Culture Vulture vs Decapitator

[John_Seward]

Just spent a few weeks with the Decpaitator. Love it!
Haven't tried the CV yet, but most reviews seems
very positive.

I would love to hear comments from users who own both.
Sound examples of the CV would be very much appriciated!

I'm leaning towards the CV I guess. Although I prefer
the convenience of plugins. Hm. Help me out!

Thanks!

[-TheFrog-]

What will you use it for?

My CV gets used in a few different ways but mainly those specifically.

Mix bus: at 1:1 and hit it hard
Drums bus: a little compression and it very sweet
Heavy guitars (hard panned, main rhythm and one counter): a bit more comp while allowing enough dynamics.

It's charm on Funk, Blues, Rock and NYC style hip hop.

It's a colourful unit and I only use it for mixing unless a mastering client asks for that kind of texture (generally hard hitting electronic music).

[Grin-go-go]

I own both and love them.

I can get heavy but juicy distortion with CV that I can not achieve with Decapitator. If you like distortion, Culture Vulture is a must have.

[-TheFrog-]

:-) totally

The Vulture is like sweet damn distortion drug. It has that little devil on your shoulder that always says "if this were MY record, man I'd drench it in pure hot sauce" }:-)

[warhead]

Anybody looking at the Culture Vulture should give a serious...serious look / listen to the Rooster by Thermionic as well. The "attitude" circuit brings some of the easiest to dial in and effective distortion you could ever want. The mic preamps are second to none in the tube world...and that EQ even when used sparingly is sweet.

Cannot say enough good things about that box really, it just does it all. I happen to like boxes that perform multiple duties so, you could track a whole project and then mix through it...!

The CV certainly gives more distortion choices if that is the goal.

War

[msm07]

Agree you Warhead One unit I can't say enough good words about is the rooster....

[-TheFrog-]

Yeah, i was a little when trying the rooster a few months ago. Since I don't get rid of my standard gear I couldn't bring myself to replacing the Vulture with it.

[Brett 123]

Originally Posted by warhead

Anybody looking at the Culture Vulture should give a serious...serious look / listen to the Rooster by Thermionic as well. The "attitude" circuit brings some of the easiest to dial in and effective distortion you could ever want. The mic preamps are second to none in the tube world...and that EQ even when used sparingly is sweet.

Cannot say enough good things about that box really, it just does it all. I happen to like boxes that perform multiple duties so, you could track a whole project and then mix through it...!

The CV certainly gives more distortion choices if that is the goal.

War

Sounds cool , would you say it is better than a V76 then ?

[automatom]

I'm wondering how the rooster pre-amp racks up against a vt-1 or indeed a v76 too....War?

[Phaidon]

Originally Posted by warhead

Anybody looking at the Culture Vulture should give a serious...serious look / listen to the Rooster by Thermionic as well.
War

War,my man,you're killin me....you know ;-D
...still tryin to make up my mind between the two.
Thing is,a UAD-2 satellite quad is on the cards, so.....darn! Mucho dinero.
I checked the Rooster last month while visitin some friends in L.A.,
and I gotta admit this thing rawks.No doubt.

Cheers
P.

[-TheFrog-]

For anyone who also records, I say Rooster. All the way.

[warhead]

Originally Posted by Brett 123

Sounds cool , would you say it is better than a V76 then ?

Originally Posted by automatom

I'm wondering how the rooster pre-amp racks up against a vt-1 or indeed a v76 too....War?

I don't have a V76 or VT-1 here to compare, but would love to. The one thing I will say is the Rooster SOUNDS like you expect a tube pre to sound. Many designs are very clean and almost lacking in character. The Rooster brings tube goodness. That attitude circuit is one of the most useful ways we've ever seen to bring controlled harmonics to a recording (without the risk of outright clipping).

Originally Posted by Phaidon

War,my man,you're killin me....you know ;-D
...still tryin to make up my mind between the two.
Thing is,a UAD-2 satellite quad is on the cards, so.....darn! Mucho dinero.
I checked the Rooster last month while visitin some friends in L.A.,
and I gotta admit this thing rawks.No doubt.

