What are people’s favorite dirt plugins? Anyone have any good suggestions for an ITB Analog Heat alternative? I tend to be partial to tape/tube-style saturation myself. Sound Toys Decapitator is high on my list at the moment, particularly because I missed the Izotope Trash 2 sale.
I thought this was an interesting look at the Heat and Decapitator, among others.
I love the Vertigo VSM-3.
Gives a lot of control over harmonics as well as distortion. Pricey though. I waited a long time for it to be on special.
Fabfilter Saturn is pretty good also.
Decapitator is good, Radiator is good, Devil-Loc is more situational but also good.
I bought a few of the Kush plugins, sound very promising but haven’t used them much yet (I plan to though).
Would love to try the Culture Vulture plugin but £££.
That does look pretty good. Thanks!
Klanghelm stuff.
I think I need to wait for their bundle to go on sale. 
Soundtoys Decapitator is really nice, use this plugin quite a lot these days !
Heh, there’s a lot of goodness in that collection.
Of their distortion plugins, Radiator is probably my favourite, FWIW, but Decapitator is ace as well.
…all i need…is the heat…otb…
itb…?..OHM’S OHMICIDE…
Acustica Audio’s Crimson is really CPU hungry, but sounds incredible. I’d suggest getting into Nebula 4, and checking out the Cupwise, TimP, and AlexB libraries. Nothing sounds better than Nebula and Acustica Audio libraries imo.
https://www.alessandroboschi.eu/html/alexb/pcs_preamp_colors_saturation.htm
Soundtoys have Little Plate on sale for $29 just now. If you’re thinking about going for the bundle at some point, it’s worth picking up as you get really good discounts as an existing customer, even if you only have one plugin. I think I got Soundtoys 5 for way under half price.
Also, Little Plate sounds fantastic.
I think the sale might end tomorrow though.
I’ll second what finalform said as well. Radiator is my favourite of the bundle along with Little Plate. I use them on everything.
Edit: Sorry too late, the sale has just ended.
Black Rooster Magnetite, Softube Tape, Kazrog True Iron, Kush Omega 458a. The Kush & the Kazrog are reasonably priced & sound amazing.
Hard to have a favorite when each one is so unique.
I tend to prefer more subtle, less heavy handed stuff on the software side…
Kush 458a, Waves NLS (3 different consoles’ drive, solid transformer modeling), Wave Arts Tube Saturator 2.
For distortion instead of overdrive/sat, I like hardware.
Elektron Analog Drive, DOD Gunslinger, Zoom MS-50g , and I just won a raffle for a Big Muff Pi. Cost me $7 in raffle tickets. 
Nomad factory Garbage Lsd sounds filthy af so does Audiority Abuser.
Lsd is often on sale 
Another vote for the Fab Filter… Love most of their plugs.
I love this one: http://www.shatteredglassaudio.com/product/104
It’s not totally a distortion plugin, but you can get some fantastic sounds from it. iZotope Trash 2 is also a go to for us, along with NI Driver.
Guess I missed it, but good tip nonetheless. Thanks.
Softube Saturator is nice and simple. Just one knob and it adds a good bit of grit. People love Decapitator of course, but lately I’ve been more a fan of Devil Loc Deluxe…I’ve been putting it on too many things lol. I put it on a vocal track recently to great results.
I just bought this:
https://www.jrrshop.com/xln-audio-rc-20
I’ve had my eye on it for a while and it’s finally half off. A lot of times I want to make drums or guitar sound “creamy” and “old” but my other saturators just make them sound distorted…This seems like it’ll do the trick. I think I’ll try it right now!
i’ll echo the decapitator reviews, it’s fantastic for drums/bass. being able to tweak the output and mix levels really allows for anything between subtle warmth and crazy distortion. i bought the soundtoys bundle when it was on sale in november and i use decapitator the most (and they’re all really good). best purchase i’ve made in a while.