The Thermionic Culture Ultra Vulture is a stereo tube distortion unit that can be used to distort input signals acoustically from gentle to nasty. The front panel features various easy-to-grid potentiometers and switches for direct intervention in the action.
The drive settings are located on the outer sides of the Ultra Vulture. With
The device has a bias rotary control to make the sound thinner or thicker. The current supply of the pentode is visually displayed in milliamperes on the associated pointer meter.
The function controls of the Ultra Vulture have been extended by one setting compared to the original model. A total of four options are now available. In setting T, the distortion stage is operated in triode mode, whereas in modes P1-3 it switches to pentode mode, resulting in harsh band saturation. Setting P2 additionally compresses at higher levels and inverts the dynamics. For complete destruction of the input signal, setting P3 can be selected, in which rectifying effects can be created by lowering the bias level, resulting in the pitch appearing an octave higher to the human ear.
In addition to these features, the Ultra Vulture also has a filter switch that activates a low pass filter, which cuts frequencies above 5kHz and up to 6dB, thus reducing the sharp-sounding distortion artifacts in the signal.
Finally, there is a bypass switch on the front of the device. When bypass is activated, the line input is connected directly to the line output and the circuit is completely removed from the signal path (true bypass).
The following values were determined with a 1kHz signal and 0.25mA: