5 SATURATION & DISTORTION PLUGINS THAT MAKE HARD MUSIC HIT HARDER

If you make hard techno, hardcore, gabber, industrial techno or anything else on the heavier side of electronic music, distortion is probably already part of your workflow. But there’s a big difference between simply adding distortion and actually knowing what to do with it.

And if you've ever spent an hour tweaking a kick only to realize that you've somehow made it louder but not actually harder, you already know what we're talking about.

Push a kick through the wrong plugin and you can end up with a flat, muddy mess. Use the right kind of saturation, at the right stage, and that same sound can suddenly feel louder, dirtier and much more alive.

We've all been there. You find a kick that sounds huge on its own, put it into the mix, add some distortion, and suddenly the low end disappears or the whole thing turns into a wall of harsh frequencies.

For hard music, distortion isn't just an effect. It can completely change the character of a sound.

So, here are five plugins worth having in your arsenal if you want your kicks to hit harder, your drums to sound nastier and your entire mix to feel more aggressive.

1. FAB FILTER SATURN 2

FabFilter Saturn 2 is one of those plugins that can do almost anything. At first glance, it looks like a saturation plugin, but in reality it's much more flexible than that. You can use it for subtle analog-style warmth, heavy distortion, multiband processing, amp-style tones, bit crushing and a lot more.

That's exactly why it works so well for hard music.

The multiband system is particularly useful when working with kicks. You can keep the sub relatively clean while completely destroying the midrange, for example. This gives you that aggressive distorted character without completely destroying the low-end foundation.

If you've ever tried to make a kick sound absolutely filthy while still keeping that solid sub underneath it, this is where Saturn 2 becomes really useful. You don't have to choose between a clean low end and an aggressive kick. You can treat them almost like two different sounds.

You can also automate the distortion, push certain frequency bands harder, or create completely different characters from the same kick. It's one of those plugins that can easily become a permanent part of your sound-design workflow.

Best for: Kicks, basses, synths, percussion and creative sound design.

The trick: Don't automatically turn everything up. Try using Saturn 2 mainly on the mids while keeping the sub relatively controlled. You'll often get a much bigger result.

2. SOUNDTOYS DECAPITATOR

If Saturn 2 is the Swiss army knife, Decapitator is the weapon.

Decapitator has a very particular character, and you can hear it working almost immediately, especially when you start pushing the Drive. It's great for adding attitude to sounds that feel too clean or, let's be honest, a little too polite.

Hard music doesn't always need polite.

Put it on a kick, percussion loop, bass or synth and start turning up the Drive. The sound quickly becomes thicker, more aggressive and more forward. One of the best things about Decapitator is that it doesn't simply feel like you're adding digital distortion. It has a strong analog-inspired character that can make individual elements feel much more physical.

You know that moment when a synth or percussion sound is technically fine, but it just doesn't have enough attitude to sit next to a massive hard kick? This is the kind of situation where Decapitator can make a surprisingly big difference.

The Punish button is also extremely dangerous.In a good way.Use it carefully.

Best for: Kicks, basses, percussion, synths and drum buses.

The trick: Try driving the signal harder than you normally would, then use the Mix control to blend some of the original sound back in. Sometimes the destroyed signal sounds better when you don't actually use 100% of it.

3. D16 DEVASTATOR 2

If you're looking for something specifically suited to dirty electronic music, D16 Devastor 2 deserves attention.

This isn't really about making something sound warm and expensive. It's about making things sound wrong in the right way.

Devastor 2 combines distortion, filtering and compression in a way that works particularly well on electronic drums and bass sounds. That makes it a great choice for old-school rave, hard techno, industrial sounds and hardcore.

Feed it a kick and you can quickly start creating those crunchy, exaggerated mid frequencies that help a kick cut through a loud mix. It's also fantastic on drum loops. A relatively boring loop can suddenly become much more aggressive and characterful.

