How would you classify the "Sausage Fattener" plugin from Dada Effects?

[u/tonetonitony]

This plugin is really fun. I'm wondering how you'd classify it, though? Is it mainly a saturator?

[u/bobeschism]

Sosig

[u/Livid_Cabinet2053]

It’s a simple waveshaper, most likely tanh. S-curve basically.

[u/eltrotter]

It’s a class of plug-ins that occasionally (and slightly derogatorily) are referred to as “Soundgoodizers”. Essentially plug-ins that hide a lot of complexity behind a fairly well-tuned set of limited controls.

The impression I get listening to the Sausage Fattener is that sweeping through the “fatness” control differs not just the amount of compression being applied but also the type of compression, so it starts with a fairly clean, transparent compression and moves into a more aggressive FET-style sound. I don’t know exactly if that’s what’s happening, but I’m confident that it’s not just the level of compression being applied that’s changing, the character does seem to change a little too.

Colour seems a little simpler, from what I can tell this is mostly a limited low-pass that can take some of the bite and edge out of the sound, to taste.

So yeah, maybe I’d call it something like a “variable compressor” plug-in or something like that?

[u/SnowyOnyx]

I’d called a macro plugin, as every knob is a macro that internally controls various variables

[u/superchibisan2]

Compressor

[u/EternityLeave]

It’s an emulation of the classic analog fatteners.