Some nice examples, showing that there are many 'correct' ways to mike a Leslie. It all depends on the sound you want. I go with two condensers in an ORTF set up at the top, around 18" away but also about 12" lower than the treble horns, pointing upwards. Bass rotor is picked up by a dynamic kick drum mike, again about 18" to 24" away. BUT.... I keep all the panels on and record from the front of the Leslie. I remember my first sessions for the BBC, working with the sound guys until we got the sound that I wanted, happy days back in 1974!
At 0:38 thanks for letting us know that one of the treble horns is a dummy (I assume for centripetal balance). I always thought the treble came out both horns, but coming out of only one horn makes more sense. I guess the bass baffle (drum) has to be balanced too (I assume with small lead weights). I am going to make my own Rotating Speaker. I am going to use an Arduino UNO to control stepper motors. I am going to use an old (non-functional) vintage chrome Morely pedal that I will modify to control the motor speeds. Mine will have the standard two speeds: where the pedal somewhere in the middle is off, pedal up is slow, and pedal down is fast. The other mode (via footswitch control) is variable speed from very slow with the pedal up to very fast with the pedal down, and every speed in between. It will have a Preamp control from dry sounds or to minic the compressive distortion found in tube amps, a volume control, a depth control, and a speed offset control to spin the treble horns faster than the bass baffle (normally around 1.5:1 in a Leslie), or to spin the bass faster than the treble... all the way to spinning the treble much faster than the bass ever did, and anywhere in between. Morely pedals got their name because the first effect Tel-Ray made was a Rotating (Leslie) sound effect pedal. They called it a MORE-ly as a play on words from the LESS-ly (Leslie). I am going to call mine a EXTREAM-ly to keep with tradition.
Not only Doppler effect but phase changes and amplitude modulation as well. It is quite a complicated sound which is why Leslies are hard to simulate digitally although my Neo Vent is not too bad through headphones. When you mike up the horn closely you get a lot of the reflected sound from inside the cabinet (get your ear really close to hear this) but unfortunately the wind noise then becomes a problem. Good video!
Thanks a lot for this. I'm on need of recording my leslie for a rock piece. I'm using a viscount legend and a leslie 815. Just gonna go with the 2 close mic setup I think maybe try xy at the top. The organ is not the center piece so it should work. Thanks again
Basically what you have to know beforehand is that it will *never* sound exactly like you're standing right next to a real Leslie cab... Recording these beasts automatically means making compromises 🙃 My preferred setup at home is 2 identical mics, about 3-4' on either side of my Leslie 142, and about in height 2/3 between the high and low baffles (1/3 from the top) as in a bandmix I normally don't need that much low end. Live I'm using 2 Shure SM57s closer in on the high end with a Sennheiser 906 or 606 (large membrane) close to the low - bass tends to sound mono through a PA system anyway. And in a proper studio I use 5 mics, adding 2 room mics placed further away, depending on the room obviously. It's like with any other instrument: know your gear.
In live situations, if the house system is mono, and some big ones are, I always used sm57 on top 1 foot away from horn and a sm57 or kick drum mike on the bottom close as possible 3" minimum. Seems like that would work for recording. Most recording engineers would isolate my Leslie's in a closed room 2 mics on top and one on the bottom. Not close proximity placement. Same like you. I don't know I just play them.
Excellent Mark. I have a job at the end of the month and I'm going to use your xy close up top and the 57 down low. I have now the Zoom 8H and it has a xy mic set up built in on top. Thanks I'm now subscribed. I'm going to search your channel for guitar and bass as well.
awesome video. I will never understand why people allow so much DUST to be inside the Leslie or their Hammond organs. It just amazes me that people don't keep these babies clean.
The sound is full and rich. What's causing that buzz-mechanical sounding rattle as if parts are loose and vibrating? If you could eliminate that I would prefer that pure sound without that vibration.
@@slimmhouse712 thanks so much for the response. One more question. What type & model woofer is in your Leslie? I’m noticing that nice rich low end everytime you hit that Ab note around 2:36 in the video. I was thinking about upgrading the stock woofer in my Leslie 147 to a Peavey Black widow bc mine doesn’t have quite the low end like that. I can get that rich low end with my JBL sub I have the organ running to in my studio, but not out of the Leslie cabinet itself.
Everytime the horn speaker faces the mics, the level because very noticeably louder. I know that's how the Leslie works, but it's very annoying when this happens on slow speed. I've tried compression and even backing off the mics 3 feet. Still the same issue. What can I do? I was trying it with XY on the top and one mic on the bottom rotor. Thanks :)
@@slimmhouse712 So they actually are removed. I have to admit I used to think they were another horn/speaker lol. I’ve heard that could help out a ton with the volume issue
The diffusers create a much smoother and complex chorale sound. Many Hammond players in bands removed them to get more volume and miked-up you get a big hit of direct sound as the horn passes in front. I have tried both ways but prefer the diffusers on for the classic sound.
My complaint with close mic'ing is that it exaggerates the tremolo effect. Mixing in DI will tame this, but then you are mixing doppler tremolo with straight tone. I've seen people place close mikes at opposite sides, but this has the effect of doubling the speed when mixed. Motion Sound came out with a horn unit with a mike signal out. I never tried that model but I read that they placed mic elements at 90 degrees of each other. At first this made no sense to me. After a long time thinking about this, I concluded that the two signals added together, will have a peak amplitude when the horn bisects the 90 degree separation and the magnitude of the tremolo effect will be reduced. I have recorded since I came to this conclusion, but this is what I will definitely try next time I record.
@@slimmhouse712 Years ago, when I had my first Leslie, the drummer convinced me that I had to take those diffusers out. What was I thinking listening to the drummer?
There is a Leslie Box Made for gituar Amps. "Fender vibrotone" IT was named in usa. In Europa Leslie 16 i think its without the Horn. IT IS conected between the AMP an the normal speaker. Cause IT sends some of the Sound thru the Leslie and some thru the original speaker. Luckily i own one of Them...😁😁😁
