Vole (Black Panel)

Enhancing Level Control

Vole is a new utility 1U module from Laine. It’s a dual volume control that adds some extra flavour.

There are two channels of attenuation and boost with soft-clipping. Between them lie Baxandall EQ shelf circuits, channel one with a gentle high shelf boost, channel two has a low shelf boost. The output of channel one is normalled to channel two. In practice this means you can plug a low level signal into channel one, boost it to obtain some saturating soft-clipping, and take the output from channel two. In addition to the clipping stages the original signal would have a low and high shelf boost, similar to a "Hi-Fi" EQ boost on consumer audio products. It can of course be thought of as a dual volume control and preamp, with a touch of low or high sweetening.

For sounds that could use a bit of sparkle run them through channel one, and maybe a drum track that would benefit from some punchiness through channel two. The EQ curves are subtle with low Q factors, providing 4dB of gain, on top of the full spectrum gain boost of the post-attenuator amplifier. Inputs are DC coupled and will pass DC signals with minimal waveshaping taking place. The Baxandall topologies are similar to those used in our "Stilts" EQ module, and the overall sound is open and reasonably transparent at medium gain levels. There are three LED level indicators per channel, with the third orange LED underneath the front plate indicating when soft clipping has engaged.

• CH 1: Wideband boost + 4dB High frequency shelf boost starting at 3.5KHz
• CH 2: Wideband boost + 4dB Low frequency shelf boost starting at 250Hz
• CH 1 output is normalled to CH 2 jack switch input
• Non-inverting outputs on both channels
• DC coupled inputs that can be used for CV control
• Impedance Input 100K / Output 1K

https://www.laine.uk/products/p/vole