Abbey Road Saturator: Tube and Solid-State Saturation Plugin by Waves

The plugin lets you choose between tube and solid-state console saturation. Waves describes the tube character as the sound of a classic console and the solid-state character as a rounder, more controlled tone.

The signal chain also includes the EMI TG12321 Compander, a rare hardware unit that Waves includes to excite the signal further. Pre- and post-gain EQ let you shape the saturation before and after it is applied, so you can control which frequencies are driven and how bright or dark the output sounds.

The Phase control changes how the distortion behaves, giving you a way to alter the character of the saturation beyond the basic tube or solid-state choice. M/S processing lets you apply saturation to the mid and side channels separately, which is useful when you want to color the center of a mix without affecting its width.

The Mix/Dry control blends the saturated signal with the original, so you can add harmonics while keeping the transients and detail of the source. Waves also includes artist presets from mixers Joe Barresi, Dave Pensado and Lu Diaz as starting points.