Overview

elysia enjoys a reputation among audio connoisseurs as a venerated boutique manufacturer of very high-end and innovative hardware. Now another of their greatest hits, the karacter Discrete Class A Stereo Saturator, has been precisely modeled by the wizards at Brainworx and made available as a plugin. Affectionately known as “The Coloring Box” by its fans because of the various ways in which it fattens and adds sparkle to tracks, karacter’s unique sounds separate it from the pack.

karacter is actually a bundle of two plugins: karacter mix and karacter master.

karacter mix provides a straightforward set of controls for treating mono and stereo tracks.

The more surgical karacter master plugin features independent controls for left and right channels or, in MS mode, mid and side channels and is optimized for processing full mixes and stereo stems and subgroups.

Both plugins give you three different saturation modes for painting your project’s tracks with colorful harmonics.

Saturation mode produces a gentle fattening and emphasizes odd harmonics — perfect for mastering, and for adding subtle size to pristine-sounding instruments such as acoustic guitar and grand piano.

FET Shred mode mimics the pleasing distortion of a driven tube amp; it adds a relative boost to even harmonics that transforms clinical-sounding electric guitar and bass tracks into bad boys.

The third saturation mode, Turbo Boost, should have a warning label on it! Waging total destruction, it hard-clips signal tops like a weed-whacker and sounds great used for radical processing of tracks and mutilating sound design.

Choose the saturation mode you want, and then push it harder or softer using karacter’s Drive control to dial in the ideal amount of beautiful sparkle or meat-grinding grit. For floor-rattling bass tracks, crank karacter’s Color control counter-clockwise to simultaneously jack up the saturated signal’s bottom and soften its highs. Grow a scruffy beard on clean FM synth tracks by rotating the Color control clockwise.

Spawn mayhem on drum overheads in MS mode by Turbo Boost-ing the kick and snare in the mid channel while keeping cymbals in the side channel sounding crystalline—or overdrive the entire kit! On full mixes, drum subgroups and stringed instruments, karacter’s Mix control lets you blend colorful distortion with your pristine input signal to produce the right balance of girth and detail. With elysia karacter, any track can be transformed into beauty or beast!

Features

  • Faithfully models the sonic qualities and behavior of elysia’s Discrete Class A Stereo Saturator
  • Two plugins included! karacter mix and karacter master
  • karacter master plugin provides surgical mid-side processing of stereo mixes, subgroups, tracks and stems
  • Enhance or destroy any signal, buss or master channel

Audio Examples

Industry Reviews

  • Paul Godfrey

    Paul Godfrey

    Producer/Composer (Morcheeba)

    They’ve nailed it again. I love elysia hardware and the karacter is no exception. This virtual version has that same cool fuzz I can dial in exactly the way I want it.

  • James Wiltshire

    James Wiltshire

    Producer (Freemasons, F9 Audio)

    Modern mixing and production is often all about controlled distortion and this near perfect emulation of elysia’s hot box is invaluable in getting level, punch and even fire into your sounds.… Read More

  • David Arnold

    David Arnold

    Composer (Casino Royale, Independence Day, Sherlock)

    karacter will let you be as subtle or as extreme as you like. On one hand it’s a mastering tool adding bite, grit, depth and presence to any number of individual or summed sounds. On the other… Read More

  • Josh Newell

    Josh Newell

    Producer, Engineer, Mixer (Linkin Park, Anthrax, Avril Lavigne)

    karacter may have just become my new favorite drum buss plugin. You can add some character (no pun intended) to lackluster drums by adding some pleasing THD, or you can really crank it and get… Read More

  • Deniz Koyu

    Deniz Koyu

    DJ & Producer (Spinnin' Records, Nicky Romero, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike)

    This is one of the most musical sounding saturation/distortion plugins that I’ve ever heard! Even with heavy distortion on a drum buss it will smash the transients in a really pleasant sounding… Read More

Customer Reviews

  • Best Saturation Plugin

    ★★★★★
    by sobrinN
    I had a chance to use the hardware and god this sounds close!
  • Quality wizadry

    ★★★★★
    by dirtnoise
    It just sounds fantasic, way beyond all other similar tools.
  • Awesome Plugin!

    ★★★★★
    by Max
    I'm loving this plugin! Delivers everything for subtle character to rough distortion. I'm using it a lot for nearly everything!
  • The perfect Saturator for Mastering

    ★★★★★
    by Saturn Voyager
    Are you tired of always using the sample tape plugin emulation on your master bus to give extra character to your sound? try this. I've been testing it and it's very versatile with a stunning sound… Read More
  • Karacter review

    ★★★★★
    by Jaffasplaffa
    I have had this plug in for a while now and I really like it. I have many, many saturation plug ins and this is definitely one of the best ones.
    5 stars from here :)

Specifications

Supported Plugin Formats
AAX DSP, AAX Native, AU, AAX AudioSuite, VST2, VST3

Supported Operating Systems
macOS 14 down to macOS 11
Windows 11 down to Windows 10

Mac
Intel, or Apple Silicon

PC
x64-compatible CPU

System Requirements
Display resolution: 1440 × 900px or 1280 × 960px or higher
Memory: 2 GB RAM

Downloads

With the Installation Manager you can select, download & install all the Plugin Alliance products. Select any and all formats you need for your system! Mac & PC.

