Use these waveform warpers to gently chisel some life into your sounds, or hit them with a sledgehammer.
For many years, distortion was the enemy of mix engineers in search of the cleanest possible mix. Imperfect analogue circuitry and limited hardware often led to a loss of signal fidelity and waveforms being chopped off abruptly, resulting in harsh, warped sounds. With the advent of digital music production tools, a lot of that character and noise was lost, meaning producers these days are keen to add distortion back into their mixes all of a sudden.
Saturation, a more delicate form of distortion that smooths transients and adds harmonics, should be a weapon in every producer’s mixing arsenal, whether you need to add midrange presence and sparkle or a stylish lo-fi effect. More intense distortion effects can be used to degrade sounds and add grunge and aggression. Whatever you’ve got planned for your mix, you’ll need the right plugin for the job, which is why we’ve rounded up the best distortion and saturation plugins on Plugin Boutique.
Excite Audio Motion: Harmonic
Excite Audio's newest multi-effect plugin approaches saturation and distortion in a unique way. It's a plugin that lends itself to creating movement within your sounds through a hexagonal control area (a neat and fresh approach to the XY pad). It allows you to map controls such as distortion character, bit depth (there's a bit crusher too!), feedback, and more to six macro controls that are pushed and pulled together in a truly creative way.
Arturia Dist COLDFIRE
What’s better than one powerful distortion engine if you want to achieve total sonic destruction? Two, of course, and that’s exactly what Arturia bring to the table with Dist COLDFIRE, their twin-engined distortion reactor that packs a hefty punch. Each engine powers a unique take on distortion models, and can be run in serial, parallel, stereo, mid-side and band split modes.
Dist Coldfire is incredibly versatile and capable of slinging pretty much any style of distortion, whether you need analogue modes like Tape, Tube, Transistor, Transformer, Germanium and saturation, or digital effects like Rectifier, Bit Crusher, Bit Inverter, Wavefolder and Waveshaper. That’s a pretty good spread, and what makes the plugin even better is the room it gives you to customise these sounds, with six modulation slots, envelope following and a 16-step sequencer. Dist Coldfire comes with 150 specialised presets too, making it the perfect distortion plugin for those who want immediate destruction.
Soundtoys Decapitator
Soundtoys Decapitator is an analog saturation modeller that imparts real, dynamic saturation to whatever you care to stick it on. Soundtoys carefully studied classic hardware units when developing Decapitator, and it shows, with the plugin boasting an impressively real analog feel. Decapitator has five different saturation models to choose from and modelled tone control parameters for extra shaping and contouring.
You can use the mix control to pare back Decapitator, or as the name suggests, kick it into overdrive with the Punish button, which adds 20dB to whatever amount of gain is being applied by the Drive dial. Despite being modelled on analog hardware, there’s also a healthy dose of digital features to give you all the versatility of a modern plugin. Decapitator’s mix control allows you to blend in some dry signal for parallel processing, and the Auto Switch compensates the output level for how much drive is applied. Whether you want to beef up drums, warm up vocals or coax life out of dull bass and guitar - Decapitator can do it all.
Minimal Audio Rift 2.0
Unlike analog-modeled distortion, which rounds out waveforms, truly digital distortion can often be harsh and clinical. Traditionally, this effect has been looked down upon by lovers of analog warmth, but not everyone wants their tracks to sound like they’ve been run through vintage hardware. If you’re after a cutting-edge hybrid distortion that imparts a modern, unapologetically digital distortion character on your audio signal, look no further than Minimal Audio Rift 2.0.
Minimal Audio describe Rift as “The world’s first bipolar distortion plugin”, and it’s true that this concept has been largely unexplored until now. The general idea is that the plugin splits an incoming waveform into its positive and negative portions, which can then be mixed and mangled in all sorts of fun ways, with 30 distortion types, pre and post-distortion filtering, and six modulation sources. No emulations of classic circuits and amps here, this is an all-digital affair with bags of potential for creative uses.
XLN Audio RC-20 Retro Color
Once you start using XLN Audio’s warm and cosy creative effect plugin RC-20 Retro Color, we’re pretty sure you’ll find it hard to stop. Designed to recreate the feeling of vintage recording equipment, this is a plugin that will deliver instant analogue character and life to your mixes. RC-20 has six effect modules, but the Distort section is where you’ll find everything from mild saturation to raging fuzz. The other modules are Noise, Wobble, Digital, Space and Magnetic.
