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Thermionic Culture Vulture

Thermionic Culture Vulture

4.7 (271)

Put the original boutique valve distortion tool in your studio.


  • Get a full palette of studio-grade, high-gain tube distortion
  • Dial in rich harmonics on tracks, or utterly destroy buses or your full mix
  • Get the same sound and controls as the legendary analog hardware with added features like parallel Dry/Wet processing
  • Mix with artist presets from Tony Maserati (Alicia Keys, Beyoncé), Eric "ET" Thorngren (Talking Heads, Robert Palmer), Rik Simpson (Coldplay, Jay Z), Chris Coady (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Beach House), and more
  • Record through the Culture Vulture in real time with Apollo interfaces

Runs on macOS or Windows. Requires an Apollo audio interface or UAD Accelerator. View full system requirements.

Thermionic Culture Vulture

$149$299

$149$299

Hear It In Action

Plug-In:

Hear It In Action

Hear It In Action

Plug-In:

Hear It In Action

Plug-In:

Put the Original Boutique Valve Distortion in your Studio

The Thermionic Culture Vulture is a high-gain hedonist's malleable plaything. This British-made, studio-grade valve unit has provided a palette of vivid distortion colors on countless genre-spanning recordings. Now, you can track and mix with the only authentic circuit emulation of this one-of-a-kind studio tool with the Thermionic Culture Vulture plug-in.

Dominate your Sources with Three Valve Topologies

The Culture Vulture plug-in faithfully emulates all of the original hardware’s sonic proclivities and diabolical details, including its three distinct all-valve circuit topologies.

Get your Hands on an Authentic Circuit Emulation

Only the Thermionic Culture Vulture plug-in captures the natural, transient-rich response of the hardware's entire valve-driven circuit. Use the Drive knobs and Overdrive switches to control the amount of input signal hitting the 6AS6 valves, with up to 20 dB of gain on tap. The Bias controls adjust the incoming voltage, providing clean to voltage-starved distortion and gating effects.

Explore Sounds Beyond the Original

The Culture Vulture plug-in offers two key features not found on the original hardware. Use the Mix control for parallel bus processing to add gentle valve presence, punch, and grit to drums, vocals, or an entire mix. And with the Link function, you’re afforded a perfectly matched stereo image to save time and preserve balances.

What They Say

I use the Thermionic Vulture hardware on almost every mix, so having a UAD software version was a dream come true. I never thought anyone would be able to mimic the sonic variations of the hardware. I'm obsessed.

Tony Maserati

Alicia Keys, Beyoncé, Jason Mraz

I’m a big fan of Thermionic Culture and own many pieces of theirs to help remove the generic digital DAW sound. I’ll now be using the UAD Culture Vulture plug-in to perform the same function. In short, I love it.

Rik Simpson

Coldplay, Portishead, Jay Z

The ‘mighty’ Culture Vulture is one of the best sonic destroyers of all time, and it’s equally useful for bringing life and detail to dull sounds. Now with the UAD plug-in, I can use several instances per song.

Chris Coady

Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Beach House, Future Islands

Reviews

4.7
Rated 4.7 out of 5 stars
Based on 271 reviews
Total 5 star reviews: 221 Total 4 star reviews: 31 Total 3 star reviews: 5 Total 2 star reviews: 3 Total 1 star reviews: 11
93%would recommend this product
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271 reviews
  • BH
    B. H.
    Verified Buyer
    I recommend this product
    Rated 5 out of 5 stars
    2 weeks ago
    Great plugin!!

    great emulation!!!

    Was this helpful?
  • .
    .
    Verified Buyer
    I recommend this product
    Rated 4 out of 5 stars
    1 month ago
    Please release on NATIVE

    The plugin is incredible but it struggles to enter my workflow properly due to how much DSP it needs. I end up limited to one per project ( often on drums bus) or having to disable my plugins in order to try it and bounce result to use.. such a shame !

    EVERY true UAD user dream of seeing it get a native release ! Please make this a native plugin you will make a lot of us happy

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  • US
    U. S.
    Verified Buyer
    I recommend this product
    Rated 5 out of 5 stars
    3 months ago
    I'D GIVE IT 10 STARS!!!!

    REALLY EASY TO USE, INSTANT RESULTS, RICH HARMONICS... SHOULD'VE BOUGHT THIS YEARS AGO!!!

    Was this helpful?
  • ŠK
    Š. K.
    Verified Buyer
    I recommend this product
    Rated 5 out of 5 stars
    6 months ago
    It's interesting

    It adds a spark, very good plugin.

    Was this helpful?
  • DM
    D. M.
    Verified Buyer
    I recommend this product
    Rated 4 out of 5 stars
    8 months ago
    Exceptional plug in but consumes a significant amount of DSP

    This UAD plugin is exceptional, delivering superb sound quality with a rich analog feel. The distortion effect is fantastic and versatile, suitable for use on drums, bass, vocals, and guitars. However, it does consume a significant amount of DSP. Is there any plan to release a native version?

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Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, you’ll need an Apollo audio interface, UAD-2 Satellite, or UAD-2 PCIe card to run these plug-ins, using the onboard DSP. The plug-ins run on the hardware itself, without adding strain to your computer’s CPU. In an Apollo, onboard DSP processing allows you to run realtime UAD plug-ins with near-zero latency, and even record that processing directly to your DAW.

This refers to the number of SHARC DSP processors in Apollo and UAD-2 hardware. A DUO core system has twice the amount of processing power compared to a SOLO core system. More SHARC DSP cores increases the number of UAD-2 plug-ins you can run on the hardware.

No, Satellites provide DSP to run UAD-2 plug-ins in your DAW.

Yes, you can start a fully functional 14-day demo from any plug-in bundled with the UAD software. Simply click “Start Demo”, and start using it in your DAW.

UAD-2 licenses follow the hardware, it does not matter which computer they are connected to. You can have up to six UAD-2 devices registered to a system in your Universal Audio account, which share those licenses. See UAD-2 Plug-In Licensing Explained for full details. Authorisation of UAD-2 hardware is managed by the UAD Meter & Control Panel Application.

Check our Knowledge Base for additional questions

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