it there, so nothing pumps. It replaces Auto gain. Delta plays only what the curves add.

Oversampling now goes up to 8x, Render 8x runs your bounces at 8x, and there are 14 new presets, 37 in all.

Patch notes