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"The Hi Fli (aka The Sound Freak) was designed by David Cockerell in 1971 for EMS. He later went on to design many of the classic Electro Harmonix effects (both the Micro Synth and Small Stone phaser are inspired by the Hi Fli). Only 350 were made making it a collector’s gem. David bought a prototype in 1972 and from what he recalls it was “very, very expensive”.
The Hi Fli was actually referred to as a synthesizer in the original ad, but it’s basically an analog multi effect processor, which can be used on vocals, guitars and organs. It has two footpedals, which could be routed as control voltages/expression pedal to any of the slider functions. It’s got no memory to bank up settings, - everything is in real time, so one had to manually tweak the sliders for each tone change.Features; top boost (30dB treble booster), octave shifter (1 drop), buzz (treble booster to octave effect), ring modulator, sustain fuzz, solo/strum sensitivity control, bypass, modulation selector (rotary, phaser, vibrato and different types of auto-wah).
David is seen using the Hi Fli at Earl’s Court in May 1973. It was also used on the Dark Side of the Moon recording sessions. It’s not reported which songs he used it on, but it might have been for creating auto wah effects on Any Colour You Like and fuzz on live versions of Time.
The Hi Fli is still in David’s possession and last seen at the Interstellar Exhibition in Paris in 2004."
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