[Kiwiburger]

There is a world of saturation effects to explore - in some ways I think PC VST freebies have the leap on most of the commercial stuff, because there are hackers out there who make plugs just for the joy of sound, rather than as a commercial venture with an expensive brand name partner sucking all the profits out ... but I digress.

PSP MixSaturator is a good one. Voxengo has some nice stuff - even the free TubeAmp. But don't ignore some of the more experimental projects, which are typically non-commercial freebies. I find they have less hassels attached - no dongles for a start - and they all have unique flavours.

There are many types of distortion, and one that doesn't get modelled much is crossover distortion. It's inherent in many analog circuits (not everything is Class A all the way through) and it can inject some realismn into boring digital tracks.

The more I listen to vintage tracks I love, the more saturation I hear - and when you consider the circuit paths that were involved, it's not surprising. And each circuit in the chain was adding hairs to the hairs that the previous circuit added ...

I'm not convinced that digital distortion can withstand the compounded layers of distortion that analog could ... that's why I try to track as much real analog filth as I can to start with.

I think we've become too obsessed with sterile clean sound - it's hard habit to break - but I think it's gone too far.

Bring back the dirt!