Tonight I discovered processing a signal with two serial phasers can, given the proper settings, sound remarkably like wow, flutter and rhythmic physical manipulation of magnetic tape. I also discovered I can take this effect much farther.
I’ve always been spellbound by the sound of phasers, particularly the Pink Floydian flow of the Mu-Tron Bi-Phase. Until I sat down and patched one up in Max/MSP, I had no idea how far the effect could stretch.
When I drive one or both of the frequency sweeps at audible sonic rates, strange textures appear… almost like a form of synthesis I’ve not heard before. In this sound clip, I’m driving the first sweep at 200Hz, and the second at 1Hz:
Black Strings (0:35, 44.1KHz, 128kbps, 552k)
I’m wrapping my patch up as a plugin tomorrow.
I can’t get this sound out of my head.
