Vintage Drive - Solid State Logic Duality Fuse Operator's Manual

Fusion Processing
allows you to switch that particular circuit in or out. When a circuit is on it turns orange. When bypassed, the switch is backlit
a soft white colour.

Vintage Drive

VINTAGE DRIVE is a unique, non-linear saturation circuit that gives your mix added strength and cohesion. This circuit has
been designed to bring the kind of cherished 'gradual analogue overload' sound that the best kind of vintage analogue
outboard and consoles offer when you drive level into the sweet spot.
VINTAGE DRIVE
5 7
3 9
DRIVE
1 11
IN
4 6
2
DENSITY
MIN MAX
you will notice quite obvious distortion which isn't desirable across a mix bus but can work well on individual stems.
The DENSITY pot is used to fine tune the type of effect the circuit produces. Lower settings (generally below 3) produce
additional harmonics with an emphasis towards even-order harmonics. DENSITY settings between 2 and 3 can help add
richness to a mix. Medium to higher DENSITY settings from 3 onwards, result in a gradual lowering of the overall harmonic
content but with the odd-order harmonics eventually becoming more prominent than the even-order harmonics. The third
harmonic is related to the saturation/analogue clipping effect that this circuit imparts. This can be thought of as a kind of 'soft-
compression' - peaks are rounded and the RMS (average) level is brought up. This helps you gain some additional 'loudness'.
Settings between 3 and 7 work well for thickening whole mixes.
Please note that some additional low-level 'hiss' (very similar to tape hiss) is introduced when the Vintage Drive circuit is
engaged. This is an integral part of the saturation effect this circuit provides and cannot be turned off. By design, the level of
hiss decreases as you increase the DRIVE and/or DENSITY controls. In certain mix situations or productions you may want
to minimise the amount of hiss to achieve a 'cleaner' sound (normally on quiet passages at the beginning or end of a song). In
these situations the recommended workaround is to increase the DRIVE control in the VINTAGE DRIVE section and decrease
the front-end INPUT TRIM control, to leave you with the same overall effect but with less hiss.
TIP 1: The DENSITY control does raise the overall level of the signal, as you move it from MIN to MAX. Be sure
TIP 2: A good starting point for the controls of this circuit is DRIVE at 5 and DENSITY at 5. However, the DRIVE
setting will be very much dependent on how loud/quiet your mix is already.
TIP 3: The lowest DENSITY setting marked MIN offers a dynamic 'expansion' effect when driven hard with
the preceding DRIVE control. It works well to accentuate individual stem sounds that are already dense - e.g.
bringing the pluck out of a distorted bass guitar. For full mixes, it is recommended to go no lower than 2 with
7-6
Use the DRIVE pot to work the VINTAGE DRIVE section harder. You increase the drive
by moving the pot from left to right - front-panel marking 1 is least amount of drive, 11 is
the most. This control automatically compensates for the level increase at the output of the
VINTAGE DRIVE circuit. A tri-colour LED accompanies this section and provides feedback
as to how hard the circuit is being driven.
8
If you are looking for a subtle effect that works across a whole mix, keep the LED in the green
zone (occasional flickers into orange are fine). If you want a more aggressive colour, then
drive the circuit until the LED starts showing orange more consistently. When in the red zone
to use the OUTPUT TRIM control to compensate.
the DENSITY setting.
Duality Fuse Operator's Manual