Rotary/Leslie effect for guitar

[louv]

Can anyone recommend a good stomp box to get a rotary/Leslie type sound for guitar?

Thanks

[Mark Hammer]

Depends whether you want a slow or a fast Leslie sound. There is a whole laundry list of reasons why anything less than an actual physical rotating speaker cab will simply not do, but that notwithstanding, faster is generally easier to mimic in a pedal than slow. Many phasers actually do a passable job, and some flangers can be coaxed into it.

Good emulation of slow Leslie generally requires a dual-amp setup to mimic the spatial swirl. A buddy of mine makes the Retro-Sonic pedals (which includes a nice CE-1 clone), and as much as Roland tried to nail a substitute for a Leslie when they first came out with the CE-1, when my buddy Tim came over and tried out a real rotating speaker for the first time, he became keenly aware of what ISN'T captured in a mono pedal, no matter how hard your try.

The ramp-up, ramp-down, is a signature aspect of rotating speakers, although it isn't necessarily something that everyone uses or knows how to use. So, while critical to "mood authenticity", it doesn't HAVE to be there to nail the tone.

I have a Line 6 Tone Core Roto Machine (now available in a cheaper Behringer clone package), and its a pretty nice pedal. Does ramp up/down nicely, and comes with 3 different cabinet models. The only things I don't like about it are the dual-pressure switch for bypass and speed-direction, and the fact that drive is not independent of level (you are obliged to have more volume if you want more grind). Other than that, when patched into two amps it nails my Vibratone cabinet pretty nicely. In mono, it is less impressive.

People like the Boss Rotary Simulator, but it's a bit more complicated. Some folks like the Destination Rotation a lot. Again, when people rave about this one and that, I never really hear from them regarding the manner in which they attempt to use the pedal.

[louv]

Thanks for your response.

I guess the best way to do it is to buy and resell a few on ebay and keep the one you like best.

I've heard the two amp thing is much better but I'm just looking for a bit of that rotary/tremolo sound to spice my sound up occasionally.

thanks

[trevorus]

I use a V-Wah's Uni-Vibe setting. Not the best, but it works quite well.

[olddawg]

Check out an old Ibanez CS-9 anolog chorus.

[dobrocop]

pretty good in mono or stereo.

boss rt-20 rotating speaker leslie effect,.this is written on the box,..lots of choic e in sound settings,slow n fast speeds,.saw a few on ebay lately,..dobrocop.

[TD_Madden]

H&K Rotosphere II....expensive, but EXCELLENT.

[rockinrendell]

i have the ROCKTRON VERTIGO but its more or less for trower type sounds but, it does have the fast/slow switch and it does ramp up and down. however, it isnt adjustible. which would be really cool. the slow to me is kind of fast and the fast is too fast. the fast works decent for the nirvana teen spirit song.

[coxster]

my rotary pedal

is a cheapo Danelectro Fab Chorus. No, it's not perfect, but I swear it's the best $17 I ever spent on a pedal, and I have used it for tremolo/vibrato, and chorus too.

Coxster

[Enzo]

I have a few Leslie mechanicsm in the warehouse. You guys are making me think about getting them oput and making something.

[cgiff]

ART SGX2000 Express Leslie

I buit a leslie effect using an old ART sgx2000 express and the matching ultrafoot midi controller. The SGX2000 although digital sounding has a lot of powerful features. I used all 8 user controllable MIDI parameters and assigned them to one of the expression controllers on the ultrafoot. The effect is built around a flanger. all the following parameters are controlled by the 2nd foot controller.
Flanger and panner speed, EQ values.
On low speed I emphasize the lower frequencies to get the whump whump sound of the bass rotor as you speed up, the programmbale EQ changes to emphasize the treble rotor. The effect does ramp up and down by foot control, not automatically as some of the newer purpose built foot pedals. I run the effect in stereo and get a very good guitar friendly leslie effect. No substitute for the real McCoy but in someways, better for guitar, as you actually play the leslie speeds via the expression pedal to complement your playing.The new Leslie model built for guitar allows you to vary the speed with an expresion pedalas well, although the demos on You-tube do not demonstrate this ability very well IMO. The SGX2000 allows you to program the min and max values for all the selected parameters, The panner and flanger speeds are slightly offset at min and max which creates a phasing sound across the entire speed range. I had to add reverb to cover up the clicking sound generated by the expression pedal operation a side effect(no pun) of the digital nature of this box. Personally the SGX is too digital sounding for my tastes for reverb and digital delays but with all 8 midi-channels varying simultaneously this is a fat sounding effect. If you can pick one of these up on EBAY for cheap You can make a respectable sounding leslie effect .

[pez]

I've got a dls rotosim pedal. It has knobs for slow and fast speeds, ramp time, tweeter level and bass rotor level. Has stereo ins and outs and also has internal trim pots for input gain for each input, output gain for each output and a couple others to change way the two virtual rotors interact a bit. Onboard overdrive which is usable.

If you want to get that gradual change in speeds this pedal does it well. It sounds very cool stereo, unfortunately I don't have a stereo rig . It also has an expression pedal input to get real-time control of the speed which would be cool.

It took a fair amount of noodling with the internal trim pots, but I found a setting that yields spacey swirl but doesn't change the tone too dramatically when I turn it on. It blends nicely with the regular tone of my guitar is what I'm trying to say. It can totally overtake your dry sound and create dripping sloshy sounds too, I prefer the subtlety of the effect to add to my sound, not stomp on it.

It was quite a bit of $$ (close to 400 canadian) but still much less than a rotosphere and it takes up 1/3rd the room on my pedalboard. I'm quite happy. Except now I want to build a small rotating speaker cabinet! I'm always creating more work for myself!

Cheers

[Mark Hammer]

Picked up a cheap used EHX Small Clone the other day and modded it right away. When the delay range is shifted over a bit by changing the stock 150pf clock capacitor to around 85pf, it does a VERY respectable Leslie sim. I say this comparing it to my Vibratone and Line 6 Roto-Machine. I was pleasantly surprised.

[Steve A.]

H&K Rotosphere II....expensive, but EXCELLENT.

Agreed! With a 12AX7 tube in the preamp, and the way that you can switch speeds with the footswitches it is damned close to the real thing...

Some people wished that they could adjust the fast and slow speeds to taste, but it *is* an emulation of a Leslie rotating speaker, not a Univibe...

Now I just have to remember where I put the darned power supply.

Steve Ahola

[EffectsGuru]

A good effect for that...

A good effect for that in my opinion is the Dunlop/MXR UNIVIBE, and the price isn't bad either at $150.00. If you prefer to control the effect in a wah pedal which is kind of nice too, you could try their ROTOVIBE pedal (MXR/DUNLOP). Those are the only two that I would recommend that aren't really expensive boutique pedals.