Saturation
Saturation is a form of distortion that can be applied to an audio signal to add warmth, harmonics, and character to the sound.
Saturation can be applied to a track to add color and texture to the sound, especially for instruments such as guitars, drums, and vocals.
Saturation can help to bring out the harmonics and overtones in a sound, making it sound fuller and more present in the mix.
Saturation can also help to tame harsh or bright sounds, by rounding off the high-frequency transients and adding a sense of warmth to the overall sound.
There are 2 main types of saturation
- even harmonic distortion
- odd harmonic distortion
Any given saturation plugin is neither one nor the other, but is rather a combination of the two, with an emphasis on one or the other depending on the plugin.
- as you increase the drive knob of the saturation, there will be increased variation of odd and even harmonic distortion. It is not done linear, and is seemingly random how those harmonics will be added
Even Harmonic Distortion
In general, even harmonics tend to give a feeling of support, warmth, clarity and fullness, since we are adding in tones at octave intervals.
- ex. if we have a simple sine wave at 100hZ and add even harmonic distorion, then we'll be adding even multiple harmonics (200hZ, 400hZ, 600hZ, 800hZ etc.)
- sounds like this
Odd Harmonic Distortion
In general, odd harmonics tend to add in more richness, edge, bite, buzziness and grit.
- ex. if we have a simple sine wave at 100hZ and add odd harmonic distorion, then we'll be adding odd multiple harmonics (300hZ, 500hZ, 700hZ, 900hZ etc.)
- sounds like this
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