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Getting close to my favorite Leslie / Rotary sound [UPDATED]

yek

yek

Legend!
I was watching some of Pete Thorn's demos this afternoon and came across his review of the Neo Ventilator. Awesome pedal. So I tried to get close, fiddling with the Rotary parameters. Mind you, I'm no effects guru. But I'm happy with the results so far. In particular glad that I was able to get rid of the "volume throbbing" (tremolo) side-effect, especially when the Rotary is set to slow speed. If you want to try for yourself, here are my current settings.

EDIT: see updated settings in later post.

P.S. Check out Pete Thorn's other demos as well. Especially the one of his current pedalboard with clips and all. That one inspired me to tweak some of my other effects at well, such as the Fuzz/Octavia and Vibe.
Or Kenny Wayne Shepherd's walkhrough.
 
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Yek, your rotary settings have consistently proven great. Many thanks.

(p.s. I too can't live with the throbbing. Very odd side effect of using the Axe's rotary block that I haven't found with other simulators.)
 
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I really like your settings Yek - in fact, I changed my old settings which... were again based your old settings (with some adjustments).

It is stuff like this - especially the effects blocks - that I am excited for when we get Axe-Edit wide open for everyone. Very cool stuff man.
 
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I like the Neo Mini Vent pedal (Leslie 122) so much: I've ordered it and will receive it in the next few days.

I've been trying to make the Rotary block sound like it, based on a couple of videos.
Below are the settings.

What made a big change is the position of the Rotary block. I've always placed it after the AMP, allowing it to be stereo. But a lot of people are running leslie-emulating pedals (mono), and they sound great. So now it goes before the Amp block in my presets. Sounds great if not better, and overall the block just seems to work better at this position.

So here it goes, Rotary before Amp, can be a clean amp or dirty one.

Rate: 1.500 - 6.300
I have an external controller assigned to Rate, to switch between these two rates. Matched to the Neo's two speeds.

Low Depth: 30%
High Depth: 40%

These Depth values would cause too much throbbing if Rotary was placed after Amp. Also, as shown below, I add a bit of dry signal, to suppress throbbing.

Rotor Length: 95%
Keeping it below 100% prevents just a tiny bit of undesirable modulation.

LF Mic Spacing: 0% (mono drum)
HF Mic Spacing: 50%, adds the required ambience/shimmer/tone.

Drive: 4
I don't need a lot of drive here, because I'll switch to other amp tones if I need grit.
Here's a weird thing though: if Rotary is put after the Amp block, Drive doesn't work well, and above 8 it will start to cause a volume drop. This doesn't happen with Rotary before Amp, and Drive will just sound better too IMHO.

Mix: 77%
This retains attack when hitting notes and chords.

Level: about 2
To compensate for some loss of volume.

Just be aware that with this setup you're running a mono Rotary.

After getting my Mini Vent, I'll compare again.
 
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Thanks, Yek. Gonna have to try that.

Have you tried running the rotary into two cloned amp blocks, for stereo?
 
Yes, that's a great alternative for stereo use. Just like one would do with real amps.
 
One pedal that I would consider keeping in my effect loop is the Strymon Lex. It's unbelievably lush and deep. I will give Yek's setting a try tonight. The man has never steered me wrong :)

I always put the Lex before my amp. On my (pre-AxeFX) pedalboard, it came right after the EP1 booster at the front of my signal chain.
 
Talk about timely!
We added a new song this weekend that has a prominent Leslie part, I just got through adding this to a couple of my presets and it sounds GORGEOUS!

I'm still very very new to all this business, but I've noticed the name 'Yek' seems to pop up quite a lot in my searches and research around these here parts. ;)

Thanks a ton mate!
 
Can't wait to give this a go.

Like Scott, my current Leslie block was your creation too with some minor to taste tweaks :)

Thanks so much for the post.
 
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yek said:
I like the Neo Mini Vent pedal (Leslie 122) so much: I've ordered it and will receive it in the next few days.

I've been trying to make the Rotary block sound like it, based on a couple of videos.
Below are the settings.

What made a big change is the position of the Rotary block. I've always placed it after the AMP, allowing it to be stereo. But a lot of people are running leslie-emulating pedals (mono), and they sound great. So now it goes before the Amp block in my presets. Sounds great if not better, and overall the block just seems to work better at this position.

So here it goes, Rotary before Amp, can be a clean amp or dirty one.

Rate: 1.500 - 6.300
I have an external controller assigned to Rate, to switch between these two rates. Matched to the Neo's two speeds.

Low Depth: 30%
High Depth: 40%

These Depth values would cause too much throbbing if Rotary was placed after Amp. Also, as shown below, I add a bit of dry signal, to suppress throbbing.

Rotor Length: 95%
Keeping it below 100% prevents just a tiny bit of undesirable modulation.

LF Mic Spacing: 0% (mono drum)
HF Mic Spacing: 50%, adds the required ambience/shimmer/tone.

Drive: 4
I don't need a lot of drive here, because I'll switch to other amp tones if I need grit.
Here's a weird thing though: if Rotary is put after the Amp block, Drive doesn't work well, and above 8 it will start to cause a volume drop. This doesn't happen with Rotary before Amp, and Drive will just sound better too IMHO.

Mix: 77%
This retains attack when hitting notes and chords.

Level: about 2
To compensate for some loss of volume.

Just be aware that with this setup you're running a mono Rotary.

After getting my Mini Vent, I'll compare again.
Click to expand...

Just took it for a test spin; probably not what you had in mind, but not too shabby on "The Wanton Song". I was never too happy with the (or should say, lack of) parameters I was using with the Rotary block.

Kudos brother!
 
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That's a great song to test it with (Wanton Song).
I use it myself on the Black Dog solo (even though there's no traditional Leslie in the original).
 
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