Kush Audio UBK Fatso Dual Channel Character Compressor Mod

Price: $350.00

Item Number: UBKMOD

Manufacturer: Kush Audio

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UBK FATSO MOD
Modify your classic ELI Fatso Jr.

What you'll get when you mod your classic ELI Fatso Jr.:

Character Compression
A completely retooled compressor section is what sets the UBK Fatso apart from a stock ELI Fatso. Designed to give the operator the most unflinchingly musical compression regardless of the sound being processed or the amount of compression being applied, it will never pump or fold. The UBK Fatso makes easy work of the most difficult and mysterious process in sound engineering: compression.

Vintage limiting, smooth opto leveling, transparent reduction, aggressive modern squeeze… whatever your vision, the UBK Fatso not only makes it possible, it makes it easy. 7 unique compressors - 4 "name" presets plus 3 "hidden gems", produce a remarkable range of flavor, attitude, and grab, all rolled into a one-knob interface that makes it impossible to screw up.

Your job: choose the style of squeeze you desire, dial up 'more' or 'less', and get on with your life.

Tape Saturation
The Tape Saturation effect of the UBK Fatso could not be easier to operate: simply by turning up the input know, you get more of the sweet harmonica distortion and transient soft-clipping that naturally occurs when you drive a signal into the magnetic field of an open reel tape machine.

Hard sounds will soften as the tops and bottoms of the waveform get rounded off in an extremely musical fashion; meanwhile the density or 'thickness' of the source grows as harmonics are intensified and excited by the UBK Fatso's 2nd and 3rd order harmonic distortion generators.

The 'Comfy' light is your indicator that the input level is hitting 0db on the VU scale, which means the harmonics have begun building up and your transients are being gently rounded. Keep pushing the input & you'll see the 'Toasty' light engage, which is your cue that distortion levels are running high and heavy saturation is happening. The Tape Saturation effect by itself, without any compression, is often the only thing a mix or an element needs to go from raw to polished.

When the Tape Saturation combines with the Compressor, Warmth Generator, and Transformer Coloration, the UBK Fatso is a formidable tone shaping and energy transforming device that can subtly or dramatically alter the sound and behavior of your elements and mixes in ways that are generally associated with very old, very expensive equipment. With the twist of a knob and the tap of a couple of buttons, harsh becomes smooth, uncontrolled becomes tamed, lifeless becomes energized.

Warmth Generator
Once upon a time, when mics, preamps, consoles, tape machines, compressors, and equalizers all had tubes in them, warmth was a given and the struggle was to achieve clarity and overcome noise and distortions. Today, the process of recording digitally using modern equipments tends to produce the opposite effect: too many stark details and hard, edgy transients; not enough roundness, depth, character, or mystery.

The Warmth Generator on the UBK Fatso softens and saturates the high frequencies of your signal in a way that evokes the spirit of analog tape and classic tube gear. As usual, its operation could not be simpler: with each press of the Warmth Generator's single button, you increase both the intensity and the audibility of the effect. 7 discrete threshold levels give you a range from 'subliminal' to 'excessive' and everything in between.

When used subtly, the Warmth Generator adds a touch of that old school analog magic we all lust for. But Warmth also fixes problems that we all deal with far more often than we'd like: it smooths harsh, brittle drum overheads, it softens brash sibilant vocalists, it rounds out the edges of an overly bright, metallic sounding acoustic guitar, and it de-digitizes grainy drum loops.

With the UBK Fatso in your rack, a world of vintage tone and fatness is at your fingertips.

Transformer Coloration
Typically, when sounds passes thru a well designed transformer circuit, the low frequencies will shift ahead of the high frequencies and arrive at your ears first; this subtle phase shift produces a tone that is often described as warm, creamy, musical. When driven harder, transformers soften the hardest peaks of the transients, literally making your sound rounder, more smooth; they also distort the signal musically by adding harmonic overtones, further increasing density and thickness.

The transformer circuit in the UBK Fatso was specially tuned by Dave Derr to not only produce these desirable artifacts, but also to replicate 'head bump', the name given to the low end weight and inherent eq boost that happens whenever you record on open reel analog tape decks. Simply by flicking a switch on the UBK Fatso, your bass takes on a little more growl and grit; it also becomes more audible and full-sounding on smaller speakers. Acoustic guitars take on a shimmering quality, drums and vocals have a touch more air and presence.

Be aware, as with all good circuits the transformer coloration of the UBK Fatso is not a radical effect, it is in fact what I would call 'subtle'. But its effect, especially as it accumulates on many or most of the tracks in your project, can be very powerful indeed.

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