The Softube Drawmer 1976, a three-band saturator and width processor, was released in February 2025. It is the latest collaboration between Softube and Drawmer, joining their existing line of plugins like the Drawmer 1973 Multi-Band Compressor and S73 Intelligent Master Processor. The 1976 models the classic Drawmer 1976 hardware, offering features like per-band saturation control, stereo widening, and master filters.Â
Softube Drawmer 1976 - Expert Review
For some, the precision of the DAW isn’t always as attractive as it sounds. Its ability reflect audio back at the listener unchanged might be the Holy Grail for designers, but engineers and listeners with one hundred years of analogue influence bending their tastes often want imperfect sounds. From this continues our love affair with electronic delights that abrade the signal in some way, and for some, analogue saturation is where it’s at.
The idea of virtual saturators that perform as well as their analogue counterparts is not new, with some of the best-regarded existing since the birth of the DAW itself. Bringing the countless audio plugin bonuses that are hard to ignore, for many a decent virtual incarnation can be the best of both worlds.
Softube Drawmer 1976 - Overview

Billed as a three band saturator and width processor, Drawmer 1976 is the latest in Softube’s line of virtual tools inspired by or modelled on units from Brit outboard legends Drawmer. This joins longstanding black and yellow flavours such as the S73 Intelligent Master Processor and the Drawmer 1973 Multi-Band Compressor.
While these existing tools have dealt with dynamic delights, Drawmer 1976 takes on everyone’s favourite analogue application: Saturation. Drawmer’s hardware unit of the same name offers perhaps some of the most controllable multiband analogue character out there, however Softube’s virtual creation goes even further than the hardware. This features additional filters and mix control in the master section, as well as extended Mid/Side metering plus switchable Analogue and Digital width modes.
Softube Drawmer 1976 - Key Features
Stereo three band saturator and width processor based on Drawmer hardware.
Per-band control of saturation, width, and level, with band Mute and Bypass buttons.
Master Low Cut (pre saturation) and High Cut (post saturation) filters exclusive to Softube Drawmer 1976.
Master Mix control and Mid/Side metering exclusive to Softube Drawmer 1976.
Analogue and idealised Digital Width Mode switching exclusive to Softube Drawmer 1976.
Softube Drawmer 1976 - Features And Sounds
Expert Panel - Hit or Miss?
In every Expert review we ask three of our team of contributors to give their first impressions of the product. We ask them to give the product a hit or miss, based on factors such as originality, innovation, usefulness, quality and value for money. For each hit the products gets an Expert Award. One hit and it gets our bronze award, two hits gets silver and for a hit from all three of the panel it gets a coveted gold award. Of course if there’s three misses, there’s no award.
Dom Morley On Softube Drawmer 1976
A saturator has to be very good to get me to raise an eyebrow. Saturation is one of those effects that I struggle to be hugely impressed by. I see a lot of people who rave about saturation plugins or hardware units but to me it's a 'nice to have' function of mixing and not a necessity. As a rule I'm far more interested in new EQs, compressors or space making effects like reverb and delay. That said, as I play with this plug-in my eyebrow is raised.
Drawmer and Softube have done something smart here. With three bands of independent control (and adjustable crossover points) you’ve got the ability to really shape your sounds with some very nice saturation or drive. But coupled with a stereo width control on each band you can get into some serious tweaking of just how much space you’re taking up in the mix before you’ve even reached for your EQ. This turns out to be a pretty powerful combination. The details are good too – It’s not just adding stereo width, you can take it away as well, and there’s a mono button on there too so you can easily check how much you’re losing from the phase effects of stereo enhancement when you listen in mono. If I were to make one criticism, it’s that the default setting (perhaps just in the pre-release version I have though) has saturation up on all three bands already. So every time I put it on a channel the first thing I have to do is turn three knobs down to get to a flat position. This is a bit annoying, and although I could save a preset to get me to all-knobs-to-zero, I shouldn’t have to.
Finally, and most importantly, it sounds great. If you’ve used Softube products before then you probably already guessed this – All their plug-ins sound great – But this one really does.
So, it’s a Yes from me. Hit.
Luke Goddard On Softube Drawmer 1976
I don’t know about anyone else, but I must admit that I’m a bit of a recovering saturation addict. When a new one comes my way I’m always up for seeing if it can dislodge my go-to from an insert slot or three. As a fan of Softube’s own saturation flavours as a whole, I was interested to hear their take on Drawmer’s hardware 1976, not least because this unit is pretty unique in what it does.
