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David Gilmour’s rotary sounds with pedals
In this video I’m explaing how you can use a phaser and flanger to simulate David Gilmour’s classic rotary sounds from the Animals and Wall era.
David Gilmour would use a Yamaha RA-200 rotating speaker cabinet, often blended with an Electric Mistress, mixed slightly lower than his dry Hiwatts to create a subtle modulated tone. I’ve always loved that liquidy wobble heard on the The Wall tour and the Is There Anybody Out There – The Wall live 1980-81 album in particular.
Stacking a Phase 90 ’74 MXR Custom Shop and Mooer ElecLady flanger gets you very close to that tone.
Read more about how to simulate David Gilmour’s rotary sounds here, his Yamaha RA-200 and his rotary setups over the years in this feature.
What is the effects chain when stacking phaser and flanger? I have my phaser before overdrive and modulation/flanger in the effects loop before delay.
Jannich
It’s a matter of taste. I like to have phasers and UniVibes before any dirt pedals and chorus and flanger after. I run all my pedals into the front end of the amp though as I don’t rely on the amp to produce dirt.
Hi Bjron
I wonder if a chorus+detune could simulate a Doppolas speakers system. I did some quick tests with the Mooer Ensemble King chorus (a Boss CE-2 with mix control) and the Mooer Pitch Box in Detune mode, and the first results seems interesting.
They add that swirl, similar to the single rotating speaker.
And, by the way, what do you think about the DLS RotoSIM and DLS RotoSPIN? Have you ever tried them?
They soud very nice to my ears.
Cheers from Italy
The DLS stuff is great.
Does anyone know if the Dynacord CLS-222 is still a good idea?
My main concern for such an older unit are, can I control the on / off status of the effect, and the fast/slow settings using a midi controller of some kind – such as the Voodoo Labs Control Switcher or the Rockman Midi Octopus?
Also the analog dry thru, if the effect is disengaged does the Dynacord being in the signal path change the tone at all or is transparent?
Don’t have any experience with this… anyone?
You’ll definitely want a side amp for the CLS-222, it’s not transparent at all. No mix control and the foot controller has switches for speed and stop, using standard latching switches. Not sure if that is compatible with a midi interface. And effect on/off switch is only on the rack unit. It has a bit of a low-fi character (doesn’t bother me), and there’s a bit of a low-frequency hum if you have the output level high, both of which are present even with the effect off. However it’s a really nice sounding effect, and it has a fantastic stereo spread on super stereo mode, so I recommend having 2 amps for it with your dry amp in the middle. If price and space aren’t too much of a concern of course. I feed mine from the mono output of my alembic f2b, with the preamp knob on the dynacord at around 2 it can handle a full preamp level signal without clipping.
how would the Danelectro Billionaire BK-1 Big Spender Spinning Speaker stack up to this stuff. I found one for less than $70 brand new on amazon. That is definitely a budget pedal. Have you tried this one out?
Referring to the Rotary sounds of course…I don’t know if the post is sitewide or by section.
I haven’t tried it but it sounds OK. Perhaps more a chorus than a rotary but it’s worth checking out for the price alone. Pete Thorn’s video was really nice.
From what seen on reviews, you’re correct about the chorus part. Slightly different than Gilmour’s sound. One review I heard almost sounded close to Eric Clapton playing Bad Love, but not quite.
Hi there,
What do you think Boss DD500 for floyd’s songs? 300 memories.
would it be possible for me to create the effects of each song and name them? for example: “comfortbly solo”, “Time intro”, “Time Solo”
I haven’t tried it but based on the specs and knowing Boss delays I would guess that it’s fully capable of covering David’s tones.
Cool sounds. If you’re ever state side and wanna try out my yamaha ra-200 , just let me know. It definitely has a unique tone of its own
I would love to. Never found anyone in my area that has one…
It really is unique. I suppose I should make you some sound clips sometime. Like , the dogs solos through it. I had to travel 5 hours to get this one. It was well worth it though! Maybe not something id lug around to gigs but definitely something to use in studios and just an all around cool collectors piece
For these tones, I like better a RT-20 + Electric Mistress (1981).
ciao
Giuseppe
I agree, however the intent of the article is to show that if you have a modulation pedal from the WYWH era and a modulation pedal from the Wall era you can stack them and get a rotary sound….saves buying a rotary sim.
Yep. There are lost of different ways you can do this. I just showed you one of my favourites :)
Hey Bjorn,
Not sure if you do much with VSTs, but are there any Leslie sim VSTs you’re fond of?
I’ve tried a few over the years and found most standalone Leslie VST effects aren’t that good, but a few of the better B3 Hammond sims have good Leslie sim (they kinda have to or the whole thing sounds poor), which can often be used in effect mode only with guitar.
I use VSTs as part (well nearly all) of my live rig.
I really haven’t explored Leslue VST that much. I’ve used AmpliTube for years for practice and recording and I saw that they’ve released an “official” Leslie package but I haven’t had the time to try that one yet. I often use the rotary sim in Logic for demos and stuff. It’s OK but not great.
Hi Bjorn, after seeing this and the other video in Youtube about the rotary sound, I do not understand if you use the phaser before or after the flanger. Also, if you use any gain pedal, where would you rather place it in order to recreate a distorted vibratory sound?
I have a Hartman Flanger and a MXR Phase 95 and I cannot achieve a similar sound than yours. I think that the problem is in the settings of my flanger.
Kind regards.
My gain pedals are a Musket Fuzz and a Tube Screamer and my amp is a Vox AC30.
If you try to use your phaser with a muff and flanger, its not going to sound like Davids live tones because of how dominating the phaser is on top of a distortion. It works good for cleans, but from my experience, the big muff gets really fizzy with a phase 90.
Did you try the (script) Phase 90 in front of the Muff Brad?
No Ive never tried it that way. I don’t know why. Ive heard you say it blends way better that way
Sounds more natural to my ears. It’s a different sound. Try it :)
The phaser is placed first. Seems to work best that way. This tone goes well with cleans but for overdrives and distortions, I’d go for either the Mistress alone or the Boss RT20. I’ll explain this in a later video.
Or you could try these real rotary speakers rotarysound.com
Great stuff. Nice to see you get those tones with two very simple pedals.
Excellent tone thanks!
Wow that’s amazingly similar, can’t wait to give it go.
Hi Bjorn,
Great post! The sound in very similar to the era and amazing.
In you’re opinion, can i use the electronic orange moon vibe to replace the phase 90?
What kind of setting for replicate the sound?
(I also have a ehx mistress, d allen pu and hiwatt ht20).
Thanks a lot!
Cheers
Simon
I haven’t tried it with a UniVibe but the MoonVibe does vintage phaser pretty well.
Hi Bjorn,
first of all many thanks for yet another great review with demo!
I have quick question: can I get the same result with EHX Stereo Electric Mistress Chorus/Flanger pedal? if so, do you have any hints? Or it worth (you’d recommend) to buy Mooer ElecLady and use it?
many thanks!
–Hayk
…shine on…
Thanks! I haven’t tried that one for this sound but I don’t think that pedal sounds like a vintage Mistress. It’s something else. The Mooer is definitely worth checking out.
Bjorn, have to tried the Neo Ventilator 2? My experience is its way better than the Strymon Lex. I thinks its the best rotary sound pedal on the market today. Great Gilmour tones
Haven’t had the chance yet.
If you get the chance please do, you may be surprised, I was. Only drawback is its alittle pricey for most. They offer a smaller unit but its still up there in price. With that said, In my opinion, its the best out there.