Cheers
P.

No worries, I'm right here and me and the Rooster ain't goin' nowhere...ready when you are.

War

[Hardtoe]

As a user of the Rooster & Decapitator for mixing duties, I gotta say that the Decap sounds really great and is totally a useful mix tool.


BUT


If you got the money, hardware still does "what I want to hear" better. The Decap is great, but the Rooster is greater where gorgeous tone is the goal.

Also, for tracking the preamps are top notch and the eq is deadly too - helps to get it right, before it hits the converter.

It's a real deal for value to cost ratio....

[Brett 123]

So can you get a similar distortion sound with the Vulture and the Rooster ?

Has anyone compared the two ? Also does anyone put the Rooster on the 2 bus ?

[bee]

Originally Posted by Brett 123

Has anyone compared the two ? Also does anyone put the Rooster on the 2 bus ?

I'd love to know this as well.

[GSF]

Though it could work for certain applications, I wouldn't recommend the Rooster for the 2buss, as it takes out some of the low end. It can be great on drum sub or parallel though.

[Grin-go-go]

Originally Posted by warhead

Anybody looking at the Culture Vulture should give a serious...serious look / listen to the Rooster by Thermionic as well. The "attitude" circuit brings some of the easiest to dial in and effective distortion you could ever want. The mic preamps are second to none in the tube world...and that EQ even when used sparingly is sweet.

Cannot say enough good things about that box really, it just does it all. I happen to like boxes that perform multiple duties so, you could track a whole project and then mix through it...!

The CV certainly gives more distortion choices if that is the goal.

War

The rooster is the only tube preamp that I'd love to have in my rack.

[warhead]

Originally Posted by GSF

Though it could work for certain applications, I wouldn't recommend the Rooster for the 2buss, as it takes out some of the low end. It can be great on drum sub or parallel though.

The low end available on the EQ is...quite hefty...aside from that I don't find it to be necessarily a "thinning" type of box at all.

War

[Hardtoe]

No, but I too notice a bass drop in it's "reset state".

As you mentioned, it can easily be nicely beefed up (boosting with the low shelf, while using the bass cut to control the subharmonics, can be very rewarding), but it is never quite the same balance.

For this reason, I use the Rooster across the 2buss from earlier in the mix process to capitalize on it's strengths (often with a 68 after it for some compression / shaping).

Sounds great for punchy material - or soft smooth stuff - or medium stuff....


It just sounds pretty great.

[Parametex]

Rooster sounds great and delivers for sure.

The only annoyance to me while using it is the matching of settings when using it in stereo. Those pots can be a bit uneven at times ... I would personally LOVE to see detented pots on this beast ... maybe I'll consider having my tech fit them actually ...

Px

[Elvis Gotta Gun]

Originally Posted by GSF

I wouldn't recommend the Rooster for the 2buss, as it takes out some of the low end.

Really? That's disappointing. Was thinking about purchasing one specifically for adding saturation to the 2-buss.

[Parametex]

Originally Posted by Elvis Gotta Gun

Really? That's disappointing. Was thinking about purchasing one specifically for adding saturation to the 2-buss.

I've been massaging tracks (as in instruments tracks, not the whole mix) thru rooster for months. I have to say that it does not do anything bad (quite the contrary) to the bass section at all. Running a whole mix thru it might be another matter ...

Px

[Professor]

Does anyone have an opinion on distortion/tone on the Rooster vs Rascal Audio Tonebuss?

I'm about to go down the route of adding some more juicy warming tubey type tone boxes and I wondered if anyone has tried both of these?

[rack gear]

have both, use them for different applications - although since getting decapitator I use the CV less, but still use it on specific applications

[Kevlar]

Just to throw another one into the mix...

New Thermionic Culture - Culture Vulture Solo!

A mono unit designed for live and studio use....

The Culture Vulture Solo is a new development of the Vulture recently designed with help from Vic's young protégé Ricky Sharp. There is more of a focus on use with guitar and bass di / amplifier front end applications but the unit also retains all the useful features for line level applications that previous models, including the Limited edition Culture Vulture, offered.

