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Sausage Fattener in Bitwig - analyzed and re-created

Tutorial | Aug 12, 2024

In this video, I discuss the controversial Sausage Fattener plugin and its effect on music. I explain that it functions as a soft clipper with a compressor in front, preventing audio material from clipping too hard. To demonstrate its impact, I provide a free preset for Bitwig Studio that closely replicates the plugin's sound.

You can watch the Video on Youtube

In this video, I dive into what the "Sausage Fattener" plugin actually does. This plugin, which has become famous (and infamous) in the music production community, mainly functions as a soft clipper with some specific features. I also show you how to replicate its effect in Bitwig Studio using a custom preset that I’ve created. This preset closely mimics the behavior of the Sausage Fattener, so you can get the same results without needing the actual plugin.

Key Points:

Questions & Answers

Maybe you don't watch the video, here are some important takeaways:

What is the main purpose of the Sausage Fattener plug-in?

The main purpose of the Sausage Fattener plug-in is to make audio sound louder by applying a soft clipping effect with rounded edges. It also includes a limiter or compressor to prevent clipping and an EQ to enhance specific frequencies.

How does the Sausage Fattener plug-in work?

The plug-in works by first applying a hard-coded low cut to the signal to eliminate low rumble. Then, it introduces an EQ to push certain frequencies harder into the clipper, creating different overtones. Finally, the signal is passed through a soft clipper with rounded edges and a limiter or compressor to prevent excessive clipping.

What is the free preset for Bitwig Studio?

The free preset for Bitwig Studio is designed to replicate the effects of the Sausage Fattener plug-in. It includes a transfer curve, EQ, compressor, and gain knob, all set to match the same settings as the plug-in. By using this preset, users can achieve similar results without relying on the actual plug-in.

Are there any limitations or considerations when using the Sausage Fattener plug-in or the preset?

While the Sausage Fattener plug-in can make audio sound louder, it may not be suitable for every type of music or personal preferences. Using excessive gain or the plug-in too frequently may result in distorted or unpleasant audio. Additionally, using the preset excessively may lead to negative reactions from listeners.

Transcription

This is what im talking about in this video. The text is transcribed by AI, so it might not be perfect. If you find any mistakes, please let me know.
You can also click on the timestamps to jump to the right part of the video, which should be helpful.

