OR-0015
Tekura
Oregon, USA · 1979 – c. 2001
Ser. Type 3100 · Ser. No. 00461-C
1994 · effect
Issued as VST3 · AU
Restored 2024 from 1994 hardware.
Tekura 3100 — Perceptual Codec
Tekura Type 3100 · Perceptual Codec analyzer · restored from Ser. No. 00461-C · Tekura, Oregon, USA, 1994
The restorer's note
Tekura put the masking model on the front panel so you could watch compression decide what to discard. Push it and the artifacts arrive on schedule — pre-echo, dulled highs — because they are physics, not seasoning. Restored from a revision-C unit.
Acquisition
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The plate
Listening
Listening
Demonstration recordings, prepared at the bench.
One twenty-eight, nominal
The mix runs dry for five seconds, then the codec takes it at Bitrate 128 kbps, Block Switch on Auto. What goes missing is what the masking model says you would not have heard anyway — mostly.
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Down the ladder
Bitrate steps from 320 down to 32 kbps in six moves. The top of the band thins first, then the texture; by 32 kbps the model is rationing, and it shows.
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The threshold, moved
At 96 kbps, Masking rises to +12 dB — the model discards more than it should — then falls to −12, where it keeps what it need not. Block Switch goes Off at twenty seconds and the hits smear forward; Joint Stereo closes the image at the end.
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