Xaoc Devices KAMIENIEC Operator's Manual page 5

phaser:
the principle
A typical internal structure of a phaser-type effect features a chain of stages that produce a shift in
phase. Each stage comprises an all-pass filter that, by nature, does not attenuate any frequency com-
ponents, but instead, shifts the phase of certain spectral components of the signal by employing a very
short frequency-dependent delay. Human ears cannot easily detect phase differences unless the phase
shifted signal is mixed with the original dry signal. Since certain frequencies in the former are shifted by
180 degrees, mixing the two together results in phase cancellation creating multiple notches in the fre-
quency response. The number of notches is dependent on the number of stages in the chain. A feedback
loop around the chain may introduce additional resonant peaks to the response. A modulation circuit
(LFO) animates the frequency of the phase shift and introduces a pleasing animation of the notches.
ChAINING MultIPlE uNIts
Unlike any other phaser module, multiple
Kamieniec units can be chained together to
achieve a more radical response with many
notches. The general idea of chaining is to pass
along the phase shifted signal to subsequent
units before it is mixed with the original ver-
sion in the last unit of the chain. This approach
has a very different effect than plain cascading
(connecting multiple phaser units in series),
because a long chain of allpass sections yields a
dense and uniform pattern of multiple notches,
exactly like in a long phaser (fig. 4).
20
dB
10
CHAIN
0
-10
-20
CASCADE
-30
-40
-50
-60
10 100
fig. 4
Hz
1000 10000
5
Dedicated headers on the backside of the mod-
ule enable daisy chaining two or more mod-
ules using a 3-pin cable. Each preceding unit's
out-header must be connected to the in-header
of the next unit. This connection only aggregates
the audio path, therefore to achieve the results
as mentioned earlier, all units in the chain must
still be tuned and voltage controlled uniformly.
For example, the internal LFO of the first unit
may be patched to the ext mod inputs of subse-
quent units with their depth knobs turned down.
Note that chained Kamieniec modules still pre-
serve their independent operability. For exam-
ple, the outputs of preceding units offer their
phasing effect with the corresponding number
of notches occurring at different frequencies
than the notches of the final pair of outputs. By
using the outputs of two or more units in a mul-
tichannel setup, a truly immersive spatial image
can be achieved. Also, patching into the input of
a downstream unit overrides the processed sig-
nal passed via the backside connection allowing
each unit to be used on its own. •