The World's First Integrated Digital Tube Mic Preamp

Valve/tube technology has long been considered an elegant means of reproducing music. Until now, the large dimensions of the traditional 19-inch rack mount valve/tube pre amps have been a consideration, especially in the touring market where space is often at a premium. Not to say tubes sound better but they do colour the sound of a vocal or a particular instrument and make it sound different. Typically, sound engineers like to experiment, so they insert them into their systems to provide characteristics they can’t otherwise get from either analogue or digital mixing consoles. The new Soundtracs D-TuBe presents a unique alternative to this traditional technology by making it part of a digital console.

The D-TuBe was developed in conjunction with TL Audio and supplies no less than eight channels of tube pre amp. It has been designed to fit neatly into existing Soundtracs systems by simply replacing the last input module on a stage rack and moving the output module along one. This keeps the full compliment of 56 inputs to the stage rack, with the last eight inputs now being TuBes.

As the D-TuBe is able to slot into the Stage DiGiRACK, it has the shortest cable length between the mic and pre amp possible, giving exceptional signal to noise ratio. It has the same facilities as its solid state counterpart, including analogue and digital gain controls with Gain Tracking™ (patent pending). As the analogue gain is inserted before the D-TuBe it also acts as a drive control, and with digital gain after the D-TuBe a wide variation of colouration (DiGistortion™). And, as is standard on all Soundtracs products, these settings can be saved as part of the consoles snapshots and sessions.

“The D-TuBe isn’t a software version of a valve/tube amp,” says James Gordon (Sales Director). “Because of the way these products work, we felt that the only genuine way to do this was the traditional way. The D-TuBe has all the interaction with the console that the standard mic input card has, but with four dual tubes. What more could you want?”