Name: Culture Vulture
Brand: Thermionic Culture
SKU: 1136
Rating: 4.25 (2 reviews)

Description

This is the original and still the only studio unit dedicated to just adding valve produced harmonic distortion to sounds, with no solid state components in the way. This unique unit has changed little since its introduction in 1998.

There are 3 basic settings for the type of distortion:

T gives the typically "musical" effect found with triode valves and is good for just "warming up" a sound.
P1 means that the "distortion" valve is switched to Pentode mode to add odd harmonic which make the sound more aggressive, but retaining that valve character.
P2 is the "No Holds Barred" setting and is very unusual way of configuring an unusual valve, even giving an extra octave at higher bias settings.

The Bias control varies the current through the "distortion" valve (6AS6 type) and this current is shown on the milliameter. At low current the Vulture is "starved" and the sound is inclined to be thinner and "break up" easily. High current and the Vulture is over-fed and becomes quite fat and bloated. At medium current (0.25-0.3 mA) it distorts least, and this is the best setting for just "warming up" a sound. When the Vulture is over-driven, the meter may "twitch" and this gives a good indication of how drastic the distortion is.

The Low-pass filter has a 12dB/octave slope and will remove unwanted frequencies above 6 or 9 kHz (selectable) so as to make the sound more "rounded". The Drive control and Overdrive switch give the user ample control over the amount the input signal is boosted before it hits the 6AS6 valve.

The Output Level controls the amount of signal going to the output valve. This control should be set at 8 + for low distortion and turned back when Drive is increased for more distortion, except when P2 is selected.

The Bypass switch completely bypasses the unit so that the Culture Vulture's effect can be accurately compared to the original.

Discussions

What's on your master bus? (analog only please)

...stage it can bring out subtle harmonics/sparkle and adds depth.but not like an eq.more robust and deeper sounding than the culture vulture. You can get program louder/tone shape in an extremely musical way. Plays nicely with mix buss compressors(Shadow Hills) Less limiting later. Mastering guys are getting into it as well. I think there's a custom stepped option. Super...

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10 years later! check out my home HIGH END studio

...(x2) EQ Chandler Curve Bender Pulse Techniques EQP IA3 (pultec) Rupert Neve 5032 Bettermaker Mastering EQ Pres BAE 1023 API 512 TG2 500 Coil 286S (upcoming) DI Zod DI ID Audioscape Classic DI FX Thermionic Culture Vulture Anamod ATS-1 Bricasti M7 Elysia Karacter 500 LTL Silver Bullet Roland Dimension D UAD Octo Mics Chandler Redd Royer 121 Oktava m012 Shure sm7b Manley Cardiod Ref Neumann KM182 Shure sm57 Earthworks SR25 DPA 4006TL Monitoring Amphion Two25 + Flexbase25 Reftones Trinnov ST2 PRO Antelope Satori Instruments Fender Tele professional II Fender Precision Roli Seaboard Gibson Hummingbird Tenor Guitar ======== Thanks...

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Plug-in deal discussion & general chatter

...also the Live Rig Standalone Plugin Host that I never even knew existed which is also free - https://www.nembriniaudio.com/collections/free/products/live-rig-plugin-host Then I got the Culture Vulture type thingie - https://www.nembriniaudio.com/collections/tone-character/products/the-voltour-2-channel-all-valve-enhancer as it seemed pretty good value at that price and I've heard really good things about Nembrini from quite a few people. So I had to find another plugin to...

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