RC-20 Retro Color is the top dog for making stuff sound analog, and is hugely popular among producers today. The versatile plugin can emulate vinyl, tape, VHS, and plenty more besides. You can use the Distort module in isolation to dial in some colour to your sound, or in combination with the other modules for unique tones. Tweak the Magnitude slider to scale back the mix of all six modules at once, although we think you’ll be tempted to leave it where it is.
Cableguys DriveShaper
Belonging to Cableguys popular multi-effects plugin ShaperBox 2, DriveShaper is the seventh of eight transformative effects siblings, although it can be used independently from the others. Cableguys plugins make modulation easy, with straightforward LFOs that allow fluid editing of modulation shapes, and responsive envelope followers that react to audio. This makes DriveShaper an enticing prospect for anyone looking for animated, rhythmic distortion effects.
DriveShaper offers 10 diverse distortion styles, covering analogue-style hard and soft Clipping, mid-boosting Square modes, hard and soft Rectify and four varieties of wave folding. The plugin’s Accent, Tone, Grip and Push parameters to allow for specialised distortion control. The cheapest plugin on our list, DriveShaper can be bought separately or as a bundle with the other Shapers. Don’t be fooled by its low price though, this plugin can more than hold its own as a distortion toolkit.
D16 Group Devastor 2
The second generation of D16’s first plugin from the well-respected SilverLine Collection series, Devastor 2 is a simple yet standout multiband distortion unit. The Silverine plugins are all inspired by the sound and features of vintage and analogue gear, and Devastor 2 is no different. The original version featured three filters which could be placed before or after a diode clipper and the follow-up builds on that structure with some tasty additions.
The onboard filters are modelled on analog synth-style low-, high- and band-pass filters with adjustable resonance and cutoff parameters, and sound lush and lively. There are nine different connection topologies between the filters and diode clipper, resulting in an expansive sonic palette. Devastor 2 can be used subtly to improve the timbre of gentler sounds or let off the leash to create monstrous levels of destruction. Crucially though, at whatever level of intensity you use it everything sounds warm, musical and high-quality.
Heavyocity FURY
As you might have noticed already, distortion plugins rarely appear with mild-mannered names. Distortion, after all, has a reputation for being aggressive and loud, and it wouldn’t do not to keep up appearances, would it? FURY by Heavyocity doesn’t let the side down in this regard, and at first glance, the plugin brims with malevolence, sporting a red and black GUI that promises plenty of sonic carnage. FURY is not simply a flat track bully however and is in fact capable of a wide spectrum of distortion flavours, from subtle warmth to hard clipping.
Heavyocity describe FURY as a “semi-modular distortion designer”, and the plugin is built around three distinct sections – Drive, Distortion and Tone – which contain several customisable modules that alter the behaviour of the effect. There are over 700 possible module combinations and 100 custom-made presets, so it’s safe to say you won’t be short of options. Somewhat unusually for a distortion plugin, you can modulate FURY’s internal components with an LFO, envelope follower and sequencer, meaning it’s easy to end up with a unique, hand-crafted distorted signal.
Softube Harmonics
The second analog saturation modeller on our list, Harmonics offers five distinctly distortion models, each based on a different analog distortion process. Softube are developers who continually push the envelope of component-level modelling of hardware, and Harmonics is a blend of the best-sounding components from all the legendary saturation units they could get their hands on.
Although distortion is fun to crank up and play around with, a heavy-handed approach can sometimes destroy the dynamics of a sound and leave it lifeless and washed out. Softube’s revolutionary Dynamic Transient Control technology listens to and analyses your input signal, preserving and enhancing detail and dynamics even after large amounts of distortion are applied. The Low and High Cut filters make it easy to shape offending frequencies and further tone control with the Character knob. Add to that the classic hardware box stylings and this plugin looks, and sounds, good enough to touch.
FabFilter Saturn 2
Perhaps most known for their Pro series of plugins, which includes titles like the Pro-Q3 equaliser and the Pro-C2 compressor, FabFilter’s reputation is for sleek and powerful audio processing tools. Their multiband distortion, saturation and amp modelling plugin Saturn 2 are no different, offering a full clip of distortion colouration options along with an ammo belt of extras like its extensive modulation section.
Like all FabFilter plugins, Saturn 2 has a vivid, professional interface that works with you and not against you. The frequency analyser that makes up the bulk of the plugin is a nice visual aid while tweaking parameters in real-time. There are 28 different distortion styles, from subtle tube saturation to heavy guitar amps and bit crushing, and multiband processing for up to six bands. Modulation sources include LFOs, envelope-based followers and generators, sliders, and X/Y and MIDI controllers. A highly useful addition to your mixing arsenal.
