Best EHX Small Stone emulation?

[blasterBeam]

Hi,
This is something I occasionally spend time researching, and results or available information are never conclusive enough for me.

Looking for a recreation of either the V3 or the russian Small Stone, though would definitely prefer the V3. What would be the best options today in your opinion? Would appreciate keeping this a software discussion - buying a Nano may be an option, but it seems to have a different triangle LFO, though it may have been a manufacturing issue specific to one unit, as the LFO suddenly sped up after being bafflingly stationary for about 70% of the cycle. Plus it's far more resonant than the V3, giving it an very uneven sweep without using an additional compressor when feedback is used.

Thanks in advance!

[zerocrossing]

I’m not aware of any. Maybe you could get close with Phase Mistress. Guitar Rig has a module called “Stone Phaser, but I don’t imagine it’s super accurate.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

There used to be the Arts Acoustic Big Rock. Don't buy that. It's very unstable and hasn't been udpated in a long time. But it sounded good. Shame that's it's pretty much dead.

The one in Line6's Helix is ok. But do you really want to spend that much just for a small stone when you could buy the pedal?

[zerocrossing]

There used to be the Arts Acoustic Big Rock. Don't buy that. It's very unstable and hasn't been udpated in a long time. But it sounded good. Shame that's it's pretty much dead.

The one in Line6's Helix is ok. But do you really want to spend that much just for a small stone when you could buy the pedal?

Sometimes a plugin is preferable just due to the flexibility it provides in terms of signal chain. It’s not easy to put a pedal post cabinet, but that’s where I often find a phaser works best.

[jamcat]

There’s a decent one in AmpliTube. You can download AmpliTube CS for free and get the stomp through the Custom Shop for just a few dollars.

It’s called the Small Phazer.



I wish devs would knock it off with modeling all the distortion pedals all the time and start giving us more flangers and phasers. We shouldn’t have to go to AmpliTube or Helix just to get a Small Stone or a BF-2 model, while absolutely everyone has modeled the same boring TubeScreamer, RAT, and Big Muff over and over again.

[electro]

There used to be the Arts Acoustic Big Rock. Don't buy that. It's very unstable and hasn't been udpated in a long time. But it sounded good. Shame that's it's pretty much dead.

Overloud TH-U build 1.4.12 added Phase Stone (October 2022)

[mholloway]

D16 Fazortan 2 sounds amazing. There's a couple presets based on the Small Stone, and I use them frequently. Nails that sound afaic.

[electro]

[jamcat]

I would buy all of the TH-U effects if they were sold as standalone plugins.

[oscillateur]

Wow. Seriously impressed by the TH-U one. Especially after a huge disappointment after purchasing a modeled phaser from Moog. Though at the time I was not looking for an exact EHX emulation, but still had other problems (saturation...), or at least it wasn't a great fit.

BTW An iOS developer has also been posting some teasers, including spectrogram comparisons with a pedal as well, though it's been a couple months at this point. If their audio demo is an actual comparison between the plugin and the pedal, and not faked or post-processed in any way, it's very impressive, I would even place it above the nano version for all practical purposes. Could not get any solid information about supporting other platforms though...

[metalifuxx]

The best phaser-y effect i have tried in plugin form is Blue Cat’s Polyvibe. They just nail and get closer to a hardware emulated phaser in software form than any other plugin that does phaser stuff. It’s more of a Univibe emulation, but a univibe is basically just a glorified 4 stage optical phaser, and the Small Stone is just a 4 stage OTA based phaser with either no/minimal feedback or flick the Color switch up to engage more feedback/resonance.

But i also own about 6 analog phaser pedals and the Dry Bell Vibe Machine univibe. I had a Small Stone Nano for a while, but i replaced it with the Garagetone Oil Can phaser that has an OTA chip but no Color switch, but there is a Depth control. I should just buy a vintage big box Small Stone someday.

[El°HYM]

Always tend to forget how awesome Polyvibe actually is. Comes at the exact price as the EHX Nano Small Stone though. Maybe something to consider.

[sinkmusic]

The best phaser-y effect i have tried in plugin form is Blue Cat’s Polyvibe. They just nail and get closer to a hardware emulated phaser in software form than any other plugin that does phaser stuff. It’s more of a Univibe emulation, but a univibe is basically just a glorified 4 stage optical phaser, and the Small Stone is just a 4 stage OTA based phaser with either no/minimal feedback or flick the Color switch up to engage more feedback/resonance.

+1, Polyvibe is not much known, but it sounds very good.

[jamcat]

Audiority's Tube Modulator is also really good for Uni-Vibe and tremolos.

[zerocrossing]

D16 Fazortan 2 sounds amazing. There's a couple presets based on the Small Stone, and I use them frequently. Nails that sound afaic.

Yeah, Fazortan is a good one. I'm still on v1, though. Is 2 worth the update?