Leslie?

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nate_dennis

nate_dennis

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I am drawing a blank at the moment on the effect that a Leslie speaker has on the sound . . . . anyway. There are a few pedals out there now that emulate this sound. If a leslie is not available or not feasible, would one of these pedals (the boss double pedal comes to mind) work well enough for recording an organ (hammond or otherwise) or is this one of those amp emulator type scenarios? You know, the scenario that says "you can get good sounds but not neccissarily the sound of a leslie (or insert amp name here)"

Thanks for your help.
 
Before I got a Hammond VSTi, I would plug my keyboard direct in (or mic it via an amp) then add a phaser to kinda get the effect.
 
just mount a speaker cab to a ceiling fan and point a mic at it.:D
 
I have been searching for years...

for something that could get me to the Leslie sound (especially with regard to guitar) and have found that nothing comes close to the real thing. Unfortunately, I don't have the space or cash for a Leslie speaker + preamp to run a guitar (although I did just see a homemade unit on CL-Toledo for 100 bucks). With regard to organs, some of the smaller combo style organs from Hammond, Roland etc come pretty close (on board rotating speaker effect). I always wanted that guitar sound ala "White Room" by Cream, or the guitar effect from "It Don't Come Easy" by Ringo. It will probably never happen unfortunately.
 
nate_dennis said:
I am drawing a blank at the moment on the effect that a Leslie speaker has on the sound . . . . anyway. There are a few pedals out there now that emulate this sound. If a leslie is not available or not feasible, would one of these pedals (the boss double pedal comes to mind) work well enough for recording an organ (hammond or otherwise) or is this one of those amp emulator type scenarios? You know, the scenario that says "you can get good sounds but not neccissarily the sound of a leslie (or insert amp name here)"

Thanks for your help.
Click to expand...

Having owned a couple of Leslie's over the years, nothing really completely emulates the sound. However, I do currently use a Korg G4 Rotary Speaker Simulator. It's by far the best I've heard...and it weighs about 4 pounds.:D
 

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Does the distortion you often hear from a B3 and Leslie (like Jon Lord of Deep Purple) come from the organ??? Or is a Leslie powered and, therefore, overdriven to get that sound???
 
RAMI said:
Does the distortion you often hear from a B3 and Leslie (like Jon Lord of Deep Purple) come from the organ??? Or is a Leslie powered and, therefore, overdriven to get that sound???
Click to expand...
Depends on which "that sound" (or which part of it) you're talking about. Both sides contribute their own distortions and colorations. Much of it comes from the B3 itself, though. Everything from the dirt on the electrical contacts for the keys to the actual sounds of the electronics themselves.

I like to think of it this way: imagine the sound of a B3 run though a non-Leslie, and then imagine the sound of Leslie running a different organ through it. While neither will have "that sound" the same as a B3/Leslie combo, which one will come closer? A Wurlitzer organ run through a Leslie can give some interesting sounds if you dial it in right, but it just won't have "that sound", IMHO. A B3 will still give you that gritty B3 sound w/o a Leslie, however. It may not be exactly the same, but it will pretty unmistakenly be a B3 sound, nonetheless.

OTOH, there's no mistaking the look of a Leslie pushed too hard:

leslie_nielsen.jpg


G.
 
RAMI said:
Does the distortion you often hear from a B3 and Leslie (like Jon Lord of Deep Purple) come from the organ??? Or is a Leslie powered and, therefore, overdriven to get that sound???
Click to expand...

John Lord typically played through a stack of Marshall tube amps, which provided his signature overdriven scream.

But, the B3 can be overdriven in a couple of ways....as you could a typical tube guitar amp. You can overdrive the pre-amp, or overdrive the output amp (Leslie, Marshall...etc). Yes, most of the leslies were powered. I used to own a 122 cab. It was 40 watts, tube driven using 2 12AU7 for the pre and a pair of 6550's on the output side.
 
It's just my opinion, but I think digital simulations of rotary speakers are the weakest emulations arounds.

