News

• Thermionic Culture Snow Petrel Mic Pre Will Launch At AES Show The Javits Center In NYC

  

  September 26, 2019 – Portland, Maine. Fraser Jones, President of Independent Audio which is the exclusive U.S. distributor of the Thermionic Culture product range, announced the launch of the Thermionic Culture Snow Petrel Mic Preamp at the AES Show, Javits Center, NYC, from October 16 -18, 2019.

  The Thermionic Culture Snow Petrel is a two-channel microphone amplifier. Jones said that the name is the tie-break winner of a Sound on Sound competition to name the newest Thermionic Culture product, and was chosen because it conjures up images of a warm bird above an icy landscape in Antarctica (valves vs. solid state).

  The brief was to have a super low noise, all valve unit with negligible distortion to bring out the qualities of ribbon microphones without the need for solid state mic pres to capture the true beauty of the natural sound of these microphones. Thermionic made three attempts to accomplish this, and the final success was achieved with the help and expertise of Brian Sowter (Sowter Transformers) and Tim Vine-Lott (ex Tech Director Air studios), encouraged by Colin Beanland, owner Coles Electroacoustics.

  The Snow Petrel has been used for picked acoustic guitars, vocals, woodwind, brass and even church organ with outstanding results using the Coles 4038 Ribbon Mics. Of course, the 4038’s main claim to fame is probably for drums. They were used by Geoff Emerick at Abbey Road for The Beatles where he added +6dB @ 12 kHz, and by Glyn Johns where he added distortion through a Helios desk.

  But, in its purest state, the Snow Petrel beats any other hi gain mic amp; and, of course, can be used with any microphone. Also available are Switchable 48v power and high or low Z switch.

  For additional information or photos, please contact: Fraser Jones, President
  Independent Audio, Inc.
  82 Gilman Street
  Portland, ME 04102
  Tel: 207 773-2424
  E: fraser@independentaudio.com
  www.independentaudio.com