It’s been a long time since I’ve posted a software/effects review. Mainly because in recent years the market has been absolutely  flooded .
It seems like everyone and his/her pup is pumping out plugins these days, certainly too many to review.
It occurred to me instead to refine things a bit and make a list of honourable mentions, slowly but hopefully surely.

I thought I’d start with a couple of plugins that I find really useful and enjoyable to play with. These are in the broad “Saturation” category and have become regular go to’s for
fast and excellent results. Used carefully, manipulating the harmonics of a track can really improve it. Not every track, but certainly some crucial ones like drums, bass, synths,
guitars, vocals and/or their subgroups.

In the latest version of Logic Pro, if you run an Apple Silicon Mac, there is a highly touted free one included called Chroma Glow. It boasts using AI to get the best results.
Logic fan sites speak very highly of it.
I’m not a fan. It’s ok, I suppose,  for free, but not for me.

What I am really impressed with, and use regularly, are the Omnitec-67A from Black Rooster and the just released SPL Machine Head from Plugin Alliance.

The Omnitec is based on the 60’s era Altec 1567A valve preamp that found a lot of use at Motown and other studios. Because these days developers can, this includes modern features
like a dry/wet mix pot and other useful features, but it’s because of how it effortlessly improves the sound source that I love using it. It makes tracks sit better in a mix, it
adds that “cohesion” to drums, and just sweetens things with ease. Great on brass too.
Simple to use, quick results, great sound. Love it.

(Image from Black Rooster website).

The SPL Machine Head is a recent release (January 2025) and is the latest recreation of the highly regarded original, which was a digitally powered hardware device, a rack mounted
tape saturation emulator. From the Plugin Alliance website:

“SPL’s Machine Head is the finest digital tape saturator ever built. With the tone of tape becoming so popular in pro production circles, this discontinued hardware is in demand. Many plugin developers have tried and failed to capture the magic of its code, until now. Nothing sounds closer, nothing sounds better.
With the help of the latest advancements in hardware modelling, SPL and SoundArt worked together on the original code for Machine Head. The result is this very special plugin – nothing sounds closer to the studio hardware.”

As with the Omnitec-67A above, I have also found this plugin capable of great instant results. It does, of course, differ from the Omnitec, as you would expect, especially in “Ultimate” mode, but they are
both just as useful, depending on the job at hand. I really like it on the main mix buss, which is probably no surprise. As it is a very successful tape emulator, it has traditionally been used to make a mix “sound like a record”. I’ve also had instant spectacular success on drums. Both this and the Omnitec are capable of replacing chains of plugins. With either on the drum buss, for example, I don’t reach for eq’s and compressors. Either one will do a great job, they just have different characters.
If you need this kind of plugin in your arsenal, and I think most of us do, having both of these great plugins will cover just about anything you can throw at them.
Even if your field is jazz or orchestral and not rock or pop, I’m sure you’ll enjoy them like I do.

(Image from Plugin Alliance website).