FabFilter has announced a major update to its award-winning Saturn multiband distortion and saturation plugin.

Saturn 2 sees a top-to-bottom redesign of the Saturn interface for even greater ease of use and visualization, as well as a host of new features and improvements, including 12 new distortion styles, a radically overhauled and expanded modulation system, enhanced envelopes, linear phase processing, and a pristine new ‘Superb’ High Quality mode.

FabFilter Saturn 2

Beautiful new interface with modulation visualization Saturn 2 looks better and flows faster than ever. The darker color scheme makes the plug-in easier to look at for extended sessions, and four interface size options and a stunning full-screen mode enable adaptation to any workspace.

Modulation is now comprehensively visualized at both source and target, too, with color-coded collars and tracks on knobs and sliders animating in response to modulation input, the source flow area giving an eye-catching overview of all mod signals, and indicators on controls and bands showing which parameters are being modulated at a glance.

Saturn 2 features

  • 28 diverse distortion styles, from warming tube and tape saturation to screaming American and British guitar amps, Transformers, bit crushing, smearing, rectification, and more.
  • Up to six separate processing bands, with variable crossover slopes: 6, 12, 24, 36, and 48 dB/octave.
  • Independent Drive, Mix, Feedback, Dynamics, Tone, and Level controls for every band.
  • Two High Quality modes for 8x and 32x oversampling.
  • Regular stereo and mid/side processing.
  • Intuitive interactive multiband display.
  • Powerful, flexible modulation system: drag and drop as many 16-step XLFOs, XY Controllers, Envelope Generators, Envelope Followers, Sliders, and MIDI Sources as required.
  • Full visual feedback of modulation via parameter animation and ‘source flow’.
  • Linear phase mode for mastering applications.
  • Four interface size options and full-screen mode.
  • Carefully curated factory preset library for amp modeling, coloration, lo-fi degradation, and FX.
  • All the usual FabFilter features users have come to expect: perfectly fine-tuned knobs and controllers, interactive MIDI Learn, undo/redo and A/B switch, Smart Parameter Interpolation for smooth parameter transitions, an extensive help file with interactive help hints, sample accurate automation, SSE optimization, and more.

FabFilter Saturn 2 is now available from FabFilter and distributor Plugin Boutique, priced 129 EUR / $154 USD / £114 GBP. It supports both Windows and macOS in VST and VST 3, AU, AAX, and AudioSuite plugin formats.

Bundles with FabFilter Saturn 2 and other FabFilter plugins are also available. Existing FabFilter customers can purchase or upgrade to FabFilter Saturn 2 at a discounted price.

To make self-quarantine just a little bit easier during the COVID-19 pandemic, FabFilter offers free 30-day evaluation extensions for all its plugins.