Tegeler Audio VTRC Vari Tube Recording Channel

Product Description

The Tegeler Audio VTRC Vari Tube Recording Channel gives your recordings a high-end boutique sound while at the same time perfect integrated into your mix. Due to the variable nature of the preamp, you can decide on color of the sound of your recording varying from clean direct to vintage fat. With the passive equalizer built after the Pultec principle, you can add silky soft highs to your recording, give your voice more volume or filter out disruptive frequencies within the area of keynotes. The combined operation of vari-mu and optical compression of the VTC is a unique worldwide feature that extends your sound spectrum with a fantastically sounding compressor tone.

FROM CLEAN TO FAT, SILKY HIGHS AND GENTLE CUTS

Every take starts at the preamp, and this one shapes the sound as much as the level. Its two controls, Input and Gain, set the character of the recording: keep the Gain low and the tube stage stays clean and direct; raise it and the sound gets fat and saturated, with the warmth of the tubes staying in it the whole way. The microphone input comes with a transformer, true 48 V phantom power and a phase switch, and there is a high-impedance instrument input as well. The EQ is passive, built on the Pultec principle. Add silky highs all the way up to the 24 kHz air band, give a voice more body in the range of its fundamentals, and gently filter out the frequencies that get in the way, with the mid cut and the low cut.

OPTO AND VARI-MU COMPRESSION IN THE SAME SIGNAL CHAIN

Here is the part no other channel strip offers: an opto compressor and a Vari-Mu tube compressor in one signal chain, usable alone or at the same time. With the opto, an LED shines on a light-sensitive resistor and regulates the gain with the level. The memory effect of the resistor additionally supports the automatic timing control. The result is an open, airy and soft compression that holds the level nicely steady while hardly touching the microdynamics of the signal. The amplification of a control tube is adjusted directly in the Vari-Tube section. The result is a sound with the presence to hold its place even in a dense mix, without ever losing its warmth. Both compressors are soft-knee designs with program-adaptive attack and release, and the compressor timing is switchable on top.

ROUTING AND DE-ESSING

The routing is switchable: run the EQ before or after the compressors, or switch it into the sidechain of the compressors. In the sidechain the EQ no longer shapes the sound itself; it tells the compressors which frequencies to react to. That gives you frequency-dependent compression and de-essing without an extra device. A recording that has not been through the VTRC yet can be refined afterwards. The line input has its own transformer, developed for line level, so the signal does not pass through the microphone input transformer. All functions of the VTRC, from preamp to EQ to compressor, are available for line-level signals as well. And for stereo sources, two VTRC units can be linked.