Owner`s manual

21
tube “warmth.” Additionally, WARM has been
designed to be extremely DSP efficient, so that
even a relatively modest native system will be
capable of running WARM on an almost unlimited
number of tracks simultaneously.
What’s the big deal with tubes
anyway?
For most of us in audio recording, distortion
is a bad word. We typically want the cleanest
possible recordings, free of any audible
distortion. But for certain types of audio there
is an exception: the distortion that comes
from transient clipping in a high quality tube
preamplifier.
When high quality tube pre-amps are operated
in their linear range, there is virtually no signal
distortion and their audio qualities are essentially
identical to that of high quality solid state pre-
amps. However, it is common for transients
to exceed the preamp’s linear voltage range,
resulting in distortion. And here’s where things
get interesting. The distortion characteristics
of a vacuum tube pre-amp are vastly different
than those of solid state amplifiers. Specifically,
the overtones produced by tube distortion are
generally harmonically related to the fundamental
input pitch, whereas solid state overdrive
distortion generally produces non-harmonic
overtones. This tube distortion is often described
as adding a certain “warmth” to a sound. This
is in contrast to what is often described as the
“brittleness” of the solid state sound.
As a result, many people pay large sums of
money for tube preamps designed to provide
this desirable but elusive quality. It was the best
sonic qualities of a number of these preamps
that served as the sources for WARM’s digital
models.
Controls
Input Level
This control applies gain
to the input signal before
it’s passed to the tube
model. It is typically used
to ensure that the level of
the input is high enough to
exceed the clipping level
in the tube model. As a
starting point, adjust the
gain such that the input
level meter needle spends
most of its time in the
top two (gray and purple)
meter segments. Further
adjustments can be made
in combination with the
Drive setting (see below).
To adjust gain, click on
and move the fader to
the desired position.
The numeric display will
indicate in dBs the exact
amount of gain applied.
Command (Mac)/Alt (PC)
clicking anywhere in the
fader track will reset the
control to its default value
of 0dB.
NOTE: Since the Drive control is
capable of a maximum of 12dB
of gain, the input signal transients
must be at least above -12dB to produce any
tube effect. If the input meter never enters
the top segments of the meter, no tube effect
will be audible with even maximum Drive.
aNOTHEr NOTE: Unless you are going
for some special effect, you do not
want to have clipping at the input stage.
This is not the “good” clipping that happens in the
tube model. Input clipping is that nasty digital kind.