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Less Tube

Four saturation characters

Less Tube is a saturation plugin built as an instrument you can read. The model you pick sits in the socket, the meter reads how hard it is driven, and the curve and the harmonic bars show what it does to the music while it plays.

Hear itManualHow to

The socket

The socket decides the character

The glass and the transformer share a socket. Pick a model and the harmonic profile, the knee and the tone shaping follow it.

Asymmetric conduction, so the second harmonic leads. The signal thickens noticeably before it ever sounds distorted. The safe default on vocals and on the mix bus.

Drive

Drive sets how hard the stage is hit

Output is compensated as you turn, so you audition character, not loudness.

Drive38%

Readouts

See what you are adding

The transfer curve is the live input to output shape. Asymmetry there is what makes even harmonics. The bars measure harmonics 2 through 8 against the fundamental, amber for even, teal for odd.

VALVE

The needle reads the drive into the valve

Input level times drive, on a VU that behaves like one. Zero VU is where the curve starts to bend, so the needle tells you where you are on the character before you hear it.

Three bands

Drive the low end, spare the air

Multiband is a switch and it starts off. Turn it on and two crossovers split the signal at X LOW and X HIGH, then each region gets its own drive in dB, so a kick can hit the stage hard while the hats stay clean. Latency is the same on every path.

After the stage

Bias, tone, mix, output

Bias shifts the operating point and with it the even to odd balance. Tone is a single tilt after the stage. Mix blends the dry signal back in, output trims the result. Place runs the whole thing stereo, mid side or dual mono, each channel on its own valve.

Live in the browser

Hear the character change

TRANSPORT

Triode132 BPM loop, stopped
Drive38%warming

TRANSFER

Input on the horizontal, output on the vertical. The dotted diagonal is the untouched signal.

HARMONICS

EvenOdd

Read from the current curve with a 1 kHz sine at minus 6 dBFS.

Turn DRIVE and watch the valve warm. The loop runs through a browser approximation of the four characters; the measured numbers below come from the shipping build.

Field testing

Not on sale yet

Less Tube is in field testing. The free four come first; this one follows. No price is published until it ships.

DownloadsRelease notes
Alias fold, bare stagemore than 80 dB below the fundamental, 7 kHz tone at maximum drive
Alias fold, full pathabove 60 dB, locked by test on every build
Small signal responseunity, every model
Editorsix contracts locked by test: size and aspect, keys on their caps, module swap, strip dimming, ring and meter motion, uniform scaling

Four characters

Pick the character, turn the unit

Choose a model and the valve in the socket changes. Drag the unit to see it from any side; the bars show the harmonic fingerprint of the character you picked.

The plugin

In the DAW

The shipping interface at its default size. Hover help (the i key) explains every control where you are standing.

Less Tube as it opens in the DAW
760 by 650 by default, aspect locked, 640 to 1140 wide
DRIVE
DRIVESpun copper, a knurled edge and a printed scale. The amber ring shows how far you have pushed.
VALVE meter
VALVE meterZero VU is where the curve starts to bend. The needle follows the level driven into the valve, not the output.

Four characters on the deck

Triode module on the deck
TriodeA twin triode standing on a copper socket, wide enough to fill it. Even-harmonic warmth; the heater glow rises with drive.
Pentode module on the deck
PentodeA power pentode with a big plate. Harder knee, odd harmonics; the plate reddens in the middle when driven hard.
Vari-Mu module on the deck
Vari-MuA matched pair sharing one socket. Gain gives way as the signal pushes, and the glow settles the same way.
Iron module on the deck
IronAn open heating element on the socket: ceramic rod, nichrome coil, steel caps. Saturates the lows first; the coil glows as it works.