Hughes & Kettner Tube Rotosphere MkII

This is to all of you elitists and purists who badmouth this quality piece of gear:
First of all, not all of us can afford a leslie cabinet.
Secondly, if there are quality products that replicate the overall affect of a leslie cabinet without being a piece of furniture, why wouldn't we want to use it, even if it isn't exact?
Thirdly, no modeler or simulator recreates the sounds of the original affect it's emulating exactly. If you're that anal, use the original affect.
Finally, and this is specific to Anonymous 10/14/03 @ 7:46. If you're an adult, the fact that you don't know the usage of their, there, and they're totally screws with your review's credibility. I read your review, but honestly get the feeling you don't know what you're talking about. You just seem to be some disgruntled dude with an axe to grind.

I think it is really easy. This a a set-and-forget pedal. Very easy to dial in what your looking for.

Repeat after me: THE..ROTOSPHERE..IS..A..SIM..U..LA..TOR (operative word being simulator) It is NOT going to have every little nuance of a real Leslie cab, but it does a great job of impersonating one with breaking your back or wallet. If you strictly play to audiences filled with Leslie purests, and your concerned that they will scoff at you for not having a 150+ lb. cab... dont get the rotosphere.

Here's the skinny for the rest of us. I a/b'd the roto and the Option5 Destination Rotation and to me the Rotophere won hands done (no offense to jay woods...nice guy). The rotosphere had more grit and personality, while the DR is liken to the vibrato on my '68 Deluxe Reverb. Even the friend who let me a/b with his DR sold it for the same fore-mentioned reason.

Look the Rotosphere sounds REALLY good! It is the best purchase I have made. It thickens up slow parts and fast parts, and ears perk up when you play an "organ solo"! It is great for jazz. The people in the audience dont give a crap what equipment your using, Leslie or Roto, but you gotta sound good. Given that the Roto is more portable and 99% of people wouldnt know the difference...get the roto. By the way... It is large, but I fit it on a pedaltrain with 9 pedals easily.

im not worried

hmm...dunno

this is a great pedal for live/studio/and songwriting purposes. Are looking to at a little something to add to your songs without going over-the-top with a ring-mod. Get the roto. If you dont like it...sell it on ebay and re-coup your losses. Meanwhile Im keeping mine cause it is the best thing going for a guitarist who doesnt want a hernea.

I have to agree with the last reviewer. After using real rotating cabs for so long this thing doesnt compare. I wouldnt expect it to sound exact but its not even ballpark. I guess if your blind to the whole leslie thing and this pedal is your first you may like it. I cant believe anyone would think this thing is so good because it ramps up and down to a slow and fast speed. Thats just rediculous. Thats something it just should have to begin with. Thiers no reason not to. A leslie effect is probably something that will never be reproduced by a pedal. The first try was a UniVibe, which I love, but damn it doesnt sound anything like a leslie. It hasnt gotten much better on the leslie sim market. Thiers 2 places Ive heard a leslie sim that I thought were very good. Passable but no direct replacement for the real thing. One was the leslie effect in the Rocktron Replifex DSP which is by far the best effect in that DSP (I owned it just for that one effect) and the other is the Option 5 Destination Rotation pedal. Thier both way ahead of this pedal in terms of authenticity. The Option 5 pedal being by far the nicer effect and as a pedal leslie effect waaaaaaaaay better, and cheaper, then the Rotosphere.

If you want the real thing none will come close. You should compare this pedal to the real thing because that is all that it is trying to do is mimic the real thing. That is its whole point. But I do believe if your willing to spend this much money on a pedal you should do more research. Thiers much much better leslie pedals out thier on the boutique market. Many for less money. This one just happens to be the only one on the "Guitar Center / Sam Ash" market. Its all that most people have to compare to. Thats a market I would have nothing to do with other then strings. I havent bought anything from those stores since I first picked up the guitar.

People shouldnt give high ratings when they dont know what thier talking about. If my only knowledge of the leslies and leslie sim pedals was the Roto and I really liked it Id probably give it an 8 just on the fact that I havent tried many other "real" leslie pedals. I doubt any of the reviewers here who gave all 9s and 10s even know or have tried any other dedicated leslie-type pedals. If they did they wouldnt say the Roto is the best. They may still like it very much but I dont think anyone would consider it better then the Option 5 or some others Ive owned. Not in authenticity anyway.

I guess this pedal is OK if your goin for that Incubus thing since Mike uses this pedal. It doesnt sounds like a leslie on those songs anyway. More like a phaser/chorus hybrid.

15 min. of fooling around with it will train anyone. A lot easier than lugging aroud the real thing (see below). It also looks great - tube glow and a pinkish neon kind of backlighting.

