These notes will help you get the most out of Barnum Preamp,
the OTT warmth-adding analogizer thingy.
(There's one born every minute...)
Barnum Preamp explores the idea of adding analog warmth to a sound by splitting it into
three frequency bands, giving you level control over those bands, and adding a variable amount of
silky smooth distortion to the midrange band, and no doubt subtly messing with both the frequency and the phase response.
People pay huge sums of money for preamps that do this sort of thing, and go totally thesaurus describing
how fantastic it makes their sound.
There's one born every minute.
If you've ever listened to one of these high-end boxes, but been too ashamed to admit you can't hear
what all the fuss is about, then have I got a deal for you!
Seriously though, by playing around with the settings of Barnum Preamp, you'll hear how a small amount of
very gentle distortion in the midrange (together with boosting the bass slightly and turning the treble
down a touch) can give you a really creamy sound.
And of course in true Psycho Toolkit style, you can always take it too far... in a good way!
Controls
The Bass Gain knob controls how much the bass frequencies are cut or boosted.
The Mids Center Freq knob determins the center frequency of the midrange band.
The Mids Width knob controls how wide the midrange band is. The Midrange band is constrained so that cannot go outside the range of 50 to 16000 Hz, if you choose settings that try to go outside this range the numbers will be trimmed back. The actual crossover frequencies are displayed in little "LCD displays" underneath the knobs.
The Mids Drive adds a smooth distortion to the midrange band. Barnum Preamp
uses a soft clipping algorithm called the sigmoid function. At high settings this produces
a classic overdriven sound, but does not totally destroy the sonic detail of the incoming signal.
At lower settings it can add a warmth rather than obvious distortion.
At the minimum setting no distortion is added, it's a straight bypass.
The Mids Gain control gives you level adjustment, you'll probably need to adjust it as the Drive knob can boost level of the midrange band.
The Treble Gain knob controls how much the treble band is cut or boosted.