Kent,
I think the J-37 might still be on sale. I love it and use it on almost everything. On reviews, users generally seem to prefer it to the Kramer and say it has more of a real tape feel. To me it is like butter. On the latest song I posted on the forum "Tahoma" I am using the set up shown in the picture in Bandlab using tube saturation, tape emulation, and the J-37 as well on the master bus.
It sounds pretty analog to me.

And yes, saturation is DEFINITELY the secret sauce. I am at the point where I have learned it is just best to go ahead and saturate everything.