ZVEX shared this video, demonstrating the Candela Vibrophase – a sort of steampunk, candle-powered Leslie effect.
Here’s what they have to say about it:
The Candela Vibrophase is an audio guitar effect that produces a mono output which creates a realistic 3D rotary speaker effect combined with phasing, wah, vibrato and tremolo effects.
This hypnotic sound is produced using no batteries or power supply, merely a candle that drives two solar cells and a Stirling heat engine that spins an optical control disc whose design can be controlled by the user.
Zachary Vex says that this would cost about $6,000, but the savings in batteries would pay for it in about 2,000 years.
I love seeing those little machined engines go and this was a clever way to make use of one. Pretty neat.
Make magazine had instructions on how to make a simple optical tremolo, which uses similar technique. Maybe it’s possible to attenuate CV with it, creating an LFO. Or add second photo pair on a separate audio channel to create a rotary speaker effect.
This is lovely! What does that sound like with a pure 440Hz sine wave thru it?
I’d love to see a pedal board of pedals like this. It would look like a small factory.