Analog Outfitters The Scanner
Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 3:34 pm
Have been interested in these since first hearing about them only to find out they're already out. Turns out Austin Guitar House had one down the street. Ran down there, gave it a listen (epic gloriousness) and picked it up on Friday. Such a cool piece to add to the studio tools. They made it out of repurposed vintage vibrato scanners and reverb tanks from unwanted Hammond organs.
Unit description:
We had two goals in mind when building The Scanner: to create the best sounding product available and to manufacture it with repurposed, sustainable materials. The Scanner features an amazing vibrato and reverb sound. We made it out of repurposed vintage vibrato scanners and reverb tanks from unwanted Hammond organs. In short, our endeavor was a success.
The vibrato scanner is an absolute marvel of engineering with historical roots. Laurens Hammond invented and started selling the technology in 1935. From 1935 to 1975, the vibrato scanner remained virtually unchanged until Hammond stopped producing tone-wheel organs.
The science behind The Scanner is really where the magic happens. Applying the audio signal to a delay circuit produces 9 phase-shifted copies of the signal, thus creating a vibrato effect. These signals are applied to capacitive plates mounted inside the scanner assembly. A rotating armature then “picks up” the phase shifted signals off of the plates, producing an incredibly rich vibrato sound.
At Analog Outfitters, we improved the original design by adding a DC brushless motor. This specialized motor helps vary the speed of the vibrato, giving users more control over the sound.
The Scanner's reverb circuit is very simple; hi-fi grade components drive the reverb tank and then mix that signal with the vibrato signal. We also added a foot switch so users can select only reverb, only vibrato, both effects, or the “dry” signal only.
The top of The Scanner is made from a high-quality, clear, ¼” plexi-glass material. Additional features include a pad switch on the ¼” input, XLR line input and output jacks, a line output attenuator, a 4 pin XLR switching jack, and a ¼” TRS input for an expression pedal to control the speed of the unit.
The only demo up right now:
[youtube]https://youtu.be/r6h37uvp8Vg[/youtube]
Here's a quick little clip i did when i first got it. Sounds great on the cleans... might have to try it before the fuzz though...
and it's a little harder to hear on this one because the Binson Echorec 2 drowns it out a bit but it's there
Unit description:
We had two goals in mind when building The Scanner: to create the best sounding product available and to manufacture it with repurposed, sustainable materials. The Scanner features an amazing vibrato and reverb sound. We made it out of repurposed vintage vibrato scanners and reverb tanks from unwanted Hammond organs. In short, our endeavor was a success.
The vibrato scanner is an absolute marvel of engineering with historical roots. Laurens Hammond invented and started selling the technology in 1935. From 1935 to 1975, the vibrato scanner remained virtually unchanged until Hammond stopped producing tone-wheel organs.
The science behind The Scanner is really where the magic happens. Applying the audio signal to a delay circuit produces 9 phase-shifted copies of the signal, thus creating a vibrato effect. These signals are applied to capacitive plates mounted inside the scanner assembly. A rotating armature then “picks up” the phase shifted signals off of the plates, producing an incredibly rich vibrato sound.
At Analog Outfitters, we improved the original design by adding a DC brushless motor. This specialized motor helps vary the speed of the vibrato, giving users more control over the sound.
The Scanner's reverb circuit is very simple; hi-fi grade components drive the reverb tank and then mix that signal with the vibrato signal. We also added a foot switch so users can select only reverb, only vibrato, both effects, or the “dry” signal only.
The top of The Scanner is made from a high-quality, clear, ¼” plexi-glass material. Additional features include a pad switch on the ¼” input, XLR line input and output jacks, a line output attenuator, a 4 pin XLR switching jack, and a ¼” TRS input for an expression pedal to control the speed of the unit.
The only demo up right now:
[youtube]https://youtu.be/r6h37uvp8Vg[/youtube]
Here's a quick little clip i did when i first got it. Sounds great on the cleans... might have to try it before the fuzz though...
and it's a little harder to hear on this one because the Binson Echorec 2 drowns it out a bit but it's there
