The Spaceman Voyager II, released almost exactly 10 years after the first version, is an optical tremolo that offers a wide range of possibility, including some rather unusual (but mighty cool) ones.
The interface offers the usual tremolo controls: the Speed and Strenght knobs control LFO rate and intensity, while the toggle switch on the left lets you select between triangle or square LFO waveshape.
It also has a Boost/Overdrive with two gain stages (Gain and Level) lets you saturate your signal to your likings, and a Filter knob that can add either warmth or sparkle to your tone. It can be used independently from the tremolo by pressing the Bypass switch and keeping the Tremolo footswitch off.
However, the magic of this circuit is to be found in the interaction between the Envelope knob and the Fade/Freq toggle:
- In Freq mode, the LFO speed increases with louder dynamics and slows down when playing with a lighter touch (or when your tone fades in volume).
- In the Fade position, the tremolo’s intensity will fade out with heavy playing and fade back in with lighter input volumes.
The Envelop knob will determine the sensitivity of the effect.
Hear how it sounds in the video below.