There is nothing quite like physical moving air around in circles. I had the Korg unit and tried many other simulators, but was never satisfied until I got a Motion Sound rotating speaker. Mine is a beat up piece of shit, but it works and sounds way way way better than the well intentioned simulations. Plus, I got it for $150

Of course, YMMV
 
Todzilla said:
It's just my opinion, but I think digital simulations of rotary speakers are the weakest emulations arounds.

There is nothing quite like physical moving air around in circles. I had the Korg unit and tried many other simulators, but was never satisfied until I got a Motion Sound rotating speaker. Mine is a beat up piece of shit, but it works and sounds way way way better than the well intentioned simulations. Plus, I got it for $150

Of course, YMMV
Click to expand...

True dat. Nothing replicates the spinner. The OP was looking for pedals, tho.:cool:
 
Owning a big Hammond with a 122 Leslie I can tell you that nothing comes even close to the real thing. I have two solid state Leslies, the 760 and the 860 and I used to have a 142, a 925 and a 744.

Leslies are great with guitars as well, get one.
 
How's it going Han? :)

Tell me...since you've had all those Leslies to compare to...have you ever found any pedal box that comes close to the sound?

I have a small Hammond in my studio (L100), but I've just been playing it through a 212 cab. I actually bought a pair of the same ones as in the Hammond, and mounted them in a cab. It was just too much of a PITA trying to mic the speakers in the Hammond between your legs while playing! :D
Plus, with a mic that close, it would pick up a lot of keyboard noise when playing a bit harder. Now I have the 212 off to the side...works well.
That said, I've been looking for a good rotary-sim to use for guitar and also for the Hammond, to give it some more realistic kick with the vibrato sounds.

I have a few pedals that do either the rotary and/or phase kind of thing (all analog flavors, no digital).
The H&K Rotosphere, Fulltone Deja Vibe 2, Option 5 Phase, Pigtronix EP1....
...and each one has some elements of the right sound, but none that are quite all there.

Right now, even though the Pigtronix EP1 is not technically a "rotary" sim...I'm finding it has the most potential, especially when using with an expression pedal to control the speed. It just needs some crunch added to it for that Leslie OD sound, but I can just stick an OD pedal after it.

For a pedal that is supposed be the best Leslie clone, the H&K Rotosphere is a letdown for me, mostly 'cuz it has only two speeds, and neither one is quite right, IMO. The Slow is not slow enough, and the Fast is too fast. I wish you could hook an expressions pedal to control the speeds better.
I have yet to try the H&K on my Hammond...so it may prove to be better suited for that instead of guitar.

The Option 5 Destination Phase is sweet, though it's just a great phaser. I may try the Option 5 Destination Rotation eventually, which some claim is quite close to the Leslie sound.

The Fulltone, while not technically a rotary, has the Vibe option that is OK, but honestly, the pedal on the whole is pretty disappointing. It's just way too subtle...for Vibe or Chorus (maybe if you could run both effects together it would be better). Sure, “subtle” may be OK for some things, but I wish it could "dig in” deeper.

I also hear that the DLS RotoSim is quite good, even though it is a hybrid analog/digital pedal…digitizing only the wet/effect side of the signal.
 
Miroslav, many moons ago I owned an L100P and a 142 tube Leslie. This combination sounds great and the distortion is stunning. But tube Leslies are not cheap. I got a 760 for free, is a 90 watt SS Leslie. I got a 147 tube Leslie with a E100 Hammond for free. I got an L100 for free and I got the 860 and the 210 watt 744H Leslie also for free.

What you might do if you can't find a tube Leslie is get a 760. These are the most common SS Leslies, very cheap and pretty good sounding. You can make a line out in the L100 by soldering some resistors in the speaker out and make a line in on the 760. I will give you a link to the wiring schematics of the most Leslies.

There is no substitute for a Leslie, two things: 180 deg fase reverse on each turn and the Doppler effect. I have yet to hear a effect processor that comes even close. With a line in on the 760 connected to the line out of a guitar amp you can make wonderful sounds and even a vocal track can sound wonderful through a Leslie at high speed (tremolo).

Leslie pin out data.
 
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