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ReelBus vs Saturn2 vs others i don't know
Hey everyone,
I'm about to buy one (yes, just one to combat A.A.S.) app that I want to saturate and warm up my sound. I'd love it to be a well written one, cause I'm over apps crashing while I play.
I definitely love that Boards of Canada sound and yes, I know that Reelbus is advertising with those exact words, but I don't know many alternatives.
How does Kai Aras RE1 work in comparison? I'm not even sure if they can be compared tho 😉
Also preferably not so resource hungry, but I'm on m1 ipad, so stability is key.
Cheers!
Comments
ChowTape
Can’t go wrong with TB. If you’re anything like me (or most everyone else on this forum) you’ll get the FabFilter eventually. Might as well get both when they are on sale. Though the sales usually come around again November.
Hehehe, I've been just like you and everyone else so far and my bank account hasn't been loving it
I am tho! I really want to cut down, cause it creates a lot of mess with too many choices. I'll have a look into chow tape first! It's free
Yes, there is more freedom (to create) when we put up boundaries. So I am with you.
I don’t know about ChowTape stability in a live setting but it gives a really nice full tape sound and can get into lofi as well. Reelbus is up to the usual level of Toneboosters DSP code wizardry. I think you can get more of a sheen with this one. Less dark if you want. And some lovely delay. Saturn is also tier one coding. Lots more modulation options and ii is also multiband.
Lovely sounding apps!
There are many other saturation apps as well. MixBox has some great tones. SGA just released their Phoenix tube sat. Klevgrand have a couple.
To the YouTube videos you go! 🙂
I use Saturn and Reelbus and like them both. Imo, Saturn = more versatile (loads of saturation types and automation options) but more complex; Reelbus = less of a range of sounds but much easier to dial in.
If I had to choose one it would be saturn, but they're both cool.
Definitely Reelbus and Chow Tape are easy to dial in the BoC sound, Reelbus has some cool features like the nice inbuilt delay and flanger etc, Chow Tape has the major advantage of being free while sounding great. Saturn is versatile with more of a learning curve than either
+1 for ChowTape. Sounds great. I also love Beef, works well to add warmth, crunch and Lofi.
I have a thing with Saturn. I know it’s a superb plugin and all, but I just can’t find the moments to use it…. Guess it’s a UI thing. If I’m wanting to warm up, tape degrade, etc I go for a a tape plugin like ChowTape or maybe Beef. Never to Saturn.
Chowtape +1. It's free so there's really no going wrong.
I have Saturn too, which is absolutely insane. Up to 6 bands, each with your choice of lfos, envelopes and step sequences on every parameter. Massive sound design potential. The thing is though, I don't find the UI particularly inspiring to use. IMO it's probably the be all end all of saturation, at least on IOS, but the UI is a personal thing - you'll either love it or hate. There's no denying that it's a sound designers dream saturator though.
Chow tape
Tape pro (Caelum audio - paid)
Tape (Caelum audio - free)
Reelbus
Are wonderful tools for the job
(Saturn is not as Good as these for your usecase imho)
Chow Tape is modelled on an actual tape machine (Sony TC-260) but can also do generic tape emulation with a lot of control.
Reelbus also has plenty of tape-style controls and can create a wide variety of different tape effects. It's very versatile and sounds good.
Saturn does a lot more than just tape emulation, it can also do everything from tubes to transistors. The UI is actually very simple: just select the saturation type and then adjust the big dial. If you want to dig deeper you can then adjust the other parameters and add modulation, but that's optional. Setting up something like wow and flutter is more complex in Saturn because you would need to use an LFO rather than a simple control, so it's not so good for recreating a specific kind of tape machine. On the other hand it is the cleanest sounding.
In your shoes I would start with the free Chow Tape, and see if that's enough. Reelbus is pretty similar to Chow Tape, whereas Saturn isn't.
@Tripovich as @richardyot said. Start with chow tape and play around with WOW and Flutter controls. This gets you closer to BoC
And Kai Aras‘ RE1 has a looper integrated if this is something you are interested in 👍🏼
I love the options available and the sounds I’ve been able to get using Tape Pro by Caelum Audio while playing live, but as a production tool (at least on iOS GarageBand), it is useless. It fails to load properly during the rendering/final export phase and has to be replaced with other options. It has been very problematic.
I would add MixBox to this discussion. It can provide some of the same functionality as TB Reelbus and Saturn 2.
Agree. It has a number of combinations of effects which cannot be dismissed as good solutions.
Place Fabfilter Saturn on a track and place Sugarbytes WOW 2 behind it .....FAT sound
Forgot about RE-1. Don’t know if it’s suitable as tape saturation but it’s an amazing plugin. Straightforward grit, just lovely. Can also do mean feedback. Highly recommend it.
So my recommendations for that gritty sound: ChowTape, Beef, RE 1
Caelum’s tape pro is great too, but to me it sounds a bit too dark and muffled compared to ChowTape or Beef. Probably subjective. Or maybe you like it more muffled and darker.
Saturn can surely, 100% do it, but it feels overwhelming for just tape saturation. Something about the interface that makes harder for me to hear the before/after than with a dedicated plugin like ChowTape.