6
Setting the drive level to the
tubes
P
ROCESS
= processing starts
M
AX
= max. saturation
Examples:
– with snare or kick drum you
can use heavy distortion (M
AX
LED illuminates)
– with layer sounds you
should be very careful! Only
use very little distortion if any
(P
ROCESS
LED rarely)
Control elements
The D
RIVE
control sets the drive level to the tubes. D
RIVE
values
can be adjusted between -oo dB and +24 dB.
You have control over the tube´s onset of saturation to find the
optimum point of processing. The higher the D
RIVE
, the more tube
harmonics are being generated. At the same time, limiting gets
stronger, increasing the density of the tube distortion.
Start off with the D
RIVE
set at 0 dB. Now the input level is
equivalent to the level driving the tube electronics. When you
increase the value, you will get a more intense tube processing
and the output volume rises. To compensate this use the O
UTPUT
control (4).
The P
ROCESS
LED illuminates when C
HARISMA
starts its tube
processing. The tubes are starting to generate their typical sound
and harmonical structure.
The M
AX
LED indicates that the processing has reached its
maximum position. Now the tube is fully saturated and the
typical limiting effect occurs. Increasing the D
RIVE
results in more
tube distortion.
IMPORTANT:
When you start to process a sound with heavy
transients and attack, like a snare or a kick drum, you can drive
the tubes into heavy saturation before you start to hear the
tube´s distortion. When the P
ROCESS
LED starts to illuminate you
hardly hear a change. Drive the tubes into heavier distortion so
that the M
AX
LED illuminates frequently and the tube processing
becomes audible.
On the other hand, when you process layer sounds or almost
sinewave-like sounds you will sometimes hear the tube´s distor-
tion even before the P
ROCESS
LED illuminates. The C
HARISMA
effect
is sometimes unpleasant on layer sounds! So, set the D
RIVE
level
depending on the character of the sound you want to process. Our
hearing detects overtones on sinewave-like signal immediately as
unpleasant distortion, whereas squarewave-like sounds can be
heavily distrorted and still remain pleasing to the ear.
Note:
Do not set the D
RIVE
controls to identical scale settings
and expect the tubes to act identical when different source
characteristics are present at the inputs. Trust your hearing.
Drive
2
1
Max/Process LEDs
1
3
2
4
5
