Vortex?

[The Man Himself <altruist@shoko.calarts.edu>]

All of this talk about Vortex units at rock-bottom prices has piqued my
interest, so would someone be willing to give a more in-depth account of
the thing?  More specifically, what exactly can it do, how does it compare
to other single-rack-space units, how's the MIDI implementation, etc... 
One personal interest question: How slow can the sweep rate of
pitch-modulation effects (i.e.  phasing etc) be set? 

Thanks in advance, and sorry if this is too off-topical for the list.

--Andre