What's the difference between "Starved Plate" TOOB gear and "vintage" TUBE gear?

Chris F

Chris F

New member
What's the difference between "Starved Plate" TOOB gear and "vintage" TUBE gear?

I've been curious about this for a long time. It seems as though every time a new piece of gear comes out with a tube in it, a bunch of people jump in with a "starved plate TOOB crap" monologue, and yet there are pieces of vintage gear out there which are "TUBE" which seem to be almost universally revered. For instance, I recorded my double bass recently at a studio where the engineer ran the two mics through a dual Universal Audio 610 preamp, and the sound was to die for.

So what's the difference, and why is the "real" TUBE gear so expensive and difficult (impossible) to emulate?
 
For a tube to work as designed you need to use high voltages and run high currents. Including through the heater, which is what glows. That's expensive, you need big transformers and high-current electronics and so on.

So budget stuff is "starved plate" which uses smaller voltages. It refers to the voltage on the plate, but low plate voltage usually results in higher distortions, thanks so something called "self-biasing' which you typically offset by lowering the temperature on the cathode, by supplying less current to that, which in turn lower the power requirements and make everything cheaper, and so on. Starved plate designs therefore quite often do not glow.

Starved plate has other non-linearities than a classic tube design, and therefore sounds different. (Primarily, starved-plates has more harmonics and higher distortion, possibly therefore kicking the idea that it is the distortions that make the sound in the groin. ;))
 
Universal Audio gear is high end stuff with a high end price tag. We are only humble minor league players here.

Bob
 
The starved plate stuff can make interesting sounds.
Even top AE's have run things through them as an effect.

You just don't want 24 tracks of ART toob!:)

Chris
 
I think in general that starved toob designs can be appropriate effects in the right context when used sparingly. A VTB1 can effectively dirty up synth sounds. An ART Pro VLA can be used across the mix buss to get that Flaming Lips sound.

Real tube gear can impart audio candy sort of fidelity as well as covering the effect stuff. It all depends on the design.

You're never going to get audio candy fidelity out of toob starved plate stuff.
 
ozraves said:
I think in general that starved toob designs can be appropriate effects in the right context when used sparingly. A VTB1 can effectively dirty up synth sounds. An ART Pro VLA can be used across the mix buss to get that Flaming Lips sound.

Real tube gear can impart audio candy sort of fidelity as well as covering the effect stuff. It all depends on the design.

You're never going to get audio candy fidelity out of toob starved plate stuff.
Click to expand...

Yes, it's typically the fideliity that I find cannot be acheived by starved plate stuff. Buying one of those boxes to dirty up the sound is a perfectly good idea. Buying one thinking your getting an A Designs type of preamp on a budget...not so good cause it ain't happenin'.

It's the marketing that pisses people off, because the tube circuit is typically added on "price point" gear and then the manufacturer goes and tells you it's better than it really is.

I had a Drawmer Tubestation in here, and could almost tell no difference with the "toob" engaged or not. I liked the preamp for dirty rock n' roll stuff and the comp / limiter was great for loud colored smash jobs...but they wasted the space with the tube blend jobbie.

It also pisses off guys who have used tube gear and know how clean it can sound, and how pleasing it can sound when pushed. Try pushing most solid state preamps to the max and see what you get when you really get there...krckrkrkt!

War
 
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