[Harp-L] DLS RotoSim

["John F. Potts" <hvyj@xxxxxxx>]

JD,

No.  i usually don't use it if there's an organ in the band.  But, it  
would be a sort of apples and oranges comparison anyway.  I'm not  
necessarily trying to precisely imitate an organ, although using this  
pedal certainly has sort of that effect.  That's why i don't use it  
if I'm playing with a real organ.  I consider it to give me an organ  
like voice for the harmonica, not an imitation of an organ, (although  
this may be a distinction without  difference),

I can pass along a story.  i was sitting with a reggae band, using my  
pedals.  The bass player was a very experienced musician.  After the  
gig we were talking and he said a couple of times he had to look  
twice because i sounded so much like an organ he was fooled.  Some of  
that has to do with embouchure/oral resonance chamber and breath  
technique--I change technique when the RotoSim is on to interact  
better with the effect and sound more "organ--like."  I also will  
usually phrase differently as i play when it's engaged.  But one has  
to be very careful--it's tempting to play keyboard like phrases but a  
harmonica does not have the capability of "building" keyboard like  
chords, so you can really mess things up if you get carried away.

The pedal is designed for keyboards and guitars. although it's  
certainly harmonica friendly.  I play frequently with a band that  
uses a a Roland keyboard with good organ/leslie sounds and another  
band that uses a new Suzuki-Hammond that sounds pretty good too.  But  
I played recently with a real Hammond C-3 and Leslie on stage and  
there's truly nothing like the real thing.  But the RotoSim is very  
decent as far as rotary sound pedals go.

JP