Valve Reactor Technology, Power AMP and the Glory

•ToneLab Sound Editor is an editor/librarian software that lets you visually edit ToneLab’s numerous parameters, and save and manage programs.

To obtain the “ToneLab Sound Editor ,” please contact the VOX distributor in your country or download the latest version from: “http://www.voxamps.co.uk” or “http://www.valvetronix.com/”

To ﬁnd your local Distributor go to: “http://www.voxamps.co.uk/dealers/worldwid.htm”

VALVE REACTOR TECHNOLOGY

THE POWER (AMP) AND THE GLORY!

alve Reactor technology was ﬁrst used on the VOX AD60/120VT Val- Vvetronix amps.

The Valve Reactor circuitry in ToneLab however has been tuned-up espe- cially for line recording.

Since conventional modeling effects for line recording are not used directly with a speaker, they do not include a power amp circuit, output transformer, or speaker. In other words, they only have a preamp circuit.

A real valve amp sound, however, is produced not just by the preamp, but also by the tone and distortion of the power amp, and by the constant changes in imped- ance that are created by the power amp driving the speakers. ToneLab contains an actual low-wattage valve power amp circuit, a virtual output transformer (patent applied for) that uses solid-state components to simulate an output transformer, and a dummy speaker circuit that simulates the varying impedance of a real speaker. This means that although it’s low-power, ToneLab has the same circuit structure of an actual all-valve amp.

While much of the tone creation and shaping carried out is done in the dig- ital domain, its Valve Reactor power amp is 100% analogue. The resulting journey your guitar’s signal takes through the analogue world of the power stage plays a major role in providing the all-important feel and tone of the original amps we mod- elled.

The Valve Reactor power stage is, to all intents and purposes, a bona ﬁde valve (tube) push-pull power ampliﬁer, but in miniature. It utilizes a 12AX7 (ECC83) valve (a dual triode device - meaning “two valves in one”) and is equipped with an output transformer, just like a “real” valve amp.

The power amp output of ToneLab’s Valve Reactor is designed to “read” the con- stantly changing impedance curve of the dummy speaker circuit system and feed this information back to the virtual output transformer – just like real valve ampliﬁ- ers do. This information permits the behavior of the valve stage of the amp to vary with the speaker load (impedance), which is another important part of “real world” valve tone.