Leslie Simulators...whats the vibe?

Danny-B

I never thought I would descend into such terrible pun related depths...

Ah well ?

Now, leslie simulators. I did a show earlier last year(called the Guitar that Rocked the World, which will be in Joburg next year!) in which the MD had and played a Hammond B3 and Leslie Cab. I'd obviously heard the awesome effect before, but standing behind an overdriven leslie is an experience and a bloody half. So now, I would like to replicate that, with my guitar, in pedal format. Now, there are several options. The cheapest would be buying a BOSS RT20, which I played, and enjoyed enough. Secondly, I could import a Modfactor, which apparently does an excellent rotary simulation. This would also give me access to a plethora of other mod effects. Or, I could the whole bloody hog, and get a H&K rotosphere. Now, leslie aficionado's, give me your suggestions ?

AlanRatcliffe

I went through a Leslie sim search a while back. Nothing is quite like the real thing, but that's a little unwieldy for a pedalboard. ? You can go the Univibe route, too, but that has it's own kind of errr... vibe (sorry!) - nice for some Hendrix stuff or Gilmour swrlies. I've got a Lovepedal Magicboy Vibe, which is a cool modern vibe pedal.

The Boss is your best bet for a Leslie sim - the only reason I don't own one is some of my very percussive playing makes it clip the attack (not something anyone else will run into and is something I often run into with modelling pedals). The Leslie sim is very good, just ignore the terrible drive and so-so Univibe sim (usable, but you'll probably prefer to use the Leslie setting instead). The display is downright hypnotic (the best display of any effect pedal, bar none) and the ramp up/down is excellent (it even happens at different speeds for bass and treble rotators, the way it should). I found the direct and effect knobs to be a bit of a clumsy way to mix the two sounds and would have preferred a mix and volume knob, but not a dealbreaker as it's a set and forget thing.

The Rotosphere is huge, more than a little expensive and IMO, overrated.

BTW - There's someone been selling an RT-20 on CT Gumtree for R1,200 for the last couple of months, no takers... They are R2,500 retail new...

Vick

For interests sake,are you running more then one amp?

Coz iv heard some amazing leslie effects achieved with the RT-20 and a stereo setup...

Ps: iv never heard a Leslie in the flesh... :'(

Jack-Flash-Jr

Fender super champ has a nifty little emulator, attached to valve no less.

AlanRatcliffe

That's the great thing about a real Leslie - it throws the sound around the room and it reflects off all the surrounding surfaces. You don't get that any other way but with a real Leslie. The stereo does help the RT-20 a lot, but it lacks some of the 3D depth that makes the real thing so damn nice - but then, so does everything aside from the real thing. I found adding a nice dynamic Lexicon reverb with a touch of modulation helped a bit too.

But aside from the nitpicking, the RT-20 is a good unit that sounds good used mono or stereo.

Bob-Dubery

Vick wrote For interests sake,are you running more then one amp?

Coz iv heard some amazing leslie effects achieved with the RT-20 and a stereo setup...

Ps: iv never heard a Leslie in the flesh... :'(

I've been scratching my head (watch out for splinters!) to try to remember when I last witnessed a Leslie in action.

They are still around. I caught Georgie Fame on Jools Holland's show a while back (footage a few years old, but definitely 21st century) and he's still doing the Hammond and Leslie thing.

However you can see the problem as well. That kit ain't small and probably ain't light. And once you start playing big venues some of the plusses that Alan mentions probably disappear and you might as well just use a stomp box anyway.

kayDUB

Check out the new Strymon Lex... http://www.strymon.net/products/lex/

AlanRatcliffe

kayDUB wrote Check out the new Strymon Lex... http://www.strymon.net/products/lex/

The clips sound great! Still not the real thing, but as close as you're going to get with stereo. The drive is a lot better than the Boss and they have nailed the tonality of the speaker.

Incidentally NI Guitar Rig has a nice rotary too - it's based on one they use in the B4 Softsynth. A nice feature there is you can twiddle with a lot of settings, even turning off the speaker tonality.

Danny-B

Ah, thank ye merry gentleman for the replies. I'm going to be pairing this with a POG2 to get, what I hope will be, an awesome effect! Now...it seems I am shuffling over to the Modfactor, as my board has no modulation on it at all...Modfactor owners, could you give me your opinion of the rotary effect?

AlanRatcliffe

Danny B wrote I'm going to be pairing this with a POG2 to get, what I hope will be, an awesome effect!

Ah! I get exactly where you are coming from. A rotary (and a bit of drive) will go a long way to helping the POG fake a Hammond.