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TUBE VITALIZER
When recording on digital equipment it is essential not to over-
load the inputs of such systems which results in invalid samples
or digital peaks. The high frequencies can contain transients or
sharp s-sounds with high peak levels. The High Comp. works with
a soft-knee characteristic and smoothens these peaks. We desi-
gned the compressor around the well acclaimed THAT 4301 VCA
as a ‘one-knob’ solution to make it easy to operate. The threshold,
attack and release are automatically adjusted. The Compression
control sets the ratio value.
The blue Gain Reduction LED indicates the point at which the
compressor starts to operate. When you turn the Compression
control fully clockwise the entire High Freq. processing is nullified.
The Activate Tubes switch activates the tube section.The status-
LED indicates that the tube section is ative. The Tube Vitalizer is
equipped with both electronically balanced solid-state and tube
output stages. You can switch between the »old and new« tech-
nology and get a direct comparison.
The Vitalizer’s specially modified tube section provides a
frequency bandwidth from 30 Hz to 30 kHz. Standard designs
often limit the bandwidth which gives a frequency band-limiting
impression that is often associated with tube sound. Vitalizer´s
tube sections does not limit the frequency response. If you
carefully listen to the the reverb room of vocals or snare (or simply
put on pink noise) you can best identify the tubes additional
harmonical structure.
The tube section consists of three tubes. One of them is used as
a differential stage. It widens the stereo base softly. This effect
complements perfectly to the tube sound itself. You get more
depth and transparency especially in the mid range and additio-
nally more width. The tube stage is an original AEG design from
1955. It utilizes three tubes. This stage reduces crosstalk to 54 dB
which is typical for vinyl-cutting. Responding to latest psychoa-
coustic research it is believed that vinyl sounds “better” than CD
because of a more natural sound stage. There are no sounds in
nature that are coherent but have a channel separation of about
90 dB like on CD. This tube stage gives you the possibility to add
vinyl-sound to your CD production.
Measurement 6:
High Freq. = 10
Intensity = 10
LC Filter = On/Off
LC
High Comp.
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Activate Tubes
Control elements