This kind of supercharges Softube’s longstanding ethos that gives users control over character - They certainly try to implement this in varying forms beginning with their excellent, free Saturation Knob’s Keep High/Low/Neutral switch. Moving on from that I think blendable multi-band saturation is far from overkill, instead handing an appropriate level of customisation to the engineer. This basically lets users get so many more different behaviours out of what is in real life a solid-state distortion box. These can be anything from the personalities of tape, tube, transformer, or full-on oblivion to tickle the fancy of fuzz fiends everywhere. Having control over width in each band is also a great addition that will only add to the versatility of Drawmer 1976.
I found that it works especially well across the whole mix - I can’t say the same for all saturators that can make mixes like they’ve been painted with a mixture of syrup and metal filings! That said it can still deliver on tracks, although I think the option to set up the flavour before linking the three saturation bands would have made Drawmer 1976 quicker to work with; band solo buttons would also have been more useful additions to the virtual ‘76 than the Width modes or MS meters - This is only personal preference though and Drawmer 1976’s complex, musical textures sound great. Right now this is my new favourite flavour across busses and mixes. For many it could be the only saturator they will ever need. HIT.
Eli Krantzberg On Softube Drawmer 1976

The thing about saturation is that it requires a gentle touch if you want subtle results. If you want the "rich harmonics" saturation plug-ins all boast about, they can usually generate them without significant distortion if used sparingly. Splitting the frequency range allows for even more targeted control. Which brings me to my first niggle in Softube's new Drawmer 1976 Three Band Saturator plug-in.
I wanted to try saturating the bass in a mix I am working on from about 100 Hz to 300 Hz. The crossover frequency ranges, however, don't allow for this level of precision. Using the mid-band only, since I didn't want to saturate the very bottom end, I could only dial in 100 hz to 800hz. Isolating the mid-band and dialling the saturation up to three, generated a gentle distortion that added a lovely gritty fullness that enhanced the sound beautifully. I narrowed the stereo image to focus the sound even more, and the low end came alive in the mix. Pushing the saturation further added some of the most authentic-sounding analog style saturation I have heard in any plug-in. It wasn't to my taste in this particular mix, but it sounded rich, fuzzy, and full of character.
I tried the plug-in on the drum bus next. Auditioning a few of the presets was a good starting point, but I am not a fan of saturation on the very low end of the kick drum. So, I started from scratch. Which brings me to my next small niggle with the interface. I don't like it when plug-ins do not include a "default" state preset. If you want a fresh start after experimenting, it becomes necessary to remove and recall the plug-in to start from the factory default. Softube is by no means the only company with this omission though. And it is, of course, simple to save your own Default preset. Bypassing the low band, I set the mid-band to saturate from about 200 Hz to 800 Hz. Even pushing the saturation knob hard, it added a beautiful full roundness to the midrange with no audible distortion - which is exactly what I wanted to achieve. The top band saturation brought out the upper mids in the snare and high hat beautifully, again without the distortion I like to avoid. The stereo widening opened up the top end even more.
Up next was an electric guitar solo. I didn't have to go any further than the "electric guitar distorted" preset for the vibe and character of the plug-in to enhance the sound and shine through. It added something special that I could not easily imagine getting with any other plug-in that I own. And I love the gain matching function on the advanced output panel. The guitar, with its warm blanket of saturation, blended into the mix perfectly.
In summary, this generates beautifully controlled saturation that can be subtle, or driven hard without any of the digital harshness lesser saturation plug-ins produce. One thing I would like to see is separate input gain staging for each band. I don't know of any other multi-band plug-ins that do this, but it strikes me as something that would be very useful. I realize it's a popular aesthetic in plug-in design, but I also much prefer bypass buttons with a stronger colour differentiation between their on/off state. Happily, there is a pop-up tag indicating the current state. The mix knob, gain matching, input filtering, detailed metering, two modes of stereo widening, and mono compatibility check button, are fantastic add-ons that make this a pleasure to work with. Despite the small niggles and enhancement requests, the Drawmer 1976 is a HIT.
Its textured saturation has tons of personality without any of the digital harshness. It is a top-shelf saturation plug-in that will enhance and enliven mix elements in any area of the frequency range necessary.
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