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3.3. Getting hands-on with Phaser BI-TRON
3.3.1. Phaser Basics
To get an idea of the Phaser BI-TRON's capabilities, we suggest you try the following:
•
Load a stereo clip into an audio track in your DAW (some strings track, an electric
piano lick or a melodic sequence, are the ideal for this). Whatever you choose,
make sure that the rhythm is not too fast;
•
Load an instance of Phaser BI-TRON as an insert in that track. Open the Phaser
BI-TRON window;
•
Ensure the Default preset is loaded. This will mean that all settings are positioned
in their initial values;
•
Begin playback. You will listen the well known phaser effect in action. To check
how strong this effect is, activate and deactivate bypass. This is a great and fast
way to check how the effect is processing your audio;
•
Now, it's probably better to put the sweeps in sync. Phaser is one of those effects
that provide great results when in sync with the musical tempo. Press the small
eight-note button next to each Rate knob, and choose a sync value that pleases
you. A long value usually works better. Let's pick 2 (2 whole-notes, or two 4/4
bars);
•
You'll now notice that the phaser "wavering" goes up and down in sync with the
musical tempo. This is much nicer;
•
Try different values for Depth 1 and Depth 2, with some differences between the
two engines. You will notice that the stereo imaging increases when you use
values that differ substantially from one engine to the other. Lets put Depth 1
value at the maximum in Phasor A and Depth 2 at the maximum in Phasor B;
•
Now pick a different routing in the routing section in the lower part of the panel,
between the two "Phasor" panels. The default is Stereo serial. Try other options to
see how the effect changes, like for example Stereo Parallel;
•
Try the feedback control. Depending on the music material, you may notice
some increase in the phasing effect. Remember that feedback is not very
common in a Phaser. Actually, the hardware unit that is emulated here was the
first phaser unit featuring feedback;
•
Now let's check the pedal control. Pedal provides control of the Sweep Generator
1 rate, as well as the frequency sweep of both engines. To better check the effect
of the Pedal, we will turn Off Phasor B. Press the On/Off button to turn Phasor B
Off;
•
Since Phasor B is turned Off, only Phasor A is active. The phaser effect
decreased;
•
Press the switch to change Sweep Gen 1 Rate controlled by the Pedal. You'll notice
that the phasing effect becomes really slow. Although the pedal is at 0% it still
modulates (very slowly) the Sweep Gen, and since the Phasor A engine is still
being controlled by the Sweep Generator, we still have a slow effect;
•
Turn the Sweep switch in the Phasor section to the pedal position. Now, the
phaser effect becomes static, and sounds like a notch filtering. There's only a
very subtle processing in the sound. You can check this by pressing Bypass
On and Off. Click and play with the pedal (drag up or drag down). You're now
controlling the sweeping of the phasing effect with the Pedal;
•
Now we will check the Envelope Generator. We will use the internal source. Since
we are using just engine one, we will use the other as input for the Envelope
Generator. To select that, click the space at the right of SRC and select "Input
Phasor B";
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Arturia - User Manual Phaser BI-TRON - PHASER BI-TRON OVERVIEW
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