Les Paul and Fender Deluxe Reverb. After reading reviews here and elsewhere, my expectations were high. Alas, I spent too many years areound the real thing (4 ft. tall Walnut Leslies that actually twirled). Based on that, the sound of the Rotosphere is disapointing. It is MILES away from the real thing. I also compared it to the "Rotary" effects of my KORG Pandora, and came out with no improvement, except, it does have the speeding up/slow down effect down.

Simple to use out of the box.

I think some of you stepped up to the boat and COMPLETELY MISSED IT! The reason this pedal is a classic, and one of the best pedals of any type ever made, is the ability to speed up and slow down the rotors while you are playing!! Unbelievable if you have one of these and don't know that. So while you are playing a passage, or a lead, you shut the rotors down until almost the end ...then kick them on again to give it an incredibly dynamic sound. It is not the swooshing sound AT ALL that makes these so great. And vibe clone will do more extreme sounds and a bigger variety of them. But I play organ parts on guitar, and I can get Hush by DP to sound better than the original part. It growls and swirls and is just an amazing sound. This is a BIG time pedal, for those who construct great tunes and leads by crafting their dynamics and tones. Best pedal on the planet.

I had an original, and I stepped on that thing full time for many gigs. The old pedal required you to stand on the break switch, as it did not latch. The only thing to ever worry about is changing the preamp tube after a few years of steady giggin.

This pedal gives you the opportunity to be supremely expressive and dynamic with your playing. Just learn to set the gain and speeds right for your music, and practice shutting the rotors on and off at the right times to make your music really pop out at people.

I don't give 10s unless the item is PREFECT.

It took me about 2 minutes to figure out what did what and about 10 - 20 minutes to get a handle on the breaker switch.

Switches: Left to Right
Bypass

Breaker - This switch emulates turning off the motors that controls the rotors causing them to spin to a complete stop. When this is done you still get the tone from the pedal but there is no rotation sound at all.

Fast/Slow - Controls whether the rotors are spinning fast or slow.

Knob Controls:
Drive - Controls how much gain you get from the tube.

Output - Volume control

Balance - This controls the balance of the Fast/Slow rotors. Turning either direction basically increases the volume the fast or slow rotor sound.

Indicators:

Bypass - Green if on, nothing if off.

Breaker - Red when slowing to a stop, Green when completely stopped. (I may have this backwards)

Fast/Slow - There is a LED for each rotor near the balance know. Each LED blinks according to the speed of the respective rotor.

There is a LED next to the fast/slow switch as well but I just looked at the LEDs next to the balance knob to check fast/slow status when the breaker switch had the rotors stopped.

There is also a tube saturation LED near the drive controls that tells you the pedal is clipping.

When the unit is warming up a light stays on until the tube is sufficiently warm.

Rear of the Pedal
Stereo inputs and outputs.

Jack for remote pedal. You can connect a pedal that can control the breaker switch and I think the bypass.

There is also a spot for the wall wart ***groan***

I used my '87 PRS into a Marshall 4101 Master Dual Reverb w/12" speaker. This amp LACKS bass.

At a bud's house I had the opportunity to go stereo w/his Crate. Not sure which model it was. It *was* a tube amp w/ a 10? speaker and it was fine for the application.

The Drive control in the Roto sounds great. It adds such a great sweetness. I?ve left it on 10 the whole time I?ve played it. Of course, I switched it around at first?IMO, it is a necessary part of the leslie sound. Gotta have that dirt.

Even with the rotors stopped the tube preamp sounds nice. It does color a bit but, the overall sound is bright and punchy with the drive cranked. It is *overdrive* NOT distortion...

