What is a "Vibe" pedal doing?

I picked up the Cool Cat Vibe, and I think does a really nice job of emulating the Hendrix/Band of Gypsys/Trower pulsating sound.

But electronically, what is a "Vibe" unit doing?

It's not exactly tremolo (raising and dropping volume), though it gives a little of that impression.

It's not exactly vibrato (raising and dropping pitch - like the famous old Boss Vibrato stomp boxes), though at extreme settings it seems to pulsate the pitch a little.

More than anything, it seems to be a very subtle phase shifter or (not as much to my ear) flanger.

Anybody know what a "Vibe" pedal is really doing to your signal?

BTW: The Cool Cat Vibe has a "Mix" control, which allows you to control the amount of the effect so it doesn't overpower your tone - every modulation effect should have this control!

Thanks!

Max

I think it's a combination of all the effect types you mentioned, all not very articulate but when put together it produces the 'vibe' sound.

I think it is supposed to emulate a spinning speaker, like a Leslie cabinet.

Dan

Hi Maxsmith,

The kind of "vibe" you are talking about is based on the Univibe, and so actually is a phase shifter in the most precise sense...these originally came with a foot pedal to adjust the speed (rather than the button switch between "chorus" and "vibrato" on the reissues Dunlop makes). I think it was indeed also meant to emulate a rotating speaker in a leslie cab, but it is actually a phase shifting filter effect.

Any other "true" vibrato pedal should be altering only the pitch -- such as the amazing Boss VB-2 Vibrato. Hope this helps.

dave b

Hi Maxsmith,

The kind of "vibe" you are talking about is based on the Univibe, and so actually is a phase shifter in the most precise sense...these originally came with a foot pedal to adjust the speed (rather than the button switch between "chorus" and "vibrato" on the reissues Dunlop makes). I think it was indeed also meant to emulate a rotating speaker in a leslie cab, but it is actually a phase shifting filter effect.

Any other "true" vibrato pedal should be altering only the pitch -- such as the amazing Boss VB-2 Vibrato. Hope this helps.

dave b

Thanks for the informative answer, Dave!

Vibes seem more subtle than your average phaser - would a vibe be a 2-stage phaser or just one with a relatively smaller range (depth)?

Max

BTW: The Cool Cat Vibe has a "Mix" control, which allows you to control the amount of the effect so it doesn't overpower your tone - every modulation effect should have this control!



Just to illustrate the point:

Back in the '80s, I went through a collection of "chorus" pedals (which I wish I still had because of their ludicrously high current market value), because you couldn't play in a commercial pop cover band without using a chorus pedal.

I always hated the sound (though I used them to please the leader and the crowd and sound "just like the record") because they were all just too strong with that drippy thick syrupy out of tune-ness.

Around 1988, I got a programmable Boss multi-effect unit that included a chorus effect and one of the programmable parameters on the chorus effect was... "Level" - oh my god!! Finally I could add just enough chorus to broaden my sound a bit and approach the popular sound of the day without inwardly cringing every time I turned on the effect.

Why doesn't every modulation effect (phasers can also be very overpowering) have a mix or level control? Just one little extra knob to blend the effected sound with the straight tone. All things being equal, that's the unit I would buy every time, even if it cost a little more - obviously it's not that expensive - my cheapo Dano Vibe pedal has one!

Max

The "leslie rotating speaker effect' is, if my memory serves me correctly, what is called in physics 'The Doppler Effect'.

The way it was described to me at school all these years ago was given by the example of a car driving along the road at a constant speed. The sound gets louder as the source (the car) gets nearer to you and is at its loudest when it's alongside you and then gradually reduces in volume as it moves away from you.

This is the same as the rotating speaker in the Leslie cabinet - the sound is loudest when the mouth of the speaker cone is passing the opening in the speaker cabinet and quietest when it is 180 degrees away from the opening.

So, I guess that, in purely physical terms, a rotating speaker is creating its own phase shifting effect - which is what all the vibe pedals then try to copy.

But, then again, I was never very good at physics..............

there are photo cells inside that rotate depending on the speed you have your vibe on.

Voodoo Labs describe the vibe/univibe circuit as a "variation of a four stage phase shifter".