The Ghost Audio Swirls pedal distills the massive, studio-grade rack rigs of the 1980s into a single stompbox, famously capturing the lush, thickened tone heard on guitarist/producer Michael Landau‘s classic album, Tales from the Bulge. Where guitarists once needed a refrigerator-sized array of units wired in parallel, Swirls delivers that iconic three-part signal chain in a compact format.
Its engine combines three distinct effects working in concert. First, an aggressive, VCA-style compressor (modeled on the dbx 160x) adds a sharp, percussive “pop” to your attack, a characteristic especially pronounced with Stratocasters. This compressed signal then feeds a lush Tri-Stereo Chorus, meticulously tuned to emulate the sought-after Dyno-my-piano and Fulltone TERC units for wide, swirling modulation.
Completing the trifecta is a micro pitch-shifter. Using a classic “synchronous overlap-add” algorithm found in premium Eventide and Digitech units, it generates a thick, chorus-like doubling effect, but with a key difference: it lacks the rhythmic movement of an LFO, creating a stationary, harmonically rich sheen.
Together, this trio of effects produces the immense, textured sound that defined an era of studio guitar, now accessible without the roadie.
