Lowest Peterson Setting

[JanustheManus]

I have a little question, just out of curiosity.
What is the lowest stereo tremolo on the Peterson? I have a VV Stereo Vibe and that is similar in rates but there is a function that cuts the vibrato speed in half. recording: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Tvang_1Vshg This sounds like an 88 suitcase or an 88 stage with a Peterson, but the rate is much slower than the original Peterson's slowest rate.

Would anyone be able to send an MP3 of the Peterson at its lowest rate?

Thank you!

[Ben Bove]

The slowest rate on a Peterson is faster than you would think.  In some consulting work I did, I had to readjust the company's vibrato speed on their default patches to be much faster.  They were quite surprised.

Their software had arbitrary numbers to alter the rate speed (not like a measurable BPM etc), but I'll try to find a popular recording that is pretty close to slowest.

[vintagekey1975]

The Rhodes intro to Pink Floyds sheep is the slowest I think. On my VV stereo vibe I think the slowest setting on the faster mode is the same as the original Peterson.

[Ben Bove]

Hard to separate just Rhodes in popular recordings, but one of our webisodes demonstrates:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bIoAddTW80&t=21s
Ronnie Foster has the vibrato at slowest setting at 1:10, and you can see the vibrato knob set to lowest.

[Tim Hodges]

Not sure if you access this but this was a Peterson I serviced a while back on it's lowest setting.

https://www.facebook.com/BristolFenderRhodes/videos/263602524022606/

[pnoboy]

One thing you have to remember is that the stereo tremolo has good deal of mono information on it, and that information is at double the stereo information.  I'll try to explain this.  Imagine you recorded a suitcase piano and mixed it down to mono.  If there was no mono information in the signal, the tremolo would disappear.  This would happen if the total sound power put out by the piano remained the same and the tremolo simply shifted it back and forth between the 2 speakers.  The tremolo would not be useful if this was the case.  Think, for a moment, of a stage piano in some performance venue.  The suitcase speakers are quite close to each other, and if you weren't positioned close to the stage, you wouldn't be able to localize the speakers from each other.  Additionally, as you move from the stage, you leave the near-field region and enter the far-field region where much of the sound you hear is that which has bounced off room boundaries.  In these conditions, the piano effectively becomes a mono source, and once again, unless the tremolo contained mono information, the tremolo effect would disappear.

That the tremolo does not disappear means it does contain mono information.  This information exists because as the sound is shifted from speaker to speaker, the total sound power varies.  Specifically, this means that either there is more sound power put out when the 2 speakers are putting out an equal amount of power, or there is more power when one speaker is putting out the most power and the other speaker is putting out the least power.  Either case is possible; it depends on the modulating waveforms that are fed to the 2 power amps.

Let's take the case in which most sound power is put out when either speaker is at the peak of its volume.  Now, imagine you are sitting cross-legged on the floor right in front of the suitcase speakers.  Suppose both speakers are at the point in the tremolo cycle in which they are putting out the same volume.  Now say the left speaker starts to swell in volume, and then its volume diminishes and the right speaker swells in volume, and then its sound goes down until both speakers are putting out the same volume.  You would perceive center, shift to the left, go back to center, shift to the right, and go back to center.   You would consider and hear that to be one cycle of the tremolo.

Now imagine yourself far enough from the piano that the stereo information is no longer perceived.  Under the same situation, you would hear the volume increase as the left speaker got most of the power, hear the volume go down as the speakers put out equal power, hear the volume go back up as right speaker reached its peak, and then hear the volume go down as the speakers.  That would sound like volume up, volume down, volume up, volume down.  You would consider and hear that as 2 cycles.

[JanustheManus]

Thanks for that wonderful explanation pnoboy! I do see how the farther away you are from the piano, the amount of different cycles and amp nuances that can occur.

The Peterson (as I can see now) has a much faster starting rate than the Janus (which is a whole other topic) as Mr. Bove pointed out. Robert Glasper could have been using a Nord Electro or something like that where the vibrato was freely adjustable.

Thank you for the many replies!

[JanustheManus]

Is there also a manual way of adjusting the rate parameters on the Peterson as well?

[Student Rhodes]

Not sure if you access this but this was a Peterson I serviced a while back on it's lowest setting.

https://www.facebook.com/BristolFenderRhodes/videos/263602524022606/

This one sounds mono to me... 
Sounds like only one channel is working, rather than not having the 180 degrees of stereo.

[Tim Hodges]

At the time I had one super satellite connected.