Thirty six years after the release of the Electro-Harmonix Small Stone phase shifting stompbox, ArtsAcoustic has announced its emulated version of the original box, dubbed BigRock.

The ArtsAcoustic BigRock plugin offers an authentic, accurately modeled emulation of the Small Stone, providing advanced features the overcome most of the limitations of the original stomp, according to the manufacturer.

For example, while in a special advanced mode, BigRock allows stereo input and processes the signal in stereo, whereas the original Small Stone operated only in mono. With BigRock, you can edit 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. In addition, you can also sync the LFO frequency to the host, always in phase to the sequencer's play position.

BigRock also comes with a highpass / lowpass filter section for balancing the signal before it enters the phaser stage, as well as a continuous parameter for morphing between the original High Color and Low Color mode, or for adjusting anything in between. All BigRock parameters are automatable. If you have always liked the sound of the Small Stone, BigRock is for you.

BigRock's main features:

• Easy to use
• Authentic sound
• Low CPU usage
• Full stereo
• Host sync in phase
• Sync phase adjustment
• Stereo L / R offset
• Add. filter section
• Continuous color adjustment
• Dry / wet mix
• Amount adjustment
• Center frequency adjustment
• Fully automatable

About the Small Stone and BigRock, ArtsAcoustic notes that most phaser plugins out there are simple digital multistage allpass filter structures that are modulated by an LFO. The Small Stone was different in many ways. It used some allpass filters, but there was a complex filter design largely responsible for its sound, which gave the sound a very stable, distinctive, and fat character that only the original Small Stone owns. Besides the pure analog design, the Small Stone is based on OTAs rather than opamps, which colors the sound as well. The outcome is a unique and very pleasing phase shifting, which pure allpass filter structures cannot provide. This sound became a milestone in music making, influencing thousands of recordings from the early '70s to the mid '80s and was not able to be reproduced with a plugin up to now.

ArtsAcoustic BigRock is now available for $89 from artsacoustic.com.