Propellerhead has introduced Rotor, a rotary speaker Rack Extension modeled on the classic Leslie 122. Here’s what they have to say about it:
Rotor carefully emulates all aspects of a rotary speaker, down to the independent rotation and acceleration of the horn and drum, and has settings for mic distance and rotation speed. But Rotor also takes the classic rotary speaker design into the future, with two flavors of built-in preamp distortion, control over the rotation doppler effect, the horn’s length and acceleration speed as well as CV output of the rotation, for syncing other Reason devices to Rotor’s speed and acceleration.
Here are audio demos of Rotor in action:
https://soundcloud.com/propellerhead/sets/rotor-sound-examples
Features:
- Emulation of a Leslie speaker.
- Behaves just like the original. The horn part of the sound ramps up and down faster than the Drum part of the sound due to the inertia.
- Rotor turns simple synthesized organs into accurate organ sounds, makes guitars sound interesting, and makes vocals wide and 60’s flavored.
- Fully integrated with the Reason rack. Sync other Reason devices to Rotor’s rotation speed through CV on the back
- Challenges the physical restrictions of a rotary speaker. The parameters go beyond the real world with horns twice the size and helicopter-like rotation speeds of up to 13.6hz. Just reach for the trim knobs!
- Includes an organ instrument for Reason’s Combinator, and a set of Rotor and Combinator patches for guitar, vocals, keys and drums.
Note: While Rotor is fully compatible with Reason and Reason Essentials, the instrument patches included with Rotor require Reason.
Rotor is available now for $49. A demo version is available.
Wow I’m excited about such a cutting edge development for reason….not sure how the other software cos will keep up….if that’s my reaction and I’m a reason user I fear what haters will say.
Wait a minute…when did Reason get a Hammond RE? Or am I supposed to spend 50 bucks on a Lesly effect to use on those ghetto ass organ sounds in ID8? I’m going to assume “Radical Organ” is coming soon…
I truly think Reason is going to be (already is) responsible for helping people create a stunning body of music. I don’t think ANY sequencer (Logic, Cubase etc.) has the solid trajectory that the Props have. I know I’m not even commenting on the Rotor thingy, but it’s just making me realize what these guys have done. If I had to pick my one desert island software to make music, it would be the one and only Reason. Thank you Propellerheads. : >
It certainly has the movement, but it lacks the depth and pulse of the Leslie. Perhaps comparing my 100 watt Leslie to what is coming out of my monitors might have something to do with less punch, but it still doesn’t feel like it’s there. It’s still very nice to have something like this in such an affordable and convenient package, because the rotary speaker is still a good chunk of the Hammond sound, and it’s a good idea to get that into the hands of more people.
And yet still no basic features required of any pro DAW like MIDI Out or VST compatibility. What a scam.
“Makes guitars sound interesting.” Had to laugh at that line–I knew the Props were biased towards synths but jeez…
Reason user. Love the look and the sound of that RE. For rotary FX I still use the 3D Rotary FX from my Korg WS A/D. It has nothing to do with a leslie but for the few who knows, it is still amazing what it does still today. great top secret little spice.
They provide Hammond sounds with the effect, they are quite good actually
Well there it goes, the last reason I have to use Logic. I’ve been longing for a leslie sim for Reason for absolutely years.
Well done Propellerhead, you can have even more of my money now