Dawner Prince Pulse

The Dawner Prince Pulse is an analog revolving speaker emulator pedal: a stompbox that recreates the sound of a spinning speaker cabinet in the tradition of the Leslie-style swirl heard on classic records. Dawner Prince describes it as an open cabinet revolving speaker emulator that produces "a realistic three-dimensional sound that swirls as the speaker accelerates, exact spatial modulation and the feel of the air moving with every spin"¹. It was released in July 2020 by Croatian pedal maker Dawner Prince Electronics², and the maker's product page currently lists it as Sold Out¹.

The Pulse is aimed squarely at players chasing the rotary tones associated with Jimi Hendrix and David Gilmour, the classic swirling Leslie speaker-type sound². It sits in the same family as pedals like the Strymon Lex, the Boss RT-20 Rotary Ensemble and the Neo Instruments Ventilator, but unlike most of those it is an analog circuit built around a specific pair of vintage hardware designs rather than a general Leslie emulation.

What the Pulse does

A rotary speaker works by spinning a speaker driver inside a cabinet, so the sound reaching your ears shifts in pitch, volume and position as it turns. The Pulse emulates this electronically. Dawner Prince says it spent months of research and development packing "the hardware with real speakers as well as the electronics" of its inspirations into a pedal², and RockBoard's PedalPedia describes its method as "measuring every detail on a real physical model and using advanced math to emulate its complex sound image"³.

The pedal provides a stereo output created by two virtual microphones placed on each side of the speaker cabinet. Using only the OUT R mono output engages a single virtual microphone in front of the cabinet instead¹. The unit has two rotation modes, SLOW and FAST, and the modulation rate spans .4 to 8 virtual speaker rotations per second according to Premier Guitar's reviewer⁵.

The controls

The Pulse's front panel gives you separate controls for slow and fast rotation speed, plus the virtual microphone distance and output levels¹⁶.

Two footswitches handle the rest. One switches the effect on and off, with a yellow status LED when active. The second toggles between SLOW and FAST rotation, with a yellow LED indicating slow mode and a blue LED indicating fast¹. Gearnews noted that the Inertia control is the one that sells the effect for many players, since the ramp between speeds is a large part of what makes a real rotary speaker feel physical².

Power and connections

The Pulse runs on a standard 9V DC supply through a 5.5mm/2.1mm center negative barrel connector, drawing about 70mA¹. The circuit is true bypass².

The TRS input accepts either mono or TRS stereo signals, selected by an internal jumper, and the pedal ships preset in mono mode¹. The external input accepts an expression pedal or a remote switch for external speed control¹. For expression pedal use, Dawner Prince suggests plugging it in, setting it to the heel position and adjusting the SLOW SPEED pot to taste, then moving to toe and setting the FAST SPEED pot. The suggested pedal is the Roland EV-5, but the maker says almost any expression pedal will work¹⁷.

Built on the Doppola and the Maestro Rover RO-1

The Pulse's specific inspirations are two rotary speakers rather than the Leslie cabinet itself. Dawner Prince says it is "inspired by Pink Floyd's legendary rotary speaker Doppola and Gibson's Maestro Rover RO-1"¹. The Doppola is the rotary speaker Pink Floyd used, and GuitarPlayer described the Pulse as a painstakingly researched emulation of the Pink Floyd-used Doppola and Gibson Maestro⁸. The Maestro Rover RO-1 was a consumer rotating speaker launched in 1972, in Guitar World's words "looking very space-age in its silver circular housing"⁴. You can read more about that hardware unit on the Maestro Rover R0-1 page.

Dawner Prince later expanded its rotary line with the Eclipsa.

What reviewers said

Guitar World's reviewer Trevor Curwen found the Pulse convincing, writing:

Premier Guitar's reviewer found that "the slow and fast speed controls have great range," and noted the .4 to 8 virtual speaker rotations per second modulation span⁵. Gearnews summed up the appeal as "those classic swirling, Leslie speaker-type tones we associate with Jimi Hendrix and David Gilmour"².

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