Not a compressor obviously , but I love the Elysia Karacter.
You get mid / side control and you can go from subtle tape style saturation to distorted with precise control of tone.
It levels things off really nicely and the Qube version is light and portable.
Very musical device, I love it.
It can be used more crudely , I love to ramp the gain on bass sounds to give an open filter sound without the brightness, it’s pretty versatile if you take the time to know it.
For master saturation plugins are gonna be so much more flexible.
I’d only go boum if you need it in a live context and in that cause I’d look at endorphin golden master as well.
But for home studio type shit? Saturn, Felt Brut, Radiator, etc theres some really high end plugins now that can do that for you and you have more flexible M/S, EQ, compressors in the DAW.
Boum is cool if the cash and you want to commit to a sound and hardware or need it live. But if you just want saturation on a final track do your mastering in the DAW.
you dial the mix down a bunch to get more subtle effects? You can tame it pretty easy like that
If I needed set and forget type of end of chain device, I would look into rackmount units. Such as 369-KT. Install into a small rack or so and it’s very portable if necessary.
area_808: for m/s saturation plugins, saturn 2 is the go-to (per-band m/s is a toggle in the interface). izotope ozone’s exciter also does m/s harmonic generation per mode.
for the tape/tube/transformer category without the m/s routing: something i built called WARM covers those three saturation types with spectral awareness to avoid masking in the low mids. fits the end-of-chain workflow you’re describing. demo at kernaudio.io.
I don’t believe in overkill but if there’s ever a box that gives you as much distortion as you could ever need it’s the BOUM
false, it’s Bestie 
Because Sherman Filterbank kills them both when it comes to distortion.
It’s mono though and different if you just want some stereo width and subtle warming on a main mix. For that, boum is better and handles your stereo signal.
Yes of course but somebody said:
Not talking about stereo or subtle warming.
…all oto devices are overkill by design and nature…
very very good design…
very very unique nature…
so, nope…boum will also boum up ur tv big time and for sure…
so, if u can afford it, why not…
meanwhile and since we’re on the elektron forum…if u never have tried an analog heat before…it might be time to give that a try… it’s boum factor is another level…
picking up on what @Area_808 mentioned about the plugin route post-recording: the saturation type matters a lot more than people expect.
tape circuits compress transient peaks and introduce subtle high-freq rolloff alongside even harmonics, which is why things feel “glued” and slightly softer up top. tube circuits lean heavier on 2nd order harmonics, adding air and presence without the compression. transformer emulations do something different again: they round transients and fatten the low-mids in a way that sounds like density rather than distortion.
stacking them lightly in sequence (tape first, then transformer) is how a lot of studio chains get that full sound without any one element being obvious. BOUM does a version of this in hardware but the headroom limit is fixed, which is why some people find the sweet spot tiny. ITB you can dial each circuit independently.
i’m biased since i built a harmonic saturation plugin (WARM) that does exactly this, but even setting that aside: Saturn, Radiator, the free Softube Saturation Knob for a quick check all work well here. the key is keeping individual stages subtle so nothing sounds processed.
Really insightful canter through the distortions there, Thank you!!
Dunno where else to post this, feel free to delete but – i went to see A Place To Bury Strangers in Prague yesterday and they had an OTO Boum slapped on the master throughout the gig – never seen that before (on a multi-instrument live act). Sounded great!
What about HEAT+FX in the equation? I love this machine!
I had a OTO Boum, and really liked it, but I was only really using the boost circuit to give some subtle dynamics/weight the chain - I just wasn’t into the other circuits personally.
However, it did sound great with the Tonverk. I tend to use my BIM’s THRU circuit instead these days and also keep it subtle - works really well.
OTO stuff is great (love the BIM & BAM). If I’m using any of the other boxes, I’ll run them through Overbridge and use ITB plugins… OB is on the horizon for the TV and there’s loads of great ones for enhancing the chain/drum breaks as mentioned in the thread. Personal favourites… Sound Toys Decapitator is quality… good comparison here to the new Singular Audio Tubedrve 19…
and I like Sausage Fattener
and Black Box hg2MS
Posted these before but these are decent vids on saturation: here’s one with other hardware including the AH comparison with Sebastian Voigt.
Ian Pooley comparing AH to some quality outboard. I had the Elysia Karacter and wish I hadn’t sold it ffs 
And Marlow Digs on the AH, on the master, and with other outboard
thats what i do always since years. when its accidently off i get stressed out until i find out why ^.^
edit: i guess it depends on the music how good it sounds. for my sound its just perfect. analog heat didnt work as well (as master glue)
I have both (Boum and Heat +FX) in my signal chain and it sounds great (at least, to my ears).
yes, the heat +fx is great. i have it on a bus. its very versatlie!
