Desper Spatializer 8

Rare Desper Spatializer for sale, complete with 8-joystick remote control unit.

Developed in the 1990s by Stephen Desper who worked with the Beach Boys for many years, the Desper Spatializer is unlike almost any other sound processing technology of the period (except perhaps that of Q Sound…). He apparently spent over 20 years researching the psychoacoustic techniques it employs to achieve the effects, and, as if all that were not cool enough, the control of the sound positioning is achieved by a remote unit packing eight joysticks (known to be a potential source of reliability issues, but fully-working in this case).

For an example of relatively recent use of the unit see this Secrets of the Mix Engineers article in Sound On Sound where Dylan ‘3D’ Dresdow discusses its use on Black Eyed Peas’ album “The End”.

And see this provocatively-titled article from 1995 in Popular Mechanics: “Is Stereo Dead?” for some more insight into this unit.

A note about operating condition and warranty:

We have no schematics for this rare beast, so we are a little in the dark. It seems to be working correctly and it will be further checked over by our head tech before it ships – we’ll do whatever we think might be needed for it to continue reliably. However, because of the lack of service info, we cannot offer any warranty beyond our standard 30 days (naturally if you do have issues with it in the future, we’ll do what we can to help).