Delay, Reverb & Space · Audio effect
Whirligig
A rotary speaker with a drum and a horn rotor, two microphones, inertia between Slow and Fast, and an optional mode that locks the rotation to the host's tempo and bar position.
Opinion
Not yet auditioned in a host. Put it after Wheelhouse (or any organ or guitar) and switch Speed between Slow and Fast; the horn changes quickly and the drum follows seconds later, as on the real thing. Switch Sync to Beat and the rotors turn in whole beats, so the swirl lands on the bar.
Functionality
The input is summed to mono and split at the Crossover into a low band for the drum and a high band for the horn. Each rotor has a Slow and a Fast rate and an Accel time for moving between them (or Stop). Two microphones, Mic Angle apart, hear each rotor as Swell (amplitude) and Doppler (pitch). Mix blends with the delay-matched dry signal. CC 1 (Fast) and CC 2 (Stop) on the CC channel work a Leslie switch.
Sync: Beat turns the rates into beats per turn (8 down to 1/8) and pulls each rotor into phase with the host’s BBT position, so loops and relocations land on the same angle every time. Phase moves where the turn starts. The panel shows the rotors turning and locked to the transport when both are in phase.
Status
Core covered by tests (104 checks): flat response, levels, AM depth and lobes, Doppler against the formula, speed changes, microphones, controllers, beat-rate and lock convergence, block-size independence. Voicing is by ear. Not yet listened to or validated in a host.