URS Saturation plug-in

[Greg Wells]

Blew me away. This thing really sounds great. I downloaded last night and put on a lead vocal and piano..... really does that tape thing beautifully. Made it all deeper and sit in the track better yet retained all the detail. This guy makes amazing stuff.

Anyone else try it?

[Dean Roddey]

I've not yet, though I will. Just to plug another product you might want to check out though... Look at the Fish Fillet set of plugs. They are free and the Block Fish plug is amazingly good for creating highly saturated compression effects. It's not subtle at all. But, to me, it's really nice for certain things, particularly for a U2 Mysterious Ways sort of 'immaculately lo-fi' type of sound.

It's quite flexible, with an optional two pass compression scheme, the fast limiter type and slow opto compression chain type of thing that is commonly used. It has adjustable saturation and low pass and high band pass filters on the side chain. And you can tweak the parameters nicely, the opto memory, the low pass side chain filter frequency and the position and amount of the higher band pass side chain filter, the amount of dynamic saturation (it can saturate more for higher compression which is nice), and so forth.

It's actually a very cool little gizmo.

[TonyBelmont]

I agree with Greg... The Saturation is a great plugin.

[phillysoulman]

Originally Posted by TonyBelmont

I agree with Greg... The Saturation is a great plugin.

IMHO all of the URS plugs are fantastic.

[six_wax]

The 'Brit Discrete' has the pinched Neve-y thing happening for sure, the Motown is attractively round, and the 30ips definitely adds some weight --probably my favorite tape emulation so far. Plug sounds pretty good!

The 'American Tranny' model sounds broken to me though. My APIs actually have bass!

[shipshape]

I love this plug-in also .... nice one Bobby !!!!!!!
Peace Shipshape

[axeman720]

Has the tdm version been released yet? Love the input on the channels strip pro, and this seems like a dedicated unit doing pretty much the same thing. Only it has a dry/wet mix... killer!

[AllBread]

Can it be as sublte yet awesome as the Cranesong Phoenix plug-in? There's something about the Phoenix that makes it hard not to put it on every track.

[hurd300403]

Originally Posted by axeman720

Has the tdm version been released yet? Love the input on the channels strip pro, and this seems like a dedicated unit doing pretty much the same thing. Only it has a dry/wet mix... killer!

yea..that's my question. if you already have the channel strip pro with all it's different input flavors...does this plug provide anything radically different??

the channel strip pro kind of has wet/dry too with the 0-200% amount slider for the input flavor...right?

[kosi]

Originally Posted by Dean Roddey

I've not yet, though I will. Just to plug another product you might want to check out though... Look at the Fish Fillet set of plugs. They are free and the Block Fish plug is amazingly good for creating highly saturated compression effects. It's not subtle at all. But, to me, it's really nice for certain things, particularly for a U2 Mysterious Ways sort of 'immaculately lo-fi' type of sound...

It's actually a very cool little gizmo.

Yep, but unfortunately only PPC, no Intel support.

Too sad, because I somehow don't get into the URS plugins, I don't know, what it is, I somehow tend to not like them. I was a total Cranesong Phoenix afficionado and used them from day 1 in every session on a lot of sources, but now, I'm on Logic and haven't found a good replacement.
I sometimes use Massey Tapehead AU, but this messes around with the highs and sometimes it's simply too much.

Maybe, I do something wrong ?

I was a big fan of the Phoenix Dark Essence plug, very often at about 2pm
my second favourite was the Iridiscent.

Can the URS do something similar ? Has anyone the chance to compare these 2 ?

[Andreas G]

I very much like how subtle one can adjust this plugin.

[macleodgrant]

Originally Posted by kosi

Yep, but unfortunately only PPC, no Intel support.

Too sad, because I somehow don't get into the URS plugins, I don't know, what it is, I somehow tend to not like them. I was a total Cranesong Phoenix afficionado and used them from day 1 in every session on a lot of sources, but now, I'm on Logic and haven't found a good replacement.
I sometimes use Massey Tapehead AU, but this messes around with the highs and sometimes it's simply too much.

Maybe, I do something wrong ?

I was a big fan of the Phoenix Dark Essence plug, very often at about 2pm
my second favourite was the Iridiscent.

Can the URS do something similar ? Has anyone the chance to compare these 2 ?

yeah, i agree about tapehead. take a look at DUY Valve as an alternative and see if you like that - i do!

i haven't tried URS Saturation plugin since i don't really feel i need another saturation plugin but i do hear a lot of positive comments about it

[recall]

To all who are using it, are you boosting the input and then backing off the output?

I have been playing with it but don't get instant wow! from it although I do like it when boosting the signal on tube 1951...especially on that kind of Keith Richards overdriven sound.

[Dean Roddey]

Yep, but unfortunately only PPC, no Intel support.

I assume you mean on the Mac? It's definitely available as a Windows VST on the Intel platform. I'm using it in SONAR.

[Shaman]

While I like the channel strip pro I was a little disappointed by the input section -
the only situation I can really hear a not too subtle difference is when I crank the effect level to 200 % and crank the channel input up to +3 db.

