Thermionic Culture Vulture
Customer Reviews
Thermionic Culture Vulture
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d. snyder
Rich Saturation
I was interested in this plug-in because I wanted to see what kind of warmth and saturation it could offer. After using it on several tracks, (bass and drums) I realized that this is what I needed to add that golden saturated edge to distorted guitars or drums. I'm going to experiment more with it, but I have used it in conjunction with the fatso, and was impressed with the results. Since I have the Apollo, I don't have to worry about DSP, but if I didn't I would print and bounce the tracks to save on DSP. If you want warmth and saturation, I would demo the unit. It is quite cool.
.
awesome!
A good friend of mine has the hardware version and has used in on a few my morning jacket albums.... he loves it. they love it.... now I love it!
.
Cherry on top
For subtle fatness on the st bus.. Deep vibes.. Nothing like it to add money to the mix
.
How underrated !!!
Although I collect UAD-plugin after UAD-plugin with much satisfaction, nothing -- nothing !!! --
made me more smile with joy than the thermionic culture vulture plugin. This damned little thing seems
to awake alive even the very dead. For me it is a miracle what it can do, in particular when applied in tiny
homeopathic doses to, say two or three, relevant tracks of a mix. In the reviews this plugin is sometimes underrated.
If a signals goes in with - 4 dB, usually, to make it shine, I only apply 5-20 % of the distortion carefully
counterbalanced by the bias knob. Only for weaker signals or for "dirt effects" I go higher up.
Those who don't take care of this will be not pleased by this wonderful plugin.
.
don´t get tape...
...get this! The perfect glue plugin. Soft saturation or a nice amount of dirt, here you go. I´m not into the heavy distortion setups - didn´t need them so far! Very warm. I love the mix knob! Needs a lot of processing power, but for good reason! I really like to hear it on lots of things, my favorite is drums. Even used it on synth strings. They got way warmer and more natural!
i. babayoff
Fixing my previous review. 6 stars.
I wrote in my previous review : "I love your plugs, they are 85-100% of my Mixes. But... this one have way to much DSP consumption. so its not a real option for me no matter how good it sounds. Sorry". gave it one star. u can find this review down the line.
well...
after checking this plug out i decides to buy an octo to enhance my quad+duo.
amazing plugin. no other word to describe it.
M. Redlich
Possibly the best plugin UA make
This is one of the most analog sounding, musical, versatile and useful tools ive ever bought, software OR hardware. It has become indispensable for my mixes and im yet to find a category of sound on which it does not work. I see some people are saying the hardware is better. Well man, it must be seriously magical then because this is about as good as it gets in plugin land. I rarely go near presets but Ive also found these presets to be amazingly well made and great places to start from.
To all those complaining about its DSP usage, either buy more DSP or live with what youv'e got. Good things cost money. Deal with it. Thankyou UA for choosing sound over instance count. Were in the business of making better sound, not more of it.
O. Dawson
Culture Vulture review.
Love this unit. The distortion has a lot of character; and even at low gain, adds a lot of character and depth. Top end is not harsh, and doesn't mess with the low end either. Use it on bass, drums, guitar, vocals... whatever.
G. Piazza
Real tube dynamics
I spent a lot of time comparing it to Trash, Ozone Exciter, bx_saturator, Voxengo Varisaturator & Decapacitator. Each has its place, but only the CV has that dynamic tube response. On a mix with a few overload moments, only the CV (in Triode) smoothed them out instead of bringing them forward. True, the usable drive & bias ranges are kinda narrow for subtle applications, but the sweet spot has a 'hardware' sound that none of the others can achieve. Try the demo! This and the VSM blow away every other 'distortion' plugin I've worked with.
M. Penn
Soooo Awesome!!!
This is the Truth!! Very Happy with the New Culture Vulture, it definitely delivers that warmth/Grit/Distortion you need for bass, Drum , Guitars or Vocals etc.
Looking for a Distressor Next UA, "Hint" "Hint" ;-)
K. Schade
Great on synths
I never saw or used the original device but this is the first digital overdrive plugin I am happy to use in my mainly analog setup. Try this on a Moog bass, amazing.
M. Fair
Beast mode!
I love the Culture Vulture. Especially for producing EDM, it brings new life to synth sounds that were sounding a bit dull. Sometimes I'll pull up a preset and go through some synth patches with the CV enabled ... It feels like I just purchased a new synth when I do that. This thing is awesome. Yes, it's a bit power hungry, but worth every penny. I don't use it on every track, but I wish I could. LOL
G. Hadfield
Emperor's new clothes?
After hearing the online demos, and trying out a working demo briefly I made a snap judgement that we had an Emperor's new clothes device here. People were saying it was amazing, to-die-for, best distortion ever. I slapped it down and cranked it up and thought it sounded cheap and nasty and walked away. After seeing the hugely positive and hugely negative reviews coming in, I assumed it was a Marmite machine (you love it or you hate it). But I was tempted to try it out again. This time I used much more subtle settings with mix set very dry on electric piano and I was sold. The electric piano had more character and colour and more significantly it suddenly just sat in the mix like slipping into a comfortable sofa. I was sold.
A. Booth
flexible and brilliant
Since getting this plug-in I've wanted to use it on pretty much everything (shame about the high DSP count). It's super flexible from really minimal distortion to massive amounts with great features on it like the mix and filter options. This has been sat on my master bus since I got in on all the projects I'm currently mixing and it's really important to the sound that I'm getting.
J. Schmidt-hambrock
Very inspiring!
Lots of pleasant surprises in the Vulture.
Did not have to fight it at all. Lots of sounds that I had not imagined - but ended up using.
Very responsive for bass-playing (my use #1) and in the mix for all kinds of things (use #2).
I am suddenly tempted to take a computer to my gigs. Never did that before.
Jochen
T. Marrison
Warmth and weight
A superior alternative to Decapitator - more depth in the bass and generally feels more lively. One of my goto plugs for every session
D. Furrer
great tool and toy!!!
I see people writing reviews whether it comes close to the original or not.
I have never been in the position to use the original.
This Plug In is in my opinion an amazing tool and a great toy. It brings glue to my drums like nothing else I have seen or used. For me personally a must have.
There is only one thing I am really hoping for they would somehow update on this plug in. It should have a function that makes the volume go down automatically when you boost the drive knob so the outcoming volume would stay the same.
But (luckily) different people have different opinions so try it in demo mode for yourself ;)
M. Bradburn
What's not to like?
Another gem in my UAD arsenal, has become the go to tool for that certain special something. I can't really see any down side, I'm not sure what other reviewers were expecting of course - for me this is way better than I thought it would be, thoroughly enjoyable. Best dirty digital I've ever heard:)
D. Marcus
Amazing
So cool to have this beast as a plugin. I love the sounds you can get with..from subtle to full on raging. As always UA hits out of the park with their detailed emulation of classic hardware pieces.
K. Dietz
Lots of Culture. Much Vulture.
Really liking this plugin. I haven't used the hardware version (would love to try it) but find that simply putting this plugin across a bus or track adds a new dimension sonically, with very little tweaking. Enhanced harmonics, fuller sound. I love this plugin on a drum bus, acoustic or electric guitar, bass…I need more DSP! There are a few different saturation plugins out there, this one is the best of them, to my ear.