It is almost impossible to get a pristine clean sound from my Marshall so I kept the Roto on even when the Rotors were not spinning. It added a nice punch to the wimpy clean of the Marshall.
When I had the Marshall's gain maxed I only used the Roto if I was actually using the Roto effect.

~~~~~THIS THING SOUNDS INCREDIBLE~~~~~

Before I went to my bud's house I was using just my amp and it sounded pretty good. When I went to his house to jam I used his crate for the high rotor and the Marshall for the low rotor. WOW. What a difference! The sound is so incredibly thick and grindy. It makes you want to lean into chords. - I just played it through my amp alone again last night, blah ? this thing screams for stereo. Not saying it doesn?t sound good w/one amp but after you hear it through two you will not want to go back to one.

The Roto captures the sound of the leslie IMO. It fits in perfectly with a band. It is not overpowering at all. By itself I thought it was a tad subtle, but when I connected it to 2 amps and used it in a double guitar, bass and drums context I was completely satisfied. My only concern is using it too much.

I?ve been commenting on the high speed mode only so far because I haven?t gotten the slow speed to sound the way I want it to.

I believe this is because I?m playing through a setup that has very little bass. I believe that once I have some bass response the slow setting will shine through. Also, the high speed setting is just dramatic, that may be keeping me from noticing the slower speed.

The Roto sounds great clean, overdriven or highly distorted. It is usuable, it does not just create whacked out sounds that impress you in your bedroom but are not playable with other people.

Not much of a gigger, mainly play with a few friends.

It *seems* stable.

It does have a wall wart :(

No idea.

I've been playing for 18 years, rock, "blues", spacy atmospheric music, jamband stuff, and metal at one point in my life.

Garcia, Santana, Phil Keaggy, Los Lobos, BB King, Albert, Charlie Hunter, Primus, Jeff Knighton, there are many...Nothing like the sound of humbuckers through a cranked tube amp...cept maybe a b-3 grinding away,. nah...

Listening to Brent from The Dead play that Hammond B-3 organ is what made me want to replicate that sound. This pedal is real close to that sound. It doesn't sound as good as the slow leslie sound he got but I believe that is an equipment issue and the fact that i'm a guitar player not an keyboard player. I'm changing my technique to suit the organ style. It's pretty amazing, my bud who I jam with and I went back and forth on email for a few days commenting how good this thing sounds.

If you are looking for that leslie sound I reccomend it.

If it was stolen I'd replace it right after my guitar and amp were replaced (actually i'll never buy *my* amp again)

Very inspiration pedal, my only problem is turning the thing off!

I'm posting a follow-up to my previous post: If you want to know how to set this up to sound as close to the real deal as possible, it tells you in the instruction booklet.

(when using in mono) you'll get a more intense effect signal if you use the left output.
the trick is to set the plug half way into the jack. this engages the stereo output. the end result: authentic Leslie tone in a portable, affordable (compared to a cabinet) unit.

I purchased the Tube Rotosphere Mark II unit as a alternate effect for my tonewheel Hammond and Voce V5 organ module. I own a Motion Sound PRO3T with the Low Pro bass rotor, but I also live in an apartment so I'm restricted by noise regulations at night. It's pretty simple to setup, one plug going in, two plugs comming out. No patches to edit, no menus, no firmware, just does one thing and one thing very darn well - Leslie effect! There are trim pots you can adjust with a small screwdriver to alter the speed of the horn and bottom rotors seperatly but the default factory settings are very accurate. It is very easy to adjust your tonal flavor or tube grit if you are experienced with properly setting the drive level with a Hammond and a real Leslie.

I run my tonwheel Hammond or Voce V5 into the effect and send a stereo output to my mixer and then over to my effects SEND/RETURN for reverb and noise reduction units. With just a little reverb, it enhances the dry Leslie effect and gives it a more lush swirly tone, also increases bass response for those of you who like to smear the lower octaves while speeding up the Leslie. I would not use this unit without reverb now that I have it setup in this way. For Voce V5 users, I set the Voce V5 to max output with no built in over drive, set the H&K tube drive to about 11'clock, and the effect out at about 1 o'clock. It really gives it a crisp edge for registrations like 88 8000 000. If you don't feed this unit the hot signal it wants then the effect will sound thin and tiny. I was going to replace the default tube but it's the best 12AX7 I've ever heard, I usually go for NOS Mullard 7025 or JAN Philips Military 7025. The default fast and slow speed settings are accurate for me, others may want to adjust them. You cannot adjust the ramp times but there pretty good, I like them a little fast. Overall sound is excellent when drive is properly adjusted. Of course it has a wallwart, but I'd rather use it indoors in my home studio anyway.

This unit is built tough mixture of steel and hard plastic. The little plastic see-through window used to scare me on the last revision on the unit, I'd have thoughs of people in boots or high heels driving their foot though it, but it's not an issue afterall. It is analogue tube gear, make sure you handle it with care and keep extra tubes around for an emergency.

This is the first piece of gear I have purchased from H&K, so it would not be fair to rate this area. I'm sure they would have good support as they are a German company and the high quality of this product does reflect their great cratftsmenship. I wouldn't mind if I had to send this back to Europe or an American office for repairs.

