Thermionic Culture Vulture stereo valve distortion

Liam Howlett was the very first customer to purchase a Phoenix compressor and Culture Vulture distortion from Unity Audio before the company established their distributor and dealer networks.

Originally designed as a "distortion box" to simulate distortion in valve amps it has found lots of uses beyond this. Some owners use them on drum loops, vocals, piano sounds and even across entire tracks (it is a stereo unit).

Predominant distortion can be changed from even to odd harmonics with a simple switch.

Thermionic Culture has always been an important part of The Prodigy’s sound. The new Limited Edition Culture Vulture takes it to a new level of sonic devastation.

Liam Howlett,

Key Features

Warm sounds gently or create a noise like a 200 watt guitar stack with all the drivers slashed.
Independent channel operation

• Odd or Even harmonic distortion, or combination of both.
• All valve design free from solid state additives.
• High impedance line input or instrument inputs.
• 4 & 7 kHz filters
• Overdrive & bypass switches

Culture Vulture Specifications:

• Max output level (MOL): +20dBV
• Distortion: 0.2% to 99.9%.
• Noise: Variable better than 75dB below M. O. L at most settings
• Input Impedance: 30k
• Output Impedance: 2.5k ohm ( should ideally drive a 10k input impedance )
• Frequency response: >1dB variation over 10Hz to 25kHz
  ( actually +/- 1.75dB over 50Hz to 15kHz at low distortion )

Used

You can clearly hear the Culture Vulture in action on the bass line in Thunder.