The Smith's Journal - March 2010

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2010-03-22

Birthday

Tags: Studio

Since my birthday is coming up soon, I thought I should put out a plea: no more socks unless they are supersoft bamboo and nicely colourful. Please instead give money (either to me or to charity) or even better, tools :-) And here's my Amazon wishlist of more affordable items.

[UPDATE: Nobody bought me those in 2010 nor 2011 nor 2012, so maybe 2013. Or these... ;-]

Phasers to die for

Tags: Studio

Maxon PT9Pro+ phaser pedal (not pretty but cool sounds, although it's guitar level, not line level, so suboptimal for my usage)
Gerd Schulte Compact Phasing A classic phaser (or a JH/Mode Machines clone) = nice, but not quite what I want now
MXR Flanger/Doubler 126 blueface 2U rackmount flanger [UPDATE: I found one, but now crave another for stereo ;-]
Eventide Instant Phaser 2U rackmount as used on the drums of 'Kashmir' [UPDATE: I got one, it is indeed awesome :-]
Roland PH-830 stereo phaser 3U rackmount (if you can find one ;-)

Oh, such sweet sounds, Captain! I have spent countless hours studying and comparing all of the phaser demos at ModeZero and elsewhere, and the above are my absolute favourites. There are many other phasers/flangers available (+plugins) but they don't quite nail the glorious sound of these boxes, which just make you smile on hearing them. Do let me know if you've found one, at least to save me bidding against you on eBay... ;-)

UPDATE: Wow. I just found this new Rob Hordijk Dual Phaser module. Check out especially the absolutely heavenly Stereo Sweep demo, of six raw sawtooth waves in a chord, through this Dual Phaser plus chorus and reverb. (-: Instant smiling face :-)

His other modules are amazing too. So I've been pricing up systems... :-) For £3000 one can get either a very nice brand new 20U 5U 4VCO setup, or an olde possibly unreliable PH-830 and MXR 126 (with long-OOP Reticon chips) and a Multimoog or ARP 2600. Luckily I don't currently have those three thousand pounds ;-) But I am taking advice...

"If you've been fighting off starting a modular... give in." -space6oy

UPDATE: OK, this seals it. Forget the old classic units (apart from the MXR 126 and Eventide!) - next on the list is a Rob Hordijk/MOS-LAB/STG/COTK 5U modular...! :-]

Until I can afford that, I'll settle for a nice pair of super swirly Stereo Small Stones as you can never have too many phasers!