The Culture Vulture Solo is a single channel unit in a 2U 19" rack chassis. It features the ability to switch, via the front panel or a dedicated footswitch, between the Clean and Dirty channels.

The Clean channel is an active channel that provides up to 35dB variable gain to an instrument level signal with a flat but warm sounding frequency response.
The Dirty channel has the Vultures Drive, Distortion type, Bias controls found on a standard Culture Vulture. It also features the PQ positions found on a Limited Edition Culture Vulture and the two Squash positions found on the Mastering and Limited Edition Culture Vultures.
The Dirty channel has a brand new Presence control and a more control over the amount of LPF available.

The rear input connector of the Culture Vulture Solo is unbalanced and semi-floating for improved integration with a DAW setup.

We believe that the Culture Vulture Solo has a greater range in the tonality that can be applied to mono instrument signals than ever before. Providing any signal with warm sounding gain or infinitely adjustable amounts of saturation, distortion and bite.

The valve complement of the Culture Vulture Solo is:

1 ECC83 double triode
1 5725 / 6AS6 single pentode
1 12DW7 / ECC832 double triode

Price TBA

[wearecreative]

I can't speak about the comparison that the OP is asking about, but I have used the Decapitator a LOT over the past year or so. I really love what it does at lower gain settings, specifically when dealing w/ audio in the 48k sample rate. Where it gets hairy for me is when you ramp up the gain, the hi mids and hi's get a bit nasty and fatiguing. Only when you deal with the higher sample rates, the 88.2, the 96k, does the decapitator reaaally come alive. You can pile on the gain and it never gets harsh, never fatiguing

[unit7]

CV lover here. I managed to grab two mastering anniversary edition units (the red ones). Also got the Decapitator quite recently and I'm very impressed! Doesn't sound the same, but the Decapitator IMO has more color options. But I'm keeping my CVs!

[Kevlar]

[IMG]******//img854.imageshack.us/img854/5341/viewimagem.jpg[/IMG]

here's the official pic

[frenzy]

Originally Posted by Hardtoe

As a user of the Rooster & Decapitator for mixing duties, I gotta say that the Decap sounds really great and is totally a useful mix tool.

BUT

If you got the money, hardware still does "what I want to hear" better

Totally agree with you man!

Been looking at the Vulture Culture for a couple of years and finally bought the Mastering Plus version a couple of weeks ago. Puts a BIG smile on my face every time I use it. Capable of bringing life to the most boring recording or mix.

I also own a Ridge Farm Gascooker tube line-box and it can also add a nice tube warmth depending on how hot the input signal is.

Decapitator is a very fine plug-in but its performance is not comparable with real tube distortion.


Cheers
Fred

My Studio

[lakeshorephatty]

I'll also chime in on this topic and say that I have used decap for about a year. I have really enjoyed the plug-in and have now had a CV hardware for about a month.

The decap is a great tool but has its limits. I don't find that if its pushed really far the sound goes to very interesting places, but it can provide an amazing improvement at more modest settings.

The Vulture on the other hand sound wise i would say is just as deep, having just as many sound shaping options as decap, but they lie in different areas.

Decap has more varied distortion "tones" where the CV has only a few but they seem more interactive, more alive if you will, and you can push them to crazier places and still find them useful. I also find that you'd have to more blatantly overuse the CV to find it flattening the sound than with the decap, with which you have to be pretty careful not to overdo it.

For me both are great tools. If i had to choose just one it would be the CV, but I don't have to choose. I however, track through the CV whenever I can to reduce the plug in usage down the road, which I always find benefits the final mix.

A couple things worth mentioning are that tracking through the CV, i never find I have to use the decap on those tracks. This to me means that it covers my distortion needs without all the options of the decap. The second thing is that the P and T settings on the decap, supposedly modeled after the CV, are the least used settings for my tastes, and to me sound nothing like the CV in the way I use it. Without the bias knobs or the P2 setting on the decap there is no way to duplicate many of the sounds you can make with the CV.

Russell