welcome to the ArtsAcoustic BigRock.
the ArtsAcoustic BigRock is an authentic, accurately modeled emulation of the legendary Electro-Harmonix Small Stone, a phase shifting stomp box, of which its first revision was released in 1974. however, being in 2010, we´ve of course overcome most of the limitations of the original and equipped the BigRock with the necessary features in an special advanced mode. for example, the BigRock allows stereo input and processes the signal in stereo, while the original Small Stone was strictly mono. essentially, you now have the ability to edit the BigRock in most of the common phaser parameters such as the dry/wet mix, the center frequency, the lfo amount and the stereo phase offset of the lfo. you can also sync the lfo frequency to the host, always in phase to the sequencers play position. we´ve also equipped the BigRock with a highpass/lowpass filter section, so you can balance out the signal, before it enters the phaser stage. the two resonance states on the original Small Stone are actually two different designs, it`s not just more or less resonance by far. on the BigRock we´ve implemented a continuous parameter, so you can now morph between the original high color and low color mode, or adjust anything in between. of course, as all parameters in the BigRock are automatable, this opens a tremendous amount of creative possibilities, all of which were not possible with the original Small Stone.

why another phaser?
If you know ArtsAcoustic, then you know the answer: It`s the sound. While some Phaser Plugins loosely remind you of a Small Stone, they never made it to the magic of a Small Stone. If you wanted the sound of a Small Stone, up to now there was no other way than to use the old original hardware. until now.

so what was the goal?
most phaser plugins out there are simple digital multistage allpass filter structures, which are modulated by an lfo. the Small Stone was different in many ways. it also uses some allpass filters but there is a complex filter design which is largely responsible for its sound and gives the sound a very stable, distinctive and fat character that only the original Small Stone owns. beside the pure analog design the Small Stone is based on ota`s rather than opamps, which colors the sound in addition. The outcome is a very unique and very pleasing phase shifting, which pure allpass filter structures cannot provide. this sound became a milestone in music making, it influenced thousands of recordings from the early seventies to the mid eighties (e.g. jean michel jarre used it constantly on his analog strings), and was not reproducible with a plugin up to now. as this sound is so destinctive and we simply love the sound of the Small Stone, we´ve created the big brother - the ArtsAcoustic BigRock.

for more detailed information on the BigRock, please download the manual.