We are proud to bring you the Emperor 500, a “first-of” for the 500 series world. The Emperor is a true bucket brigade analog chorus and pitch vibrato with tap tempo, expression foot control and waveform selection that doesn’t know anything other than pure analog. Starting with the coveted 1980's Arion SCH-1 chorus topology, the Emperor's design and engineering expand further into new heights of what real bucket brigade tones (via a 3207 chipset) can offer. The end result allows you to have a host of vintage modulation tones in your lunchbox for use on keys, drums, guitar, bass, vocals, or anything you want to run through it. From sea-sick vibrato to chorus and Leslie organ tones, the Emperor 500 does it all.
Knobs & Controls
There are five knob controls on the Emperor: Volume, Mix, Tone, Speed, Depth. The Volume control allows you to adjust the input by cutting or boosting the signal. The Mix control adjusts the amount of chorus or vibrato signal that comes through in comparison with the clean, unaffected tone. The Tone control is a variation of the original SCH-1 tone stack with several adjustments that give it a better sweep, focus, and range. The Speed control allows you to adjust the time/speed of the modulation. The Tap Tempo switch works in conjunction with the Speed control to allow you to press in the tempo to your desire. You can also use an expression foot controller for the speed control for on the fly ramping of the LFO. The Depth control allows you to adjust how deep the modulation is perceived.
Toggle Switches
There are four toggle switches found on the unit. The Engage/Bypass toggle turns the unit on or off. The Chorus/Vibrato toggle lets you switch between Chorus mode or Vibrato mode. The Waveform selection toggle gives you three waveform options: Sine, Square, Triangle. The three waveforms provide three unique options of Chorus and also three options of Vibrato, making a total of six different modulation settings. The EXP/TAP toggle changes the function of the TAP/EXP jack to correspond to either expression or tap tempo.
The features of the Emperor 500 make it a powerful tracking and mixing unit that will cover all the modulation ground you would ever need.
