XILS-lab LX122 Rotary Speaker Emulation Plugins

LX122 and LX122 Premium are Mac OS X 10.4 (32-bit PowerPC and Intel) and OS X 10.6 (32– and 64-bit Intel) or later- compatible (VST, AU, RTAS — Pro Tools 7.0 or later) and Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7-compatible (VST, RTAS Pro Tools 7.0 or later) rotary speaker emulation plug-ins, both featuring XILS-lab’s True Stereo Dynamic Engine (TSDE).

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 A classic rotary speaker system is comprised of a stationary treble unit with spinning horns and a stationary woofer with spinning rotor (or drum), together with two filters to divide the frequency spectrum between the horn and woofer; both the horns and the sound baffle for the bass are rotated to create Doppler effect-based vibrato, tremolo, and chorus effects, while the rotating elements can be stopped, switched between slow (chorale) and fast (tremolo), or transitioned between the two settings.

All are emulated in LX122’s core modules alongside a recreation of tube-based amplification, which according to XILS-lab paved the way for the heavier rock tones pioneered by the likes of Deep Purple’s Jon Lord, together with three reverb types, and MIDI-controllable SLOW and FAST mode buttons (for individually controlling the horn, drum, or both by keyboard inertia).

XILS-lab considers that the true sound of a rotating speaker rests principally in how it reacts to the room in which it resides; to that end, the TSDE algorithm is designed to evoke this physical phenomenon. The angle of the two ‘recording’ microphones can be tweaked within LX122 and LX122 Premium to allow varying amounts of room effects into the resultant mix, while internal cabinet reflections are also emulated. It is also possible to increase or decrease speaker positioning from far away to directly within the cabinet itself.

The LX122 Premium is fundamentally the same as its LX122 software sibling, with more sonic scope, including control over microphone movement, room choice, room size, cabinet speed, horn diameter, diffuser removal, speaker configuration, ribbon age, horn and drum balance, rotation direction… The additional Studio Panel allows users to position the microphones anywhere within five different room models, for example, while different cabinet configurations can be chosen within the Cabinet Panel, as well as randomly rotating the horn and drum.

LX122 features 14 factory presets to get users started, while LX122 Premium boosts that number to 75.

Pricing & Availability:

LX122 and LX122 Premium are available to purchase from the dedicated XILS-lab online Store for a special introductory price of €29 EURO/ $37.00 USD (LX122) and €45 EURO/$58.00 USD (LX122 Premium) until December 5 (respectively rising to €39 EURO/$49.00 USD and €69 EURO/$89.00 USD thereafter). Note: these are serial number-protected products — no iLok required!

Listen to LX122 audio examples here.