Flangers and phasers

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mixyguy2 wrote: Sat May 21, 2022 3:23 am Thanks for the replies. People are mentioning fav plugins, but not how they're using them. Guitars? Vocals? Other? An entire song? Are you more heavy-handed or a lighter touch? etc
If I'm going guitar, I'm going to use the models in AmpliTube 5. That's like 90% of when I would use these types of effects. I put Instant Flanger on a piano with a very fast rate for a John McGeoch-type effect once. I really love flangers and particularly phasers, but it's always difficult finding somewhere to stick one outside of electric guitar without sounding contrived.
THIS MUSIC HAS BEEN MIXED TO BE PLAYED LOUD SO TURN IT UP

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I use them mainly on guitars and sometimes on bass-guitar and keys (electric piano, organ, etc.) - a little goes a long way... I tend to tone them down until I'm almost convinced they're not doing much of anything at all anymore - the difference when then bypassing them is typically still huge.
"Preamps have literally one job: when you turn up the gain, it gets louder." Jamcat, talking about presmp-emulation plugins.

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I've really come around to these types of effects in the last years.

For guitar: I got a Chase Bliss Spectre before they got absurdly expensive, mostly because of it's wonderful singing noises. I never really liked flangers before, but this one made me warm up to it a bit. Then I inherited an Electric Mistress from my uncle, and I really like that one too now. I use these pretty much exclusively with fully clean tone. The way a flanger interacts with drive just isn't my cup of tea, though I know some love it.

Still don't have phaser pedal, though I would be interested in having one at some point. Some simple phase 90-style device could probably do me well. Though I have been eyeing the Midnight by Native Audio, seems really cool.

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In the box, it's the other way round, I don't really use flangers much but I've got lots of phasers I love.

Exception: I have come around to the Surge flanger lately. It sure can squeak if dialed in wrong (/right?) but there are some really sweet sounds to be found on the brink of self-osc. This is great on synths.
I have Valhalla's free flanger/chorus thing but I've only used it once I think.

I've used Melda MPhaser a lot before. It's free and very very capable. I know some folks get option paralysis from Melda stuff, and I agree when it comes to those multi-plugin things. But these slightly simpler modulation effects are winners IMO. I've used the vibrato and tremolo a lot too, but this was about phasers now. :)

This one lets you dial in any waveform you like pretty much, enabling some "classic" effects (which are about the LFO waveshape, among other things), but also some more modern stuff like random LFO stuff, etc etc. I kinda wish it exposed the waveshape parameters for modulation/automation in reaper, but it's cool. I've put this on anything, percussions, keys, voice, bass (in parallell)... it's super useful.

My newest love is this though: https://soniccharge.com/echobode
It can do a lot; freq.shift echoes obviously, straight freq.shifting, reverb too with the smear dial. But the main point for me was the wildly layered phaser sounds it can give. The frequency shifter will give phaser sounds on millisecond delays with some feedback, and then there's an actual phase control with an LFO on it as well. Stacking both can be really cool, and setting the LFO to square wave and assigning to the phase can create really lovely pings when the feedback is up. It's wonderful. <3

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mixyguy2 wrote: Sat May 21, 2022 3:23 am Thanks for the replies. People are mentioning fav plugins, but not how they're using them. Guitars? Vocals? Other? An entire song? Are you more heavy-handed or a lighter touch? etc
That’s like asking how do you use salt.

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...which is a fair question tbh? ;) Too much or too little will ruin a dish, adding it too soon can make a mess, too late and things take forever etc... But maybe one or both of us is overthinking this now.

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Andreya_Autumn wrote: Sat May 21, 2022 5:07 pm ...which is a fair question tbh? ;) Too much or too little will ruin a dish, adding it too soon can make a mess, too late and things take forever etc...
Exactly - but actually it's more like asking "how do you use thyme?"
"Preamps have literally one job: when you turn up the gain, it gets louder." Jamcat, talking about presmp-emulation plugins.

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D16 is nice for these.

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jens wrote: Sat May 21, 2022 5:25 pm Exactly - but actually it's more like asking "how do you use thyme?"
Yeah I guess Salt is more essential in cooking than phasers are in music. :ud:

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Neon Breath wrote: Sat May 21, 2022 4:55 pm
mixyguy2 wrote: Sat May 21, 2022 3:23 am Thanks for the replies. People are mentioning fav plugins, but not how they're using them. Guitars? Vocals? Other? An entire song? Are you more heavy-handed or a lighter touch? etc
That’s like asking how do you use salt.
If by that you mean "it depends," well duh. I was hoping for some examples or tendencies.

For example: I almost never use salt except when necessary in cooking, and the only time I salt ready-to-eat food is on eggs. :)

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I don't use salt on the rim of a margarita glass, but I do with a shot of tequila. I agree with the point. Use salt when you want a salty tone to your taste and use a phaser when you want a phasey tone to your sound.

Ween has been known to use either/both heavily, so as far as songs that go all in on the effects, some of theirs are a good reference. Or Van Halen. Without getting down to specific songs, pretty sure you'll find instances where Ween distinctly uses these effects (definitely on guitar and vocals).

https://gearspace.com/board/so-much-gea ... ely-3.html

Apparently even used a flanger on the hi-hat in What Deaner Was Talking About
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq8fQGx6dU8

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kidslow wrote: Sun May 22, 2022 2:27 am Apparently even used a flanger on the hi-hat in What Deaner Was Talking About
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq8fQGx6dU8
They loved their flangers and phasers! There's some great ones on God/Ween/Satan and The Pod.

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Just listened to the whole Mollusk album because I remember that one being heavy on effects. Sure enough. Seems like every song has a phaser. Heavy phaser. Makes you seasick. Intentionally. Andrew Weiss clearly used them in the mix, on top of whatever vocals and instruments were pushed through individually.

Great story behind that album. It has aged well. Did not know that Storm Thorgerson did the cover art.
https://www.stereogum.com/1951136/weens ... niversary/

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The X-GEAR Vibe pedal in AmpliTube is really good. Most of the pedals it does are already in AmoliTube, but it has updated versions which sound noticeably better.

The Smallstone model is now really good.
THIS MUSIC HAS BEEN MIXED TO BE PLAYED LOUD SO TURN IT UP

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Szabo - Phazor is a free emulation of the Virus Phaser that has not been mentioned yet.

I use Ph+Fl as modulation FX if I want movement and/or to excite synth sounds. And I sometimes take the time to discover FX and make my own presets that also target more or less certain use cases.

One of them is depth and the only one that really do the job are the Eventides - in static mode. No modulation, just a smeary widening delay with feedback.

There are so many purposes that let me think of them. You may also use (some of) them for "exciting" kicks for example.

They are very different. The more you have, gthe better it is.

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