M-Audio TAMPA Quick Start Manual

M-AUDIO TAMPA 

- QUICKSTART GUIDE

Getting the Most from Your TAMPA

Thank you for purchasing TAMPA. TAMPA’s design and sound are unlike any other

preamp/compressor you’ve used. Please take a moment to read the following manual

supplement in order to get the most from your new studio tool.

TAMPA Design Goals

One of the “Holy Grails” of audio electronics is the ability to simulate the harmonically

rich “warm” or “natural” sound of tubes with more affordable solid-state electronics.

Most attempts to emulate or model the tube sound fail to take into consideration all of

the qualities that give tubes their characteristic sound. In designing TAMPA, we

conducted extensive research into why people perceive tubes as being so pleasing to

the ear. We also took into consideration that fact that the sonic coloration inherent in

tubes is not always desirable. The result is a design that focuses on natural sound

rather than strict tube emulation. TAMPA can deliver results that range from

transparency to warm coloration similar to that associated with tubes—providing for

more flexibility than you’ll find in other preamps.

Working with TAMPA  is a unique experience. At modest gain settings, TAMPA is

extremely transparent. That means that you really hear the true nature and quality of

what you connect to its input. (Many people have never really heard what their mics

and instruments truly sound like because the devices are always colored by the

preamp and other circuitry.) And, as you’ll see, you can easily add more “warmth” to

the sound using higher gain settings. Here, too, the natural-sounding coloration TAMPA

adds to the signal has a unique sonic quality. So don’t be surprised if your mics and

other gear sound different through TAMPA.

About Temporal Harmonic Alignment

In nature, all sounds are comprised of a fundamental frequency along with a series of

harmonics. The frequencies of those harmonics and how their amplitudes change over

time give the sound source its unique sonic signature. In natural sound sources such

as strings, drumheads and vocals chords, harmonics share a characteristic temporal

relationship to the fundamental.

Virtually all electronic circuits generate additional harmonics not present in the source

signal. In that way, every electronic device changes the sonic signature of the signal

passing through it. That change can be quantified according to two different properties:

the amplitude of the additional harmonics and their temporal relationship to the

fundamental.

The amplitude of the induced harmonics is typically measured in THD or total harmonic

distortion. In general, today’s solid-state electronics exhibit very low THD. The sound of

solid state is often described as “muddy” in lower frequencies and “harsh” in higher

frequencies, however, because the harmonics generated rarely exhibit the temporal

Let’s look at a simple scenario where TAMPA’s output is connected to an analog mixer.

(This discussion also applies to recorders and sound cards that have input gain controls

in either hardware or software.) If you want a “warm” sound, you’ll want to drive

TAMPA’s internal signal level fairly high. That means that you’re looking for hot signal

levels approaching or even surpassing 0VU on the OUTPUT LEVEL METER. You can

accomplish this by turning TAMPA’s GAIN up and optionally engaging the +20dB switch

on the input stage. (The CLIP indicator light comes on at +26dBu, approximately 4dB

below the actual digital clipping level of 30.5dB. Basically, you can drive the OUTPUT

LEVEL METER as hot as you want as long as you don’t hear anything offensive.) If the

signal level overloads your mixer input, engaging the 20dB PAD at TAMPA’s output will

likely bring it back down to a useable range. You’ll find that there’s an interactive

process in setting TAMPA’s GAIN and your mixer’s input attenuation.

If, on the other hand, you want a more neutral or transparent sound from TAMPA,

reduce the gain by about 10 to 20 dB. Be careful to maintain enough gain that you still

have an acceptable signal level at the mixer. You’ll probably want to keep the +20dB

switch in the preamp stage off unless you’re not getting much of a reading at all on the

OUTPUT LEVEL METER. Similarly, you’ll likely want to keep the 20dB PAD disengaged on

the output stage so that your mixer receives a strong enough signal. Here, too, adjust

TAMPA’s GAIN control and your mixer’s input gain to achieve the desired balance of

tonality and signal level.

Compression adds another variable, as it has the effect of reducing gain. In general, the

solution lies in continuing to interactively adjust TAMPA’s  GAIN and your mixer’s input

attenuation in order to achieve the right combination of signal level and tone. When using

high compression settings, you may also need to disengage the 20dB PAD in order to get

more gain. (The compressor is capable of a total gain reduction of about 20dB.)

Since the 20dB PAD only affects TAMPA’s analog outs, it does not enter the equation if

you are running the preamp’s digital outputs directly into a digital recording device. Your

digital recording device might have gain controls that you can use interactively with

those of TAMPA. You can also add 6dB of gain to the digital signal by summing the

identical left and right signals coming from TAMPA’s digital outputs.

Conclusion

Treating TAMPA as the unique piece of gear that it is and familiarizing yourself with the

characteristics of its gain structure will result in many rewarding sessions. For more

information on setting TAMPA’s signal levels, please read your entire TAMPA manual.