Bass Phaser Usage Notes

These notes will help you get the most out of Bass Phaser, the phaser plug-in for bass tracks. DirectX and VST versions are available.

Controls

When the Bass cutoff switch set to Off, no bass separation is performed, and Bass Phaser acts as a normal phaser. When it is set to anything else, the signal is divided into two parts - bass and treble, at the selected crossover frequency. This is done with a moderately gentle filter algorithm, to preserve the phase profile (of the bass portion, at least). The effect is only applied to the treble portion, which is then mixed back with the bass for output. This lets you achieve a huge, wide sound while still preserving the focus and punch crucial for bass.

The Stages dial controls how many All-pass stages (the special type of filter used to create the phaser effect) are used. Lower settings are more subtle, and can benefit from feedback, while higher settings are more dramatic, and often sound best with lower feedback settings and slower modulation rates.

The Frequency dial controls the average frequency that the effect is centered around. Bass Phaser is capable of sweeping from 50Hz to 20KHz. If you have the Depth set at maximum, the Frequency knob does nothing

The Depth dial sets the amount of modulation around the selected Frequency. At its minimum there is no modulation, at its maximum the modulation is from 50Hz to 20KHz.

The Rate controls how fast the modulation sweeps.

The Feedback dial controls how much of the processed signal is fed back into the input, for further processing. A value of zero can be quite subtle (especially if the Stages is low), higher values can get pretty wild (especially if Stages is high).

The Stereo mode switch selects one of three modes of operation:

Mono mode gives a mono output (even though there are two channels, they will be identical).
Chase mode gives a very pleasing stereo effect by having the each channel's sweep slightly out of phase with each other - the right channel is "chasing" the left.
Mirror mode is more dramatic, each channel sweeps the modulation in opposite directions.

The Gain dial can reduce the volume of the phased portion of the signal, because feedback can cause it to get very loud.

The Mix dial sets the balance between the dry unprocessed signal and the wet processed signal. A middle-setting (1:1) can actually add more character to the effect rather than diluting it. Lower values make the effect more subtle.
NB: remember that if you are operating in Bass separation mode, some of the dry signal is already being mixed back in, as the separation is not total.

Change history:
24 April 2006: Version 1.0 released
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