FabFilter

Hello. Automatic gain compensation seems not to work at all in Saturn 2. Increasing drive increases output volume, in all cases.I am missing something, or Saturn 2 does not have automatic gain compensation? Thanks

Hi JFL,

Saturn 2 does have a form of automatic gain compensation. It tries to mach the loudness of the processed signal to the initial loudness. However, the thing about distortion and saturation, is that it makes stuff sound louder, while it's not. It also heavily affects the dynamic range of the audio, usually reducing transients.

When a signal has less transients, meaning less dynamic range, it can sound louder while having the same loudness level as the unprocessed audio. We've tried to compensate for this in the gain compensation of Saturn 2, but with with creative plug-ins like Saturn 2 gain compensation a lot more complicated than with linear processing like EQ, or dynamic processing that has less effect on the harmonics and frequency response, like compression.

So, yes, Saturn 2 does have gain compensation, but it might nog be as transparent as in some of our other plug-ins.

Thanks for your quick and thorough reply.

After further experimentation with the plugin, I realize that Saturn 2 does have some sort of automatic gain compensation, as you rightly point out.

Thing is that some modes of saturation keep RMS pretty much around the same values as the original signal when increasing drive, but other modes and presets (The Tube, for example) do clearly increase output loudness level with drive...

Might not be possble at all, but it may be nice to have different types/degrees of automatic gain compensation available, so that the user can choose whatever works better depending on the source and type of saturation... Would that make any sense at all?

Anyway, thanks for the reply. Responsive customer support is a something appreciated.

Hi JFL,

Thanks for the feedback, we'll look into this!