Publison Infernal Machine 90 Review: The Most Insane Effects Processor Ever Made?

I’m not sure there’s a more legendary, notorious, or infamous piece of studio equipment than the French-made Publison Infernal Machine 90.

And I’m among the fortunate few who have actually had the opportunity to play with one, use one, and even see the inside of one.

There are still a few around, but they’re not easy to find, and they’re certainly not easy to maintain.

A French monster in a New York recording studio

Back in the 1980s, I was fortunate enough to be an intern at Sorcerer Sound in SoHo, New York City. Sorcerer was an extraordinary studio, and among its remarkable equipment was a Publison Infernal Machine 90.

Not only did we have the machine, but we even had the optional keyboard that went with it, allowing you to play samples. And this thing was absolutely crazy.

First of all, the Publison was heavy as all get out. It generated a tremendous amount of heat, and it sounded like absolutely nothing else.

The owner of Sorcerer Sound, Al Fierstein, was a veritable genius. There were so few of these machines that he would sometimes rent ours to other studios, where it ended up being used on records made elsewhere.

Reverbs, pitch shifting, sampling, and general insanity

The Infernal Machine could produce reverbs unlike anything else available at the time. It could also perform pitch transposition, sampling, and a variety of completely bizarre effects.

Sorcerer wasn’t exactly lacking in sophisticated reverberation equipment. We had a Lexicon 224XL and an EMT 140 plate reverb, the enormous German plate in its wooden enclosure. But the Publison was something entirely different.

You didn’t necessarily reach for it because you wanted a tasteful, natural-sounding reverb. You reached for it because you wanted to create something nobody had ever heard before.

The optional keyboard made the whole experience even stranger. At a time when digital sampling was still exotic and expensive, this enormous French machine could capture sounds and let you play them.

The problem with owning an Infernal Machine

Of course, there’s a reason you don’t see many of these machines today. They were complicated, heavy, hot-running, and notoriously difficult to service.

If my memory serves me correctly, some of the integrated circuits inside had their identifying numbers removed, presumably to discourage reverse-engineering. That’s not exactly the sort of thing that makes a technician happy forty years later.

Can you experience the Publison sound today?

Fortunately, the Infernal Machine hasn’t disappeared entirely. There are impulse responses and other attempts to capture aspects of its sound, and Savant Audio Labs has developed an IM90 plugin inspired by the original hardware.

I haven’t heard the Savant plugin yet, but I’m planning to ask them for a review copy because I’d genuinely love to hear that sound again. You can listen to examples on their website, and they also offer a trial.

Final thoughts

The Publison Infernal Machine 90 was one of those extraordinary pieces of equipment that could only have existed during that particular period in recording technology. It was expensive, complicated, temperamental, and capable of doing things that no other machine could do.

I feel fortunate to have worked with one, especially at Sorcerer Sound, where the people and equipment were equally remarkable.

There was nothing sensible about the Infernal Machine. And just like a Citroën, it could only have been made by the French.

The verdict: One of the most fascinating, eccentric, and genuinely innovative effects processors ever built. Completely impractical, utterly unforgettable, and probably worth every aggravating minute of keeping it running.