And sometimes that's exactly what you're looking for. The original sound might be perfectly usable, but it feels too clean, too modern or simply doesn't have enough personality. A plugin like Devastor 2 can push it into a completely different territory without requiring a complicated chain.

Best for: Kicks, drum loops, percussion and rave-style bass sounds.

The trick: Experiment with the filtering before adding more distortion. Sometimes the difference between a powerful distorted kick and a horrible distorted kick is simply which frequencies you're feeding into the distortion.

4. BLACK BOX ANALOG DESIGN HG-2

Not every hard sound needs to be completely destroyed.

Sometimes the problem is simply that a sound feels too sterile. That's where the Black Box Analog Design HG-2 comes in.

It's a tube saturation plugin designed around adding harmonic character, density and warmth. That might sound like something more suited to rock or mastering than hardcore, but that's exactly why it's useful.

Hard music can become extremely dense very quickly. If every element is heavily clipped and distorted, the mix can lose depth and start sounding like one giant block of noise. A more musical saturation stage can help bring some life back into the signal.

If you've ever reached the point where your track is loud, aggressive and technically "hard", but somehow feels smaller and flatter than it did earlier in the process, backing away from extreme distortion can sometimes be the answer.

The HG-2 works particularly well on basses, synths, drum buses and sometimes the master bus when used carefully. It's less about "MAKE IT DESTROYED" and more about making the sound feel bigger.

Best for: Bass, synths, drum buses and mix-bus processing.

The trick: Use less than you think. A little saturation before heavier distortion can make the final result feel much more powerful.

5. OHMICIDE

If your idea of distortion is basically "How far can I push this before it becomes completely insane?", Ohmicide is for you.

Ohmicide has been around for years and has earned a reputation for extremely aggressive multiband distortion. And it makes sense.

You can treat different frequency ranges independently, meaning your low end, mids and highs don't have to suffer the same fate. This is incredibly useful for hard kicks. You can keep the bottom end relatively solid while going absolutely mental with the upper harmonics.

Anyone who has spent hours trying to get that perfect balance between a brutal kick and a controlled sub will appreciate this kind of control. You can make the top end absolutely vicious without necessarily sacrificing everything underneath it.

It's also a fantastic sound-design tool.

Don't just use it to process finished sounds. Throw individual hits, loops, synths or weird recordings into it and see what comes out. Sometimes the best hard music sounds start with something that was never supposed to sound good in the first place.

Best for: Extreme distortion, kicks, basses, percussion and experimental sound design.

The trick: Use multiband processing aggressively, but always check what is happening below the fundamental of your kick. More distortion doesn't automatically mean more impact.

SO WHICH ONE SHOULD YOU USE?

There isn't really a single "best" distortion plugin for hard music. It depends on what you're trying to achieve.

Want maximum flexibility? FabFilter Saturn 2.

Want character and attitude? Soundtoys Decapitator.

Want filthy rave-style processing? D16 Devastor 2.

Want analog-style saturation and density? Black Box Analog Design HG-2.

Want completely ridiculous distortion? Ohmicide.

But there's one thing worth remembering.

DISTORTION IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR A GOOD SOUND

This is probably one of the biggest mistakes people make.

If your kick doesn't hit before distortion, adding another distortion plugin isn't necessarily going to fix it. And we've all fallen into that trap: one more saturator, one more clipper, one more distortion plugin... and somehow the kick is getting worse with every step.

The best results usually come from layering different stages of processing.

A clean or well-designed kick can first be shaped with EQ and compression. Then you can add saturation to generate harmonics. After that, heavier distortion can be used to create aggression.

You don't necessarily need one plugin doing everything. In fact, some of the hardest kicks are built from several relatively simple stages.

And that's where distortion becomes much more interesting.

You're not simply making a sound louder. You're creating new harmonics, changing its shape and giving it a completely different personality.

For hard techno, hardcore, gabber and industrial music, that's often where the real character comes from.

So turn the distortion up.

Just don't forget to turn your ears up too.