[00:00:00] Hey folks, welcome back to another video. Today's plug-in has many names Sosig,
[00:00:05] Monsieur Sauce or just short Sausage Fattener and at some point in time it was
[00:00:10] probably the most hated and most beloved plug-in at the same time because it
[00:00:15] makes shit loud and a lot of people love loud music and a lot of people hate
[00:00:20] loud music so it was very controversial and it was also a lot of source of a
[00:00:26] lot of memes and in this video I want to show you what it does, what it really
[00:00:30] does because there are a lot of videos on YouTube that try to explain what it
[00:00:34] does but I show you what it really does and I also want to give you a
[00:00:39] free preset for Bitwig Studio that almost kind of nulls out what this plug-in
[00:00:45] does. So here we want to switch to plug-in doctor first and I can show you
[00:00:51] here in the oscilloscope and then we switch to wave shaper and then we bring
[00:00:58] down here the volume and we change here the input volume with the test signal
[00:01:03] and you can see we have almost like a diagonal signal here so input value is
[00:01:09] output value so nothing changes and then we increase here the loudness of the
[00:01:15] audio signal going in and you can see here at the top at 0 dB or 1 we get
[00:01:21] some kind of rounded edges so this is a soft clipper on the way to becoming a
[00:01:27] hard clipper so it's not really soft clipping it's not really hard clipping
[00:01:31] it's hard clipping with rounded edges I would call it that this way so yeah it's
[00:01:37] a soft clipper and then you push the audio material a bit harder then you
[00:01:43] can see this line here skews over to the right which means there's also a limiter
[00:01:53] or some kind of compressor in the process preventing the audio material going
[00:01:59] too hard into the clipper because when you push the audio material too hard
[00:02:03] into a soft clipper at some point it becomes a hard clipper or you get too
[00:02:08] many overtones or it's not audible anymore so there is a compressor involved
[00:02:13] but it's not in front of the it's not after the clipper it's in front of the
[00:02:19] clipper but the threshold is not 0 dB it's almost like 1 dB above 0 dB so it's
[00:02:26] preventing you from clipping too hard so that's the idea then we have here the
[00:02:33] frequency analysis part and this is more or less like a low cut you can see a
[00:02:40] low cut at 20 Hertz 50 Hertz going down to 20 Hertz so this is hard coded you
[00:02:45] can't change this low cut it's probably there to prevent you know low rumble
[00:02:50] going into the clipper and producing too many overtones or this harmonic
[00:02:56] overtones and then we have this color knob here which introduces a peak EQ to
[00:03:02] push certain frequencies harder into the clipper to produce different overtones
[00:03:06] or harmonics so this is the idea then when you increase here the fatness you
[00:03:11] can see this is here the effect of the clipper and at the same time this fatness
[00:03:17] knob is just a gain knob so you increase here the gain you can also use this gain
[00:03:22] knob to increase the gain or you can increase the gain in front of the plug
[00:03:28] in and push the audio material louder into the plug in so all of these things
[00:03:33] to the same so fatness knob gain knob is all the same and then color knob is an
[00:03:39] EQ so that's basically it this is the whole plug in what it does it's low
[00:03:46] cutting the signal then it applies an EQ and then you push everything into a
[00:03:53] soft clipper and then a limiter or a compressor in front of the clipper
[00:03:57] prevents you from clipping too much so in my opinion that's it and then I
[00:04:04] created from this a part I created some kind of preset it looks like this we
[00:04:09] have here a color knob and a fatness knob output gain and mix and then I have here
[00:04:15] on the second layer I have the Sausage Fattener here and I bring this down
[00:04:20] actually I use here global macros so I feel these global macros on the left
[00:04:26] side so I can change the fatness knob and the color knob on this plug in at the
[00:04:32] same time also on my preset here fatness and color right to actually test all of
[00:04:40] these positions all of these plug-in parameter positions so then I have here
[00:04:45] let's use the plug-in version first I feel a drum loop going into the sausage
[00:04:53] Fattener and I can turn up here the fatness knob
[00:04:58] okay and then on my preset here I'm using a tool device inverting the
[00:05:15] polarity to actually try and match you know to null it out basically so this
[00:05:20] is how it sounds so this is the preset polarity inverted with the wheel
[00:05:29] Sausage Fattener plug in you can see it's yeah kind of matching what it does
[00:05:37] we can also instead of this drum loop we can use here a test tone
[00:05:45] you can see here we have -30/60b it's almost nulling out
[00:05:58] right so it's doing the same thing and yeah that's more or less it it's actually
[00:06:09] just a soft clipper with a compressor in the front so here I can show you this
[00:06:14] I'm a Fx grid inside of the Fx grid there's a transfer curve I try to match
[00:06:19] here this rounded edge pretty much to have it as close as possible to the
[00:06:26] Sausage Fattener then in front of the Fx grid I'm using here an impulse
[00:06:34] response for the EQ cut right so I try to get exactly the same low cut then I
[00:06:42] have here some gain balance stuff then I use a compressor here and the
[00:06:49] compressor is not at 0 dB so it's not catching peaks at 0 dB that's important
[00:06:56] because you can see here I'm going slightly lower -0.9 dB right scaling it
[00:07:04] down and then at some point here I'm scaling the volume up again I think
[00:07:10] with the clipper here so this dynamics plug-in basically catches peaks over
[00:07:15] 0 dB so it prevents you from going into the clipper too much without processing
[00:07:22] the peaks before you process it with the clipper so that's important you need to
[00:07:27] go into the clipper first but then you don't want to go too much into the
[00:07:31] clipper so the threshold of the compressor is higher than the threshold
[00:07:38] of the clipper that's important then I'm using here an EQ5 for the color
[00:07:44] signal does more or less the same thing here yeah and then I go into the clipper
[00:07:53] and then after the clipper there's also gain knob increasing the volume again
[00:07:59] and then I'm using a time shift just to counter the latency of the plug-in so it
[00:08:03] matches also try this here
[00:08:07] right so it's important to counter the latencies we have each partial on each
[00:08:20] partial so it knows out and then we flip here the polarity and then I have also
[00:08:25] a scope here just to analyze this part so I put this preset here in the
[00:08:30] scripture below it does more or less exactly what this plug-in does and you
[00:08:35] can put it on your tracks and almost use the same settings so when you have like
[00:08:40] an old track and you have dialed in here 40% here and 40% here right you can dial
[00:08:46] this also in in this preset and it should sound exactly the same so this was my
[00:08:51] goal for this preset like I said it's in the scripture below don't use it too
[00:08:58] much because people will hate you hate you and that's it leave a like if
[00:09:05] like the video subscribe to the channel have fun with this preset thanks for
[00:09:09] watching and I'll see you in the next video bye