Excellent value for any organist looking for an analogue effect thats pretty much on par with the orignal Dynachord CLS 222 effect unit or a real mic'ed Leslie cabinet. I've been playing organs for about 5 years now and I've gone through a lot of clones and own the real deal. I would definatley replace this if stolen and I've even considered buying another as a gift for an associate. It help's me be creative during those late hours of the night when I can't crank up a real Leslie cabinet. I chose this one because the last revision had promise but this has the sound the last one almost accomplished. I originally wanted to hunt down a 1970's Dynachord unit but their high demand keeps them out of the want ads and off eBay.

Very easy to get good tone out of this product...right out of the box. The dials are very sensitive and fine-tuned. The settings set at the factory are dead on and are tunable for the upper and lower rotor independently in FAST mode if you want either to be a little slower.

The effect is very transparent and will not color your sound more than you want it to. The leslie effect itself is superb and doesn't take your notes and throw them out of tune like a univibe. When used in stereo with two amps the sound is superb...especially the slow setting, which produces an incredible moving feel to your chords. It is very quiet when used through your amp's effects loop.

Very dependable, as long as you take care of it. It's built like a tank with very tough construction. No backup needed.

No need for it.

I play a bluesy-alternative-psychedelic style. I've played for 16 years. If it were stolen I would hunt down the dolt who took it, beat him, and buy another one. I love it's sensitivity, accuracy, superb tonal quality, and the little features like the LEDs that flash showing you the speed of each rotor.

VERY easy to use. the two speeds are already there for you via a footswitch (as well as BYPASS and BREAKER) There are knobs for "drive" "output" and "Rotor balance" which helps balance out the speakers (keep in mind, you have to set it at about 1'o'clock if you want a pretty even balance)

ALRIGHT.... I used to own the original Rotosphere about two years ago. i like this version better because of the design, ruby tube, and new trimpots to tweek the speed of the rotors on FAST mode if you choose (i haven't done this yet, but i usually use this on chorale mode so it doesn't really matter)
when i owned the first "roto" I liked it but thought it sounded much like a glorified chorus pedal (really if you tweek a BOSS CE-2 the right way you will get a sound very much like the slow speed on this). i wasn't getting those really thick watery sounds i've heard from real leslie cabinets. So i eventually ditched it. The inevitable happned though. I started to miss it, believing it was my low-end gear that was the problem,which it was. But now i own a Marshall 62 combo and a 52 Tele repro so I decided to give the improved model a whirl (pun intended, HAHA). i just received it yesterday and got to really test it out in a jam session with my friends. it sounded great . but it was the same scenario, souped-up chorus sound. even the stereo mode sounded too subtle to be stereo, although the the sound was still not bad. these are probably the same cases that a lot of people have with these and think they are rip-offs or not authentic enough. HOGWASH!!! because the real magic for me happened hours after the jam session as i was still playing it:
See i've used a real leslie 147 (they're pretty big in person)in a studio. so i know what they should sound like. and the sounds are really thick and watery (especially when cranked). a real natural sounding tube/modulation device (like any good tube effects like reverb, vibrato, trem) not electronic like effect boxes. perhaps the ones who aren't satisfied never really had up-close experience with a leslie.
First off, A leslie contains a 40-watt tube power amplifier, which is really the thing that's responsible for the leslie tone. You will get an authentic Leslie sound with this if you use any amp with tubes, but preferrable vintage amps with tube rectifiers will give you the best tone.Vintage Fenders/or Victorias would be the ultimate choice i think.
secondly, this may be something that effect buffs already know about but I just tried this to see if it would work: remember how i said when plugged into the stereo jacks, it sounded kinda subtle to be considered stereo? well the trick i found out is you have to insert the plugs half way in the stereo jacks until you get sound (but don't put it in all the way)when i did this BAM! there it was. that thick watery leslie sound i know and love! on slow/chorale mode it's just beautiful waves. The fast mode is really gurgly tremolo. just like a 122 or 147. Like i stated before if you don't like how fast it is you can tweek the horn rotor trim pot to make it go a little slower (Born To Be wild)I may do this but i don't mind the speed the way it is. That's how the "fast" sounded on the one i played through.
as far as i'm concerned this is the closest, easy-to-operate effect you can get without owning the "big ol' piece of furniture" so for those of you who write off this effect, assess your own gear first.Because Hughes and Kettner are a very good company who make high-quality tube amps and effects. And The rotosphere MKII is AWESOME if you have a clue about leslies.
Also i notice there might be some subtleties there. but it sounds close enough to me. If i didn't find this out i would wind up giving it an 8. I'll give it a 10 now that i found that secret (?) out. It is a really inspiring piece of gear to play. I call it the real Uni-Vibe!!!!

I play Blues/Rock. and the "roto" is a great for getting a classic psychedelic sound. It's a very expressive effect and i love it! It adds tremendous soul and feel to the soulful licks i play. I mainly use it on slow/chorale mode. it's a nice alternative to a chorus pedal. But like i said don't be fooled fellow musicians. This is an amazingly great Leslie Simulator. just take note of what i said above. no one who loves this sound for playing organ, guitar, or anything, should be without it, it's an excellent/ reasonably affordable alternative. i wish there was something to be critical about now but there is none.