Cordovox CL30 Leslie with Suhr Badger 18 watt head experiment

kerrlehr

Experienced
I would like to work with any others who are interested, to develop some seriously powerful Leslie based presets. I am talking authentic, not what is currently available. They are not the same. Good, but quite different to me.

I have taken on the task of attempting to see if I can get a close impulse recreation, using the AXE FX II's IR feature, of my Cordovex CL-30 (AKA Fender Vibratone as Re-brended for Cordovox/CMi) being driven by my Suhr Badger 18 watt head in it's Non-MV mode. I tell you, playing this setup live in my studio is Holy Grail - Hair stand up on your arms analog tube and spatial heaven.

EDIT -> However, getting it recreated into an actual preset which not only recreates the "effect" I.e., "Rotary" occurring in a modulation sense, but also how one of the actual Leslie cabinets affected the sound overall. The amps are now old school, and seriously "COLORED" the tone. Leslies were used in studios and live settings much more than you might think. (Gilmore, Frampton, Many, Many others used them religiously sometimes leaving them turned on for entire songs, blended with other amps and speakers) When playing through my actual Leslie and a tube head, I now can hear sounds that I recognize were accomplished using a Leslie on many, many songs from that time era. I had no idea, but now I am privy to what I am learning was I studio secret weapon used a lot back then. A studio tool and secret work horse. I think that often, engineers would just say, "what the heck, let's track that with a Leslie". I hear them a lot now that I am truly familiar. They do much more than just the soft rotary. Used in heavier settings the can roar in their own way. Turn it up. Use your volume control to vary the intensity of the overdrive. These cabinets can truly ROCK if you let them. Recreating this sound is a task which seems quite difficult to do though. Take a try with these. Don't expect what you perceive a Leslie to sound like. Instead, be open minded to hear what they really sound like in a studio if you plug and play one. Think outside of the box and these cabinets are glorious in their own way.

A characteristic that I often an identify when playing my Leslie, is that I can sometimes almost swear that someone is playing a Hammond B-3 in the background, with Overtones coming from the Leslie which sound like they are playing the same chords lightly ringing from any chord that I hold open. A good three harmonic overtones ride my notes and it sounds totally unique and completely awesome to me. I can hear it when playing the IR combined with these presets. Especially on the "Badger Lesli" preset. I thought I would share what I have been able to do so far. This is far from complete. But is very interesting if you are curious unique sounding, musical presets. I can find many places where sounds like this can add to your sound pallat.

These presets attempt to capture what you might experience if you are plugged into one of the Leslies of that time era. Including sound degradation and harmonic content characteristics.

I first created a nice sounding cabinet IR image (after about 6 attempts and not so happy results). Finally, using about half of my Mic closet, I determined that 4 Mics needed to be used.
(3) x Shure SM-57 (1) Left, held 6" away from side port, (1) Right, held 6" away from side port, (1) Top, held 6" above top port.
(1) x RODE NT-1000 Large Diaphragm Condenser.


My presets are laid out as follows: K40 S2 G2 Badger Lesli = K-(Kerrlehr) 40 (#40 Buttery as basis preset) S2 (Strat 5 way on #2 Neck=5 Bridge =1) G2 (Grind level "2" out of 1-3) Badger Lesli <- Obvious....

EDIT -> If the "Phaser" is on in the "K 40 S2 WAVE" Preset, please turn it off before using, then re-save.
 

Attachments

  • Cordovox 4.syx
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  • K 40 S2 G2 Badger Lesli.syx
    6.3 KB · Views: 35
  • K 40 S5 C2 Wave.syx
    6.3 KB · Views: 28
Last edited:
EDIT -> If the "Phaser" is on in the "K 40 S2 WAVE" Preset, please turn it off before using, then re-save.
 
Thanks for posting these -- I'll try them out later today.

I, too, am a huge fan of the Leslie type sound as used by Joe Walsh, Hendrix, etc. In fact, I use to have a big old wooden tube-powered Leslie (wish I hadn't sold it, now.) Sounded fabulous when cranked.

It will be interesting to see the improvements the 6.01 firmware makes to the rotary block.

TT
 
Tommy T - That must have been a rush to play through one of the big Hammond Leslies. I must experience that.
The IR I have posted is based upon a smaller cabinet with a 10" speaker, so it will feel more like a pushed Fender deluxe, compared to how yours would be like a a cranked Bassman w it's 2x15" cabinet.

Yes I am excited to see that Cliff ran with the Leslie improvement request. Knowing Cliff, we need to be prepared to be floored.
I think it's just around the corner here!
 
Thanks for posting. The Badger patch sounded dirty Hendrix with the OD engaged.. Really cool :)
 
Got a little time with it tonight. Sounds great. I'll be interested to see what the new rotary sim brings.
 
Next firmware coming (this week?) has a vastly improved Leslie block. Should make what you are attempting much easier.
Amen! - It is so cool to have witnessed how only a few weeks back a forum member mentioned, very politely, that he was dissatisfied with the AXE FX II's Leslie emulation. Instead of blowing him off as a complainer, Cliff stood up and said that he will look into it. That evening I saw Cliff posting that he had a great rework of the effect! Now, only a few weeks later, it is going to be here in our boxes. CHEERS to FAS! We are ready to put it to the test ASAP. You can look forward to some awesome recordings shortly after that FW is out!!
 
Amen! - It is so cool to have witnessed how only a few weeks back a forum member mentioned, very politely, that he was dissatisfied with the AXE FX II's Leslie emulation. Instead of blowing him off as a complainer, Cliff stood up and said that he will look into it. That evening I saw Cliff posting that he had a great rework of the effect! Now, only a few weeks later, it is going to be here in our boxes. CHEERS to FAS! We are ready to put it to the test ASAP. You can look forward to some awesome recordings shortly after that FW is out!!

It didn't hurt that said forum member was about to take the Axe on tour with a big name act. :)
 
Yeah, playing through the Leslie was a trip. Worth trip to the chiropractor, that is. (I kid, but it was insane to cart that thing around.)

To my mind there is simply a vast difference between an effect created in acoustic space (like the Doppler of a Leslie) vs one created in electronics and then originating from a point source (speaker.) Same for the old CE-1/JC-120 type of chorus -- by far the best type of chorus for high-gain, IMHO, as the the effect is created acoustically by two pure tones rather than delayed/phased/reversed/combined/etc.

TT
 
I messed around with the rotary block and this IR last night for a few minutes. Still tweaking it but I am looking forward to hearing your results.
 
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