ChangeLog

karacter

elysia karacter - Changelog

Version 1.9.1 (Oct 9, 2023)
- General: fixed CPU spikes on Mac OS

Version 1.9.0 (Aug 15, 2023)
- General: added native Apple Silicon compatibility for AAX
- General: added macOS Ventura support
- General: improved plugin loading time in the DAW
- General: fixed issue causing Logic to crash when closing the plugin UI
- General: improved font drawing behavior

Version 1.8 (Mar 15, 2022)
- General: added native Apple Silicon compatibility for VST3, VST2 and AU
- General: added macOS Monterey support
- General: added Windows 11 and Windows 10 21H1 support
- General: discontinued Windows 7 support
- General: discontinued macOS 10.9 and 10.11 support
- General: fixed metering behavior in block sizes of 2048 samples and higher

Version 1.7 (Mar 22, 2021)
- General: Compatibility with Logic on Apple Silicon devices via the Rosetta-2 layer
- General: Fixed possible artefacts when freezing or bouncing tracks in Pro Tools
- General: Fixed automation highlighting disappearing in Studio One
- General: Improved license dialog visibility in dark mode

Version 1.6 (May 27, 2020)
- General: Qualified for use with the Windows 10 May 2020 Update
- General: VST3: Fixed potential hangs in a DAW upon loading
- General: Fixed logical issues in undo / redo behavior
- General: Fixed UI resizing issues in Ableton Live on Windows
- General: Fixed audio processing initialization issues on amp and delay products

Version 1.5 (Nov 06, 2019)
- General: Qualified for use with macOS 10.15 Catalina
- General: Qualified for use with Windows 10 November 2019 Update
- General: Fixed plugin validation in Logic under macOS Catalina
- General: Fixed preset name restore in Logic when reopening a session
- General: Fixed opening authorization dialog triggering automation
- General: Improved instantiation times for plugins
- General: Improved license functionality and branding for subscription
- General: Removed 32-bit support on macOS and Windows

Version 1.4 (Jul 10, 2019)
- General: macOS 10.14.5 Update compatibility
- General: Windows 10 1903 Update compatibility
- General: Fixed activation issue in Windows hosts set to non-English language (e.g. Cakewalk)
- General: AU: Fixed issue with increased CPU and memory on reopening UI
- General: VST3: Fixed issue with adapting to host knob mode, and now prioritizing linear
- General: VST3: Fixed issue with VST3 preset permissions
- General: VST3: Improved synchronization between parameter states and some UI functions, e.g. toolbar reset

Version 1.3 (Nov 16, 2018)
- General: macOS Mojave compatibility
- General: Windows October 2018 update compatibility
- General: adding Windows High DPI support for VST2/3 plugins
- General: Fixed potential crashes in Cubase and other VST2 / VST3 DAWs
- General: Fixed potential CPU spikes and audio dropouts
- General: Fixed rendering in Pro Tools on the start of a session
- General: Fixed missing presets in Wavelab and other VST3 DAWs
- General: Improving keyboard control, fixing issues with catched keys preventing it from passing through to DAW
- General: Fixed parallel use of host sessions (e.g. with Live)

Version 1.2 (May 24, 2018)
- General: Microsoft Windows Redstone 4 compatibility
- General: Added computer keyboard control for plugin parameters
- General: Fixed Mouse scroll wheel not working in Windows 8
- General: Fixed an issue where plugins will not validate or load after a certain amount of plugins have been loaded (Windows)
- General: Fixed visual GUI freezes when adjusting DAW parameters, meters, analyzers (Mac)
- General: Fixed possible issue with Pick Pack licenses
- General: Small licenser stability fix

Version 1.1 (Oct 23, 2017)
- General: Mac OS High Sierra compatibility
- General: Fixed possible crash on online activation (Mac OS High Sierra)
- General: Fixed Logic Pro X not validating AU plugins (Mac OS High Sierra)
- General: Fixed CPU spikes and crashes with Cubase (Windows)
- General: Fixed bug that could lead to "AAE -6 error" in ProTools (Windows)
- General: Fixed crash with FL Studio
- General: Fixed crash when cross-opening plugins in various hosts
- General: Fixed crash when using mixdown in Audition
- General: Fixed crash in Final Cut Pro
- General: Fixed delayed parameter handling and crackling issues in Cubase with VST3
- General: Fixed bug where plugin settings were not saved in Harrison Mixbus
- General: Fixed bug that led to AAE error -9317 in ProTools when instantiating plugin
- General: Fixed bug where plugins did not render properly when "x ray" option is enabled in Sonar
- General: Modifications to factory presets were lost when reopening session
- General: Fixed mouse wheel behaviour with second monitor setup (Windows)
- Some plugins: Value labels do not appear every time when clicking on parameter in UI
- General: Faster instantiation time for plugins (Windows)
- General: Adding support for automation highlighting in Presonus StudioOne

Version 1.0 (Jun 15, 2017)
- Release version