You know the deal: That enormous rig – a Hammond® with one or maybe even two Leslies® – taking up so much floor space in your crib delivers to-die-for tone. You’re riffing away, enraptured, when a depressing realization bursts your bubble: You’d give so much to be able to play with precisely this sound on stage. But the colossal weight of this antiquated musical furniture is an insurmountable obstacle for the gigging musician. And although your digital Hammond clone hits the sweet spot, the weak, anemic Leslie effect is a turn-off.
Guido Kirsch, the man and mind behind VENTILATOR, was similarly frustrated with this situation. So he took just about every analog, digital, and mechanical rotary effect on the market for a test drive, which only served to aggravate rather than alleviate his dissatisfaction. He even combined several devices, tweaked and fine-tuned parameters, and experimented with pre- and post-effect equalizers to finally conjure a sound that wasn’t half-bad. Still, though, there was that nagging wish for someone to find a way to pack all the sonic glory of a mammoth Leslie into a petite stompbox!
At that moment, the idea to build VENTILATOR was born.
