Tube Saturator Vintage free dual triode preamp plugin

Wave Arts has launched Tube Saturator Vintage, a free reissue of the original Tube Saturator real time tube amp effect plugin for Windows and Mac.

Tube Saturator Vintage uses circuit simulation technology to faithfully reproduce the sound of a dual triode preamp.

The circuit simulation technology in Tube Saturator is very CPU intensive, which is why Wave Arts developed Tube Saturator 2, a vastly more efficient plugin that is nearly identical in simulation accuracy, and adds other features.

Unlike other tube simulators, which use radically simplified models, Tube Saturator uses state of the art circuit simulation technology to capture every nuance of an analog circuit. With circuit simulation, the analog schematic (consisting of the individual resistors, capacitors, tubes, and so on) completely defines the signal processing. The schematic is converted into a system of non-linear differential equations which is solved at each sampling period, in realtime. That’s mathematical talk for “it sounds exactly like the analog circuit”.
Tube Saturator is in fact a basic circuit consisting of a Baxandall type three-band EQ feeding two 12AX7 triode preamp stages, similar to preamp stages you’d find in a guitar or high fidelity amp, and hence you can get the same distortion and tonal characteristics that you’d get from saturating a real tube preamp. The circuit simulation technology is extremely CPU intensive and a fast computer is recommended to run the plug-in.
Increasing the Drive control increases the (digital) input gain while decreasing the (digital) output gain, so you can easily adjust distortion levels. The FAT switch changes the bias circuit of the first preamp stage to increase gain and saturation.
Use Tube Saturator to add a bit of analog warmth to recordings, or increase the drive for some distortion. You can use it as a saturating peak limiter too.

Tube Saturator Vintage features