Thermionic Culture Custom Green Fat Bustard
The Thermionic Culture Custom Green Fat Bustard was handcrafted to our specifications, with plenty of modifications by Thermionic Culture in England. Calling it just an analog vacuum tube summing mixer is really an understatement. It is packed full of useful features both for Direct-to-Master recording as well as for mastering. It features the same vari-slope EQ used on the standard Fat Bustard, designed by Vic Keary. This provides bass and top lift/cut controls, which sound unlike anything else on the market. This EQ sounds closer to the traditional vacuum tube equalizers of the 1950's. It contains a modified stereo spread control, which can enhance the stereophonic image of recordings or even convert monophonic recordings to stereophonic electronically, entirely in the analog domain. It also contains an elliptical equalizer, a tool, that is almost forgotten nowadays, but which is vital for optimising audio for vinyl records. The elliptical equalizer essentially removes stereophony from the very low frequencies, which can help with disk cutting, but also generally tends to sound good.
This unit also comes with metallized polypropylene film output capacitors of the type commonly used by Magnetovolt, as well as carefully selected NOS vacuum tubes, and an external power supply, for exceptionally low levels of noise. It still comes with the attitude control, which makes the input stage less linear the higher you turn it up. This causes increased harmonic distortion of the euphonic type, fattening up the sound to satisfy passions for the true retro freaks among us.
The Custom Green Fat Bustard also comes with accurate, easy to calibrate VU meters as well as a monitoring section, which we often use as an auxiliary output for authentic analog effects. This is a unique, one-of-a-kind unit, that you will not find in any other studio, since it was a special order for Magnetic Fidelity.
