Over the past few months, I’ve seen a surprising number of people in forums questioning the purpose and effectivity of saturation tools like Soundtoys’ Decapitator, which are nearly as misunderstood as they are revered. While heavy saturation can lead to characteristics like distortion, which is often desirable in sound design and music production, even lighter levels of saturation can help to influence the perceived loudness of content. By introducing subtle levels of saturation and analyzing what is actually occurring via spectrum and loudness analysis tools, it may come as a bit of surprise that gentle saturation can make audio noticeably louder without introducing significant unwanted changes in timbre or character. From gunshots to footsteps, this is particularly useful in game audio, where controlling peak levels while allowing sounds to cut through the mix is crucial. Check out the video below for more details and the visuals/audio to back it up!
Additional Resources
If this topic has piqued your interest, I strongly encourage checking out the following resources for more information.
Loudness Is Not In Mastering
An excellent video on loudness as it pertains to music production. It also touches a bit on the “loudness war” and the importance of a balanced crest factor.
A Perceptual Approach on Clipping and Saturation
A research paper published by SimulAnalog on saturation and harmonic/inharmonic distortion, focusing specifically on how saturation is generated with analog hardware.
Per their website, SimulAnalog “is a research project that studies numerical and DSP techniques applied to computer music; the main branch is about the digital simulation of analog instruments and processors.”