The Leslie sound you're trying to cop?

The benchmark for me will always be my little brother's real Lelie cabinet. He took it and his Hammond to the coast some years back & I've been making do w/a G4 on the floor or my rackmount RPM-1, which has a stereo spread for the horns and a third out for the rotor.

I guess it was George Harrison's playing on 'Badge' along with that guy from Poco (who used a wah, too) that first hipped me to what a guitarist could do w/a Leslie. I was real lucky we had one in the house, but I would never have even considered dragging it to a gig, and my bro' wouldn't have let me, anyway..

 

Badfinger's "No Matter What" is the ultimate to me. My Rotosphere gets pretty close, but it's not quite as chewy.

 

SRV Cold Shot

 

Not from a real leslie, but the sound Charlie Hunter gets from his K&K Rotosphere is what I like. He used to use a Korg G4 a while back too.

 

George Harrison (Let It Be and anything from All Things Must Pass), Badfinger (Baby Blue), and Joe Walsh (Meadows). I'm sure they were all using Leslies, but don't know which models. I've had all the pseudo-Leslies, and none gets it exactly, which of course is not possible from a little box- you have to move a speaker through the air to get it right. My favorite might be the original H&K, but they all do good stuff and some are more flexible control-wise. Stereo helps get it a bit closer but then you have to deal with two amps and more cables. However, I will say none has had that thick, chewy, throbbing sort of perfection that comes from a properly maintained, well miked Leslie. But my back seems to prefer the little boxes...

 

George Harrison and Badfinger (I bet they used GH's gear for that tune lol) are all great examples. For me, it's the first 50 seconds of "Bridge of Sighs" by Trower. I have been chasing that sound for a long time now. I am hoping that the new Boss twin pedal will do the trick, as well as getting the GH Badfinger tones.

 

Brent Mydland, early 80s. Grindy, swirl. My roto doesn't do it but it's because i'm putting a guitar through it...my bud ran his roland gk-whatever and it sounded pretty good.

I *do* like the roto for what it is but i've come to terms with the fact that it won't ever sound the way I want it to!

 

Band of Gypsies, "Machine Gun", etc.

 

why does everybody get that wrong!!! george played the straight rhythm part that starts the song (surprising, eh? he was always able to surprise you, wasn't he?). CLAPPO played the leslie'd part!! i would also like to mention akkerman's WONderful use of 2 les cabs! sylvia, hamburglar concerto....

and machine gun, bridge of sighs... those WERE univibes, ya dags!


ml

 

I grew up around folks who had Hammonds in their homes, so I really got to know how a real Leslie sounds. I've always been kind of disappointed with emulators, although some are clearly better than others.

To my ear, the emulators that come closest to the real thing (using my Leslie 147 as a basis for comparison) are the DLS RotoSIM and -- believe it or not -- the rotary effect in the Boss GS-10.

 

+1
That's my favorite leslie-sound. I heard/saw him a couple of times here in Holland and he sounded great with that Korg G4.

 

anybody try http://www.songworks.com/pages/7/index.htm
i wasnt too impressed by the sound clips but it is like a mini leslie, and it has a real rotating speaker... i have always wondered about these.

 

muddy's right. Clapton used a real Leslie.
A benchmark for me is Eric playing with it on The Beatles "While my Guitar Gently Weeps" - it's also all over later Cream stuff (some miced off the top horn when stationary) and he used it extensively in Blind Faith.

Best, Pete.

 

George Harrison all the way...
The non-fuzztone "Let It Be" solo, and his playing on Ringo's "It Don't Come Easy."

 

when did you see him? he's been using the H&K for a while.

Man he is one outrageous musician.

 

my all-time FAVE of his still has to be "doin' that scrapyard thing" from goodbye cream!!! actually, now that i think of it, he used it on all three studio recordings! what a bringdown, solo esPECIALLY!!!


ml

 

Danny Gatton "Redneck Jazz"
He got some of the most gorgeous Leslie sounds, but of course he was using a real Leslie. I will probably pickup the Line 6 when I find one locally that I can try.

 

Just amazes me that they didn't use better sound clips, better playing that would accentuate the thing.

Still...the second clip if you don't listen to the limp playing, but to the sound...sounds pretty impressive to me.

This thing ought to have at least 4-5 sound clips, with a little oomph. I mean...it IS the real deal...would be spreading the sound with the doppler AND the ramp-up all over the place.

Not sure in actual use, how loud it would be (or if you could control two with one foot controller, in series or parallel...just thinking of the possibilities) or how loud...

For that matter, I am really interested in how this thing would sound miced, how much effect you would lose, and how much would cancel because it also is coming straight from the source.


It's expensive, but really intriguing.