Thermionic Culture ‘The Kite’
It’s a valve-based stereo EQ that we run the mixes through before the mastering stage, and it’s been a game changer in the warmth of our sound.
The company that makes them is Thermionic Culture, and they have made units that a lot of Drum and Bass producers adore (Culture Vulture being another which we also have in the studio). They were formed in 1998 to promote an engineer Vic Keary’s all valve studio equipment designs. He preached how thermionic valves (or vacuum tubes) were far superior at giving sound depth and warmth. And ‘The Kite’ comes from that family.
You can hear it on pretty much every tune we’ve made since starting our own label ‘Technimatic Music’. It came about from a chance conversation with Benny L at Sun & Bass, where we were doing the classic geeking out on equipment we both loved, that producers like to do after a few beers! He’d mentioned how he liked this unit on his drums as it gave him a sound that would normally take a series of plugins to achieve and yet would still not sound as good as the valves.
We managed to source the anniversary edition, and what makes this unit so special is the ‘attitude’ switch. These days, we’re all writing music inside of computers. And that’s great, because the digital world allows us creative tools that were unimaginable even 10 years ago. But the drawback is things can almost sound ‘too’ clean. That level of clinical sonics can mean a lack of warmth, and this unit brings it back in spades. By using the attitude switch, the entire track gets pushed through the valves inside the unit at varying steps. Step 1 is a gentle and subtle push; step 6 is pushing it through the valves as hard as possible. It just takes the edge off the overall crispness to the mix and allows you to dial back in some warmth and character to the sound.
The unit also has other controls – ‘bass boost’, ‘top shelf’, and our favourite ‘air’ control. These basically do exactly what you’d expect, and the trick is to use them gently in conjunction with the attitude switch. We then record the whole mix back into the computer, and the tracks get mastered from that audio. You retain all the punch, all the clarity of the digital world, but with added warmth and feeling.
It’s by far our favourite piece of gear and yes, you can probably get a similar effect inside the computer these days. But there’s something we lose not being able to tangibly place our hands on equipment, feel the warmth of the valves and react in real-time to what we’re hearing. It’s a special unit for sure.
The ‘Time On Your Side EP’ by Technimatic is out now on Technimatic Music in all the usual places. Also available on limited edition pink vinyl from their Bandcamp page and webstore.
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