Phaser
White key 7. Sweeping notches with resonance, free-running or locked to the tempo (after the SP-404MK2’s Phaser and the Elektron Tonverk’s Phase 98). Its second mode is a frequency shifter: SHIFT + key 7, then key 7 again.
| Knob | Page 1 | Page 2 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rate, in two halves: left of the centre free, 0.02 Hz to 50 Hz; from the centre right on the tempo, 1/16, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, 1 bar, 2 bars, 4 bars (default 0.7 Hz, free) | Mix |
| 2 | Feedback: the resonance between the notches, up to 85% (default 34%, the knob at 40%) | Stereo: the right channel’s sweep up to half a cycle behind (default off) |
| 3 | Depth: brings the notches in and widens the sweep, up to 2.5 octaves either way of the centre (default 0, off) | Band |
| 4 | Centre: the frequency the sweep moves around, 100 Hz to 6.4 kHz in octaves (default 800 Hz, in the middle) | Level |
- Rate (knob 1), two halves on one knob. Left of the centre it runs free, from 0.02 Hz
(a sweep a minute) to 50 Hz (a buzz), on the flanger’s curve. From the centre right it
follows the tempo, as the filter’s LFO does: 1/16 on the centre,
then 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, a bar, 2 bars and 4 bars at the top, a cycle each. So turning right goes
faster in the free half, and from the centre on, slower again, through the divisions; the
two halves meet where both are fast. The knob’s LED shows the half: the phaser’s colours
(blue to orange) while free, green on 1/16 to yellow on 4 bars once synced.
- Turning it by hand: 1% a detent in the free half (more turned fast, as every knob), a division per 3 detents in the synced half. Turning up out of the free half stops on 1/16 first; turning down from 1/16 takes 3 detents back into the free half, just below the centre.
- SHIFT + turn: 10% steps in the free half, a division a detent in the synced half, across the centre both ways.
- Synced, the sweep is at the centre on the beat and rises first, like the filter’s LFO, its beat counted from the loop’s start (or from when the clock locked).
- Feedback (knob 2) sends the chain’s output back into it: the notches sharpen and the peaks between them ring, up to 85%. The peaks get louder with it; it’s turned down a little to make up.
- Depth (knob 3) brings the phaser in: at 0 the sound passes untouched, whatever the other knobs say. Over the first fifth of the knob the notches fade in, and from there on it only widens the sweep, up to 2.5 octaves either way of the centre at the top (from 800 Hz: 140 Hz to 4.5 kHz). A morph fades the phaser in and out on it.
- Centre (knob 4): where the sweep is centred; SHIFT + turn moves it in octaves.
- Stereo (page 2’s knob 2): the right channel’s sweep lags the left’s, up to half a cycle, so at the top one channel’s notches go up while the other’s come down.
- In the resonator’s loop: with the resonator on, its ringing goes through the phaser on every trip, so the sweep moves through the resonances.
- Level: a phaser takes some of the sound into its notches, about 3 dB of a full mix, more with feedback up; page 2’s Level is there for it.
- How it works: six allpass stages in a row on each channel, the sound added to them, and feedback from the end of the chain back into it. They cut three notches into the sound, the middle one on the sweep’s frequency, one about two octaves below it and one about two above; a triangle LFO sweeps them up and down in octaves around the centre (knob 4).
- LEDs: the key is blue; the knobs go blue to orange, the rate’s synced half green to yellow.
Frequency shifter
Section titled “Frequency shifter”The phaser’s second mode moves every frequency in the sound up or down by the same number of Hz. A pitch shifter keeps the harmonics in tune with each other; this doesn’t, so they no longer line up. A few Hz with feedback, and the direction (knob 4) turned to one side, make a barber pole, a sweep that rises (or falls) and never ends; tens to hundreds of Hz make a sound metallic and bell-like. After Mutable Instruments’ Warps.
- Switching: hold SHIFT and press key 7, which selects the phaser as ever, then press key 7 again: the frequency shifter, the key ice blue. Every further press in the same hold switches back and forth, however long you wait between them. Letting go of SHIFT, or pressing any other key, starts over: the next SHIFT + key 7 only selects. Holding key 7 and then pressing SHIFT (the latch) never switches. The key lights up fully for a moment on each switch. It doesn’t work on the Loops and Cubbi pages, where the white keys are loops.
- Playing it: key 7 plays the effect in the mode it’s in, held or latched as ever. The knobs stay where they are when you switch, and are read the other way:
| Knob | Page 1 | Page 2 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shift, in two halves: left of the centre free, 0.1 Hz to 1 kHz; from the centre right a cycle per tempo division, 1/16 to 4 bars (default 10 Hz, free) | Mix |
| 2 | Feedback: the shifted sound shifted again, up to 90% (default 36%, the knob at 40%) | Stereo: the right channel turned the other way (default off) |
| 3 | Depth: brings the shifted sound in, all of it at the top (default 0, off) | Band |
| 4 | Direction: down at the left, both ways in the middle, up at the right (default both) | Level |
- Shift (knob 1): its free half is a curve, a tenfold every eighth of the knob: 0.1 Hz at the left, 10 Hz halfway to the centre, 1 kHz just below it. From the centre right, the shift follows the tempo, a full cycle per division of the phaser’s rate (1/16 on the centre to 4 bars at the top: at 120 BPM, 8 Hz down to 0.125 Hz), so the barber pole turns in time; with the loop in reverse, it turns the other way. Turning it works as the phaser’s rate does; SHIFT + turn steps the free half through 0.1, 0.63, 4, 25 and 158 Hz, then a division a detent.
- Feedback (knob 2) sends the shifted sound back in, so it’s shifted again on every trip, through a lowpass and a soft limit: with a few Hz of shift and the direction to one side, the barber pole; with the direction in the middle, both ways at once, it rings instead. The repeats add up, so the level is turned down a little as it rises.
- Depth (knob 3) brings the shifted sound in: at 0 the sound passes untouched, at the top you hear only the shifted sound. In between, the two together beat against each other. A morph fades the frequency shifter in and out on it.
- Direction (knob 4): down at the left, every frequency lower by the shift; up at the right, higher; in the middle (its default) both at once, half as loud each, as a ring modulator does; in between, one louder than the other. SHIFT + turn moves it in sixths of the knob, the middle on one. Its LED is blue for down, white for both, orange for up.
- Stereo (page 2’s knob 2): turns the right channel’s direction the other way: at the top the right goes down where the left goes up; in the middle the right has both. With the direction in the middle, both channels have both, and stereo changes nothing.
- Scenes: a scene keeps the mode. Recalling it switches the mode; the blank scene is the phaser. A morph switches it at the landing, as it does stepped knobs: the effect fades out, switches and fades in, a few milliseconds each way; the crossfader switches it in its middle, a drop on its line. Switched by hand while a morph runs, the key shows the new mode at once and the sound switches at the landing. A scene from before the frequency shifter is the phaser, and an older FRIZZ loads a scene with the frequency shifter as the phaser.
- MIDI: CC 23 on the phaser’s channel (7) sets the mode, 0-63 the phaser, 64-127 the frequency shifter (see Controllers). Notes do as your hand: SHIFT’s note 45 held, key 7’s note 59 twice.
- How it works: two chains of six allpass filters turn each channel into a pair of signals 90 degrees apart; a carrier at the shift’s frequency multiplies them, and their difference or sum is the sound moved up or down alone. The other direction stays about 40 dB down from 25 Hz to 19 kHz.
- LEDs in frequency-shifter mode: the key is ice blue; the knobs go ice blue to orange, the shift’s synced half green to yellow, the direction blue, white and orange.