Managing Tube Preamp Saturation?

[Anthony YoungParticipant]

Hi!

So something that has caught my attention is the fact that the longer you leave a tube pre on, the more saturated it gets (common sense).
But when I have a client recording, sometimes they're here for hours.
I was wondering if there were any techniques on managing the heat.
Not too sure on the engineering of the entire thing, does the tube heat up when cranking the drive and gain? or is it passive, and continuous like an electric stove? There must be some way to control the heat, other than just shutting it off and waiting while the client twiddles their thumb haha!
Another idea that clicked was maybe having two of the same pre's?
once you know you're about at the over saturation window, warm up the secondary and record through that?
Curious on what you guys have to say.

[KipParticipant]

have a lot of tube gear over the years .....if you are getting more saturation as the pre stays on ..something is wrong...tho tubes generate heat the preamp tubes will not generate the heat that say my wifes ampeg svt does
most pro audio gear does heat up a room ...ask warren how his solid state console heats up his lol
what preamp are you using?

[Len BairdParticipant]

I think a properly functioning tube will get full warmed up within a few minutes, and should stay stable after that.

[Anthony YoungParticipant]

I'm using a little PreSonus TUBEPRE V2.

[Author]

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