Am I deaf or is the saturation plug more drastic ?

[thermos]

[QUOTE=Shaman;3563842]While I like the channel strip pro I was a little disappointed by the input section -
the only situation I can really hear a not too subtle difference is when I crank the effect level to 200 % and crank the channel input up to +3 db.

Am I deaf or is the saturation plug more drastic ?[/QUOTE




The input stage of csp doesn't saturate. The saturation plug really does. I love it too, it's the first tape emu in the box (never heard phoenix) that doesn't destroy the highs.

[Shaman]

I tried all the usual supects like phoenix, AC-1, digi reel tape, massey, fatso, rnd 5043 and none of them gave me anything magical in the high end so far ( actually the only thing which does something similar like tape in the high end to me is the chandler tonecontrol in certain settings...)...let´s see how the demo sounds...

[007]

I like PSP MixSaturator 2 (as with the rest of the MixPack 2) quit a bit.
Dunno, there's so many redundant plugins now I like to just find one that works and go with it. It's fun to demo a gazillion eq's and compressors, but I've just realized I start to lose focus after a while, I find it exhausting. The latter was just an afterthought. I know they're all great (recently demoed all the Abbey Road stuff, ALL of them and I love them). See, all that said, I'm tempted to go to urs dot com and have a demo buffet for a few days.

[TonyBelmont]

Originally Posted by Shaman

While I like the channel strip pro I was a little disappointed by the input section -
the only situation I can really hear a not too subtle difference is when I crank the effect level to 200 % and crank the channel input up to +3 db.

Am I deaf or is the saturation plug more drastic ?

Saturation adds harmonic distortion and SATURATION to whatever it is fed. It's totally different and much more dramatic than the Strip Pro's input sections... You just have to try it.

[hurd300403]

Originally Posted by TonyBelmont

Saturation adds harmonic distortion and SATURATION to whatever it is fed. It's totally different and much more dramatic than the Strip Pro's input sections... You just have to try it.

was hoping this was the case

[RoundBadge]

I have so much outboard stuff but Bobby makes it hard to resist.
its subtle but what it does is great.
used judiciously, fattens up/adds harmonics nicely.
doesn't shrink stuff like so many other Plugs.
nice to have all these different flavors:Massey,Phoenix,and now this.

[mikebeck]

Originally Posted by recall

To all who are using it, are you boosting the input and then backing off the output?

That's exactly what I've been doing. Then using the wet/dry control to refine it. I'm sure it's been mentioned already, but while it *may* not wow you on individual tracks, it really starts to do greater things when summed after using on multiple tracks.

[Melodioso]

Originally Posted by hurd300403

yea..that's my question. if you already have the channel strip pro with all it's different input flavors...does this plug provide anything radically different??

the channel strip pro kind of has wet/dry too with the 0-200% amount slider for the input flavor...right?

There has been some confusion about the input stage of the URS CSP. The description on the product webpage lets you think it models not only the EQ of different input stages, but also their non-linear characteristics:

"A Digital transparent Input stage is also provided which adds no colorization, harmonics and/or saturation."

Hence that by turning the input knob, saturation will occur accordingly. When reading this, it makes me believe that the other input stages do adds harmonics and/or saturation by contrast. Different people on this board made some tests, and it came out that the input stage is nothing more than a pre-EQ. It is still useful, but misleading. As said before, the Saturation plug is a different animal. I do think it is a good idea to have it as separate plugin.

Cheers!

[Greg Wells]

The Saturation plugin does something quite different than the input stage on the strip.

It sounds just like tape on the 30 ips setting. I sit beside my Studer 827 as I write this!

I wrote to Bobby Nathan for an accurate description of the difference between the two plugs, and he replied:

"URS Saturation plug-in adds complex harmonic structure and soft clipping."

[lordnielson]

Originally Posted by Greg Wells

It sounds just like tape on the 30 ips setting. I sit beside my Studer 827 as I write this!

That's the setting I've been using the most as well. Transformer American is super dense and sounds fantastic but uses too much processor for my measly core duo

[recall]

I have been mixing a splashy psych pop piece today. I've been using URS Sat to see how to use it best. At pesent I ahve it on most tracks using the 30ips presets for overheads, bass,lec guitr, rythm,acou,organ vox.

It really does that kind of gluey thing well, it is far more effective in small doses on each track than slapped over the main bus.

I am happy, I had real issues with cohesion of this song, and it seems to have helped a great deal.

[Greg Wells]

I think this plugin is a godsend.

[seawell]

The German setting is great on drumsthumbsup

[RKrizman]

I've always loved the Cranesong Phoenix, but this is something a little different. It seems to color in some of the spaces in a really likeable way. Plus it's nice to have such surgical control over such a subtle effect. Amazing what a huge difference a light touch of this can make. Absolutely saved a harshly recorded lead vocal for me.

Definitely worth checking out the demo.

-R

[Loud Noize Ent.]

YEP! Same here as this is one of my favs and go-to plug-in as well. Great work Bobby!