Firstly, I wasn't quite sure what category to add this odd machine to . It could quite easily fall into a few different ones and no arguments would be made. Yes it is a distortion/enhancer but the compression and eq it does to the signal make it for me so much more.

Secondly, I would just like to say I love this machine. I am a home recording enthusiast with some studio experience. I primarily record vocals, acoustic instruments and percussion and this has to be one of best additions to my home studio. Obviously and hopefully all us "gearslutz" know that no one machine will make everything sound "amazing" but its generally a collection of all the items in one's recording chain....performer-room-mic-pre-comp-eq-converters etc but for me this was the big difference... nice mics and nice preamps sound good...no doubt.... but adding this in there too definitely brought a smile to my face.

Sonic flavours from a certain subtle depth, warmth, beauty to an all out mess are possible.. I literally end up putting most tracks through this machine as it seems to add so much...whether I want to just warm up a track or make it stick out a bit more or a bit fatter... I find it really helps.. My mixes sound so much more real and alive than they ever did.... Drums Guitars Vocals seem to work best... For me the extreme settings, when you're really pushing the valves, whilst sounding cool and very weird are sometimes a bit too extreme for me... bass seems to sound best on these settings to my ears. But obviously each song is different.... Perhaps you want your glockenspiel to sound like elephants stampeding. Personally I like my drums to and this box helps with that too.

As for my downsides which i have found during my use of it......well......personally i don't like using it over a whole mix...it's never sat right for me... doesn't sound bad.. just not for me.....some people love it.. i generally prefer more transparency over a whole mix... but find when i record or mix i like to get the mojo in there then on the individual tracks.

technically speaking the info is on the website which i have included. the machine is unbalanced which doesn't bother me in the slightest but lots of people like to complain about this. I've never found a problem with this aspect.

"Thermionic Culture" actually start off in the manual by saying and I quote

"Do not take this unit seriously. The Culture Vulture is a "fun" effects unit and has been designed for maximum pleasure"


Im sorry I do take it seriously. It really made my day the first time I started using it.. It still does.. yeah...it's a bit pricey.... but so are lots of things out there in music land, especially for a well made tube machine. I have never felt cheated by the price though and I think its sits at a reasonable range for what it does.. I don't think it's for everyone... I love how valves sound... they just do something that pleases my ear.... some people might hate what it does... but i don't really care... I LOVE IT!