Overview

Enhanced sonics through tasteful saturation
Looptrotter’s world-famous solid state saturation circuit adds low order harmonics, while smoothly evening out sounds in a musical and ear-friendly way. Use SA2RATE 2 to significantly increase your RMS level without raising peaks (and without introducing the artifacts of overcompression and limiting) all while adding welcome analog character to your mixes.

Custom-tailored saturation for clearer lows and smoother highs
SA2RATE 2 employs two unique circuits to help avoid the most common problems associated with oversaturation. “LO Safe” engages a pre-emphasis and de-emphasis circuit to prevent the lowest frequencies from distorting, allowing sources like kick, bass, drum groups and mix buses retain the power and clarity in their lows. Meanwhile, “HI Smooth” boosts high frequencies before the saturation circuit and attenuates them afterwards for deeper saturation and greater transient control of higher frequencies without added harshness.

Easily dial in the perfect character without overdoing it
SA2RATE 2’s Drive control adjusts the input level and the depth of the saturation at once, with the amount of added harmonics indicated by two LEDs that light up at 4% and 8% THD. Independent DRY and WET signal control lets you achieve the perfect blend between the processed and dry signal, allowing the plugin to sound very subtle, adding only slight coloration, or bold and aggressive with 100% saturation engaged. 

Plugin-only features make it even more powerful than the original hardware
As always, the engineers at Brainworx have added new digital-only features to this emulation. The LO Safe & HI Smooth filters have been upgraded further with the option of tuning their center frequencies to your taste. Also added is the “Magic” feature from Looptrotter’s SATUR summing mixer which warms up and opens the whole mix, giving it a wide, vivid, analog feel. Also included are M/S functionality for dialing in separate saturation to mids and sides, the Mono Maker, Stereo Width, new Density feature and the ground-breaking TMT (US Patent No. 10,725,727), offering an unrivaled analog experience in the box.

Features

  • Exacting emulation of the world class saturator, SA2RATE 2, endorsed and approved by Looptrotter
  • Warm up your audio with pleasing harmonics and gentle peak reduction
  • Sweepable LO Safe filter for keeping low frequencies tight, punchy and powerful
  • Continuously variable HI Smooth filter to add smooth saturation and transient control to high frequencies without adding harshness
  • Brainworx´s TMT inside: Tolerance Modeling Technology (US Patent No. 10,725,727) simulates channel-to-channel variances in electronic components for the most realistic analog sound in the computer
  • MAGIC Feature to warm up and open up the whole mix, giving it a vivid, analog feel added from the SATUR 8/24
  • Two Gain Compensation modes for DRIVE and MAGIC
  • Mono-Maker - Sums your low-frequency content to mono, giving you focused, punchy bass response
  • Stereo Width - To expand the stereo width of your tracks
  • Scalable User Interface

Audio Examples

Industry Reviews

  • Mick Schultz

    Mick Schultz

    Producer (Rihanna, Kelly Clarkson, Jeremih)

    What SA2RATE 2 can do to drums is incredible! The drive knob adds amazing character.

  • Brad Cox

    Brad Cox

    Producer, Mixer, Mastering Engineer (Slash, T Pain, Moonshine Bandits)

    Looptrotter is another home run for Brainworx. Lay it across your whole mix to add some color and punch or just use it to softly level things out. I found it fun and exciting on kick and snare to… Read More

  • Sam Sherbin

    Sam Sherbin

    Mixing Engineer (Stray Kids, Rachel Platten, Ebony Obsidian)

    This is one of the best distortion plugins I’ve ever used. It’s a mainstay on my drums now!

  • Tue Madsen

    Tue Madsen

    Music Producer & Sound Engineer (Meshuggah, Dark Tranquillity, Suicide Silence)

    Great new toy to smooth out or enhance my existing sounds. A great little new helper in many ways.

  • Tory G

    Tory G

    Producer & Audio Engineer (DJ Zenas, Kidd Dripp & KAI SNO)

    SA2RATE 2 has quickly become my go-to for making things THICK. Literally a cure for lifeless drums, sleepy vocals and adds distinct fullness to a mixbus. An instant mix template addition for… Read More

Customer Reviews

  • Best way to add punch

    ★★★★★
    by willcando
    This is the best go tool for bringing punch and clarity to my mixes and sound in my mix. It is a must have tool in my tool bag.
  • The closest thing to magic...

    ★★★★★
    by Ludvig Cimbrelius
    I love saturation and I have a gazillion different plugins for it, so I don't say this lightly: for the mix or master bus, SA2RATE 2 is the closest thing to magic I have found so far in the realm of… Read More
  • SA2RATE 2

    ★★★★★
    by X.LanDer
    hAV.2Rate.iT tHe Sa2.rAtiNG 11/10! Try it after your favoured tape emulation plug... & a little transient shaping for a plug after it to track audio thru... If that chain of plugs in series… Read More
  • vibes and color

    ★★★★★
    by Glenn Loopez
    One of my absolute favorite Plugin Alliance additions ever. Really nice for glue, vibe and coloring your bus. You should have this in your toolbelt
  • I own the hardware

    ★★★★★
    by Amadeusz
    First time I heard about this emulation I was a bit skeptical about this. Then came the moment when I had some time to test the plugin against the hardware. I bought the plugin finally. It's not 1 to… Read More

Specifications

Supported Plugin Formats
AAX DSP, AAX Native, AU, AAX AudioSuite, VST2, VST3

Supported Operating Systems
macOS 14 down to macOS 11
Windows 11 down to Windows 10

Mac
Intel, or Apple Silicon

PC
x64-compatible CPU

System Requirements
Display resolution: 1440 × 900px or 1280 × 960px or higher
Memory: 2 GB RAM

Downloads

With the Installation Manager you can select, download & install all the Plugin Alliance products. Select any and all formats you need for your system! Mac & PC.

ChangeLog

SA2RATE 2

Looptrotter SA2RATE2 - Changelog

Version 1.1.1 (Oct 9, 2023)
- General: fixed CPU spikes on Mac OS

Version 1.1.0 (Aug 15, 2023)
- General: added native Apple Silicon compatibility for AAX
- General: added macOS Ventura support
- General: improved plugin loading time in the DAW
- General: fixed issue causing Logic to crash when closing the plugin UI
- General: improved font drawing behavior

Version 1.0 (27 Oct, 2022)
- Release version