Waves Abbey Road Saturator

From light saturation for an exquisite vocal or synth edge, to heavier saturation that gives bass and drums palpable punch, to industrial-grade mayhem and everything in between—this isn’t about ordinary saturation. It’s about the color and power unleashed by Abbey Road’s saturation signal chain.

Choose the REDD console’s tube sound, or the TG12345’s round, solid-state tone. Add pre- and post-saturation EQ, and then excite it all through the ultra-rare TG12321 “secret weapon” compander—nothing sounds like this.

Tube or Solid-State Saturation? Yes.

Choose from the famous tube crunch of Abbey Road’s REDD consoles, and the modern solid-state edge of the TG12345—both in one plugin. Go from subtle to extreme, with the sophisticated input, gain, and output stages of both consoles calibrated to perfection together with Abbey Road’s engineers.

Excite Your Saturation with the TG12321 Compander

Abbey Road’s engineers hacked the EMI TG12321 compander, originally designed in 1964 as a noise reduction unit, to excite tracks and help them cut through the mix. Now you have access to this effect. Control the compander’s crossover frequencies to excite specific frequency ranges: lower settings are ideal for bass and kick—or dial it up to help vocals shine.

Sculpt Your Saturation Tone Abbey Road-Style

For tonal transformation, adjust the pre- and post-saturation EQ, with high and low shelf, and parametric midrange. Emphasize or reduce frequencies to be distorted, then shape the final tonal character.

Mid-Side Saturation & More Modern Additions

Choose your processing mode: stereo, mid, or sides. Crunch the kick and bass in mid, spread the image with light saturation in the sides, or lift an entire stereo bus with the saturation character that’s ideal for your music. Other modern additions include the phase knob, which alters the character of the distortion harmonics.

Legendary Analog Sound

Like all Waves Abbey Road plugins, Abbey Road Saturator is based on decades of research and experimentation in audio, led by the golden ears and genius of legendary Abbey Road engineers such as Geoff Emerick and Peter Bown, who helped shaped the sound of modern music to this very day.