Strymon Lex

September 2011 Guitarist 111
STRYMON LEX & TECH 21 ROTOCHOIR £279 & £249
EFFECTS
T
he sound of a rotary
speaker cabinet,
originally designed as an
adjunct to a Hammond organ,
works equally well on guitar
and has long had a place in rock
and pop history. Of course,
being such a massive and heavy
electro-mechanical
contraption, the original Leslie
cabinet was never going to
become a popular choice with
guitarists for onstage use. But
attempts to recreate, or at least
approximate, that swirling
larger-than-life sound in a
stompbox started back in the
1960s with the likes of the
Univibe. And it continues to
this day with two new recently
released contenders for the
crown – the Strymon Lex and
the Tech 21 RotoChoir.
Strymon Lex
The Lex follows the Strymon
principle of using digital
modelling with a high-powered
SHARC processor to recreate
the sound of older analogue
technology. Powered from a
supplied adaptor, it’s a squat but
reasonably compact pedal with
a pair of footswitches – one to
bypass the effect, the other to
switch from slow to fast speeds
and, if held down, to apply a
brake to stop all motion. There
are just four knobs on the top
surface to set the main
parameters (fast rotor speed,
horn level, mic distance,
preamp drive), but they also
access a further set of
parameters, the secondary
functions, when you hold the
two footswitches down
simultaneously giving access
to slow rotor speed, cab
direction, acceleration time,
and a preset boost or cut when
the pedal is engaged.
For further control, there’s
a rear panel expression pedal
input with assignable control
over any front-panel knob.
Alternatively one of Strymon’s
handy ‘Favorite’ switches can
be plugged in to the socket and
used to save your favourite
setting or to toggle slow/fast
speeds remotely.
The pedal takes a standard
mono jack input, but also has a
pair of jack outputs so you can
run it in mono or stereo. In
addition, there’s a bi-amp mode,
selected in a power-up
procedure, which will send the
bass rotor signal out to the left
output, and the treble horn to
the right output.
Sounds
The Lex has a very natural
sound – a warm, rich and, to our
ears, a very detailed emulation
of the real thing with a nice
sense of dimensional depth.
There’s no tone control, but
Strymon seems to have voiced
The Rivals
The BOSS RT-20 (£215),
utilises COSM modelling
technology to recreate the
rotary speaker sound and has
a display of spinning lights to
represent rotor speed.
Hughes & Kettner’s Tube
Rotosphere (£399) was the
only rotary speaker sim in our
101 Best Stompboxes list,
while the Neo Ventilator
(€449) is designed to be a
faithful replication of a Leslie
122. The HardWire TR-7
(£149) is more affordable and
features tremolo and vibrato
as well as rotary sounds.
A pair of stompboxes that aim to recreate the classic
sound of a rotary speaker by Trevor Curwen
Strymon Lex & Tech 21
RotoChoir
£279 & £249
The Lex uses the high-powered
SHARC processor to recreate the
sound of older analogue technology
the Lex just right so that
bringing up the horn level puts
the top end just where you need
it. Valve Leslies when pushed
hard were valued for their
overdrive and the preamp drive
here brings that element to the
sound, getting subtly grittier as
the knob is advanced, but never
swamping the sound even at
max. Speed changes are
handled well with a natural
acceleration/deceleration, and
the mic distance knob
realistically models real world
mic positioning – further out
the sound is smoother, closer in
you are more aware of the
rotation cycles and hear a
choppier sound. Overall the
available parameter
adjustments allow you to
realistically reproduce plenty
of the variables of a Leslie
The Lex’s simple four-knob layout has extra functionality hidden beneath
GIT346.rev_strymon.indd 111 8/11/11 4:28:42 PM