Shit - I like Jagermeister AND the Culture Vulture! Does that mean I need counselling ... ?

I'm gonna order one of these this week.

The Early Bird Mic pre is the buisness too!
I assisted Vic a few times years ago, he's a Legend!

Ordered!

earlybird >>> phoenix= an amazing combo for my vocals... Shiny, fat and hi-fi. Glorious tone!

Everytime I plug in the EarlyBird 2 it makes me smile... what a wonderful unit!!

good. next time you smile take a pic and put it on here.

hey guys,

could someone post a soundfile?

I would like to hear how the culture vulture sounds over a complete mix....is that possible?



cheers and thanks in advance

So we have this song we've been working on where we've used nothing but the M-A "KM-69" mic for everything except kik drum... overheads, H/H, snare [he wasn't hitting to hard... it'll crap out if you hit to hard], piano, both gtrs and bass were all mic'ed with the KM-69.

Here's about a minute twenty of a rough mix of that song with and without the Culture Vulture. We added the Culture Vulture in a parallel manner which added [exactly] 3db to the final presentation which we turned down on the sample with the CV on it.

So... here's a sample of it in "Triode" and a bit of drive [but not "overdrive"] that should have absolutely no bearing on your reality but was a fun way to kill an hour.

Peace.

its realy, realy seldom that someone post files of the CV here, so fletcher is my hero of the day....

thanks fletcher, the snare sounds superstrange tho´...

I think a tiny amount of compression on the Phoenix kicks arse...holds the bass together, makes the track groove, more for heavy rhythm driven music. Then again, I lot of engineers I know don't like the 'sound' of compression, or haven't really messed around with it much.

It's without doubt the best vari-mu I've ever used for mastering. Would like to put it up against the Gyraf Gyratec X, unfortunately it's not available here.

here's a fragment of me playing some raw bass-notes using the Culture Vulture as an insert for my Yamaha CS01 (with PWM)...

it's certainly not the best CV-demo ever, since this device is very versatile.. have a look anyway!

YouTube - CS01 through Culture Vulture

Hiya, you can't get to hear a Phoenix, where abouts are you based, I'll try and get you in touch with someone if you like?

Nice One Matey! It's subtle, but even playing on my office Mac we detected an overall thicker sounds to the track, the snare certainly semed to have more body to it.

Thanks for posting up this youtube clip, sounds fat. would have been good if it was flipped into bypass occasionally so we can compare. We have actually shot a training video on the Culture Vulture with Thermionic's own Nick Terry at the helm. Needs editing etc which I must do and post up here.

good point, I'll make another video while using the bypass function

Thanks we already use the phoenix, I would live to hear a Gyraf Gyratec X.

Just wanted to add on to this forum for the Cult' Vult' ...

I just got mine today, and I have to say it freakin rocks!

I recently sold my analog console and was doing a lot of mixing in the box, and I lost that good analog harmonic distortion and this thing gave me back more than what I had lost!

Its good for anything, I even strap it across my mix bus after an SSL bus compressor, with very light and subtle distortion, the valves add some great warmth with no loss in quality and it really does give some balls to your mix. Great for vocals, guitars, drums - your mix - anything!

I'm definitely glad I got this thing. I'd like to get the Phoenix next.

Two thumbs up for the Cult' Vult' thumbsup thumbsup

Thanks for the great quote Brody! I'm pleased that you've found lots of uses for it and that it's slotted right into your existing system.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Thermionic Culture.

I don`t think so the price is OK for that unit I played around with one at a friends place and it is amazing what nice saturation products you get from it. I t relay invades you to do many experiments in the mix-down process to get a better RMS/PEAK level on single tracks.

It is amazing....and if I would have the bucks for it it would be one tool which I would buy without any question.

Not sure if anyone has covered this, or thought of doing this -

Changing a tube or two in it?

Maybe get a different "color" from it?

Not sure if its possible or not, just thought it may be an interesting idea. IF it would actually fit, maybe throw a 6386 tube in thereheh

It comes stock with a Philips 5___ something in the middle (yes I opened it to check out the tubes) I think (if it was possible) that would be the only tube I'd change out - just to play!

Very possible. However mine sounds just great with the stock tubes, so I don't have much incentive to swap them out. I don't actually *want* it to sound any different (other than the differences I get from changing the settings...).

Oh I 100% agree with you, I love the way it sounds as is..I was just curious if anyone has tried it with a better tube...

I incorporate my CV into every mix I do, love it!

Any point in adding this to my rack if Im already driving the tubes on the Manley vari-mu?

In short, yes.

Vari-Mu is not a distortion unit (though you can squeeze a little distortion from it if you push the envelope), while the Vulture is not a compressor (though you can squeeze a little compression from it if you push the envelope). The area of overlap between these units is relatively small.

The Vari-Mu is a damn good compressor. Very different than the Culture Vulture, even so since the CV is not a compressor. It has been compared many times to the Cranesong Hedd - but better. I recommend going to Vintage Kings site, they have the "hear the gear" feature on there, and you can take a listen to what the CV does. I personally like to use it to add a touch of distortion on acoustic drums (depending on the song of course) and to very digital sounding tracks. Its just a cool a$$ unit

but even so since, the CV is not a high end converter......

I wish I could mod mine to stop the bottom end from fuzzing up on certain sources...

I love the fat thing, but it can get a bit OTT on mix bus due to that.

It has stacks of distortion, I wish it could be as subtle as the Rooster sometimes but I love mine.

Any ideas? Also gain staging wise, I wish there was more clean gain in the output so one could run in at low drive levels for a little warming without the dirt and get unity back out, not always the case due to bias settings...


Love this box though. Drums, synths, bass, rhodes and keys etc are just insane though it.

-Tom

Pre and post EQ. Shelve the bass down before the box, and put it back after it. You get all the distortion you want on the midrange, but the bass stays clean.