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Church and H.O.W. – Forums for HOW Sound and AV - Your Displayed Name Must Be Your Real Full Name To Post In The Church and HOW Forums => Church Sound => Topic started by: Bob L. Wilson on February 13, 2013, 12:30:47 PM

Title: Gyrophonic speakers
Post by: Bob L. Wilson on February 13, 2013, 12:30:47 PM
Check out this alternate take on a Leslie.

 http://www.ebay.com/itm/Allen-Organ-Gyrophonic-Projector-Leslie-Speaker-Cabinet-/200628249686?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2eb6602456 (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Allen-Organ-Gyrophonic-Projector-Leslie-Speaker-Cabinet-/200628249686?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2eb6602456)

That looks like a single wound single speed motor so maybe these weren't multispeed? or maybe they were variable speed, with voltage control from the organ console?  Hats off to the original engineers.

"We need to change a speaker belt before the next song"
Title: Re: Gyrophonic speakers
Post by: Ivan Beaver on February 13, 2013, 07:07:02 PM
Check out this alternate take on a Lelie.

 http://www.ebay.com/itm/Allen-Organ-Gyrophonic-Projector-Leslie-Speaker-Cabinet-/200628249686?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2eb6602456 (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Allen-Organ-Gyrophonic-Projector-Leslie-Speaker-Cabinet-/200628249686?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2eb6602456)

That looks like a single wound single speed motor so maybe these weren't multispeed? or maybe they were variable speed, with voltage control from the organ console?  Hats off to the original engineers.

"We need to change a speaker belt before the next song"
There have been a number of rotating cabinets-but many simply "miss the boat" in understanding what makes the leslie what it is.  It is HORIZONTAL rotation-NOT vertical that gives the effect of the sound swirling around the room.

Just moving in circle is not the same thing.

But that doesn't stop them-----------------
Title: Re: Gyrophonic speakers
Post by: g'bye, Dick Rees on February 13, 2013, 07:10:46 PM
There have been a number of rotating cabinets-but many simply "miss the boat" in understanding what makes the leslie what it is.  It is HORIZONTAL rotation-NOT vertical that gives the effect of the sound swirling around the room.

Just moving in circle is not the same thing.

But that doesn't stop them-----------------

Maybe if you laid it on its back and placed an inverted cone pointing toward the axis of rotation.....
Title: Re: Gyrophonic speakers
Post by: Ivan Beaver on February 13, 2013, 08:56:52 PM
Maybe if you laid it on its back and placed an inverted cone pointing toward the axis of rotation.....
It would still not make it "spin" around the room and reflect off of walls and such.

I have heard some of the copies-and while they do give some "movement" to the sound-they (at least the ones I have heard) are NOTHING like a old Leslie 147.  And none of them had the "growl" of the 147.
Title: Re: Gyrophonic speakers
Post by: Bob L. Wilson on February 14, 2013, 09:10:52 AM
There have been a number of rotating cabinets-but many simply "miss the boat" in understanding what makes the leslie what it is.  It is HORIZONTAL rotation-NOT vertical that gives the effect of the sound swirling around the room.

Just moving in circle is not the same thing.

But that doesn't stop them-----------------

I agree this configuration won't sound like a Leslie but the doppler effect will be present and audible in some fashion. I imagine a stereo pair of directional mics pointed at the baffle offset from center would pickup lots of frequency shift, it might sound cool or stupid but it would be audible.
Title: Re: Gyrophonic speakers
Post by: Ivan Beaver on February 14, 2013, 01:08:15 PM
I agree this configuration won't sound like a Leslie but the doppler effect will be present and audible in some fashion. I imagine a stereo pair of directional mics pointed at the baffle offset from center would pickup lots of frequency shift, it might sound cool or stupid but it would be audible.
To really understand-you have to go back in time a bit.  Why was the rotationg Leslie developed?

One reason was to try to simulate a large pipe organ in a reverberant room.  In that situation-there is sound coming at you from all directions-AROUND the room.

So by leaving the drivers stationary and using rotating horns in the horizontal plane-the sound would tend to bounce around the room and as the angle of the horn changed-the angle of the reflection would also change-giving it the "swirling" sound.

When they were developed-I am sure miking it did not even occur-since you simply didn't do that back then.

I still hold that while you would appear to get "some movement"-it is nothing like loudspeaker rotating in the horizontal plane.  At least the ones I have heard.  It would lack the "envelopement".
Title: Re: Gyrophonic speakers
Post by: Jerome Malsack on February 14, 2013, 01:25:55 PM
True and some of the pipe organs had pipes in different locations.  Giovanni Gabriele wrote music for small brass groups to stand in the various areas of the St Michaels Cathedral and play brass choirs in various patterns and circles around the room.   One of the big reasons the B3 with a Leslie was popular has to do with the sound and the fact you could move it.  Bands were able to reproduce with that organ lots of sounds and provide good backing tracks as needed plus the solos.   
Title: Re: Gyrophonic speakers
Post by: Nick Simon on February 15, 2013, 02:09:51 PM
looks to me like somebdy had a dryer (or giant box fan), some speakers, some plywood, a bag of weed, and a couple days off... ;)