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"Best" phaser for keyboards ?


analogholic

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hello everyone,

 

Which one is your favorite phaser for keyboards (and why ?!?)

 

I have a Rhodes and a StringEnsemble as well as some analogue synths...

 

Was thinking of a Smallstone or Phase 90...then I saw that the Moogerfooger has a 12 stage setting and a stereo outputs..

 

Have no possibility to try them out right now...

 

so what do you think ?

 

 

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

Arthur Schopenhauer

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The Phase 90 is what Fagen and all those guys used back in the day. The one you go buy today is different from the one of yesteryear however. I remember talking to the people at MXR at NAMM last year about it.

One of the pains of these things is that if you want to be stereo, you need 2 of them.

I have wanted to try the Moogerfooger phaser for quite a while and haven't had the chance. Maybe at NAMM.

Kawai C-60 Grand Piano : Hammond A-100 : Hammond SK2 : Yamaha CP4 : Yamaha Montage 7 : Moog Sub 37

 

My latest album: Funky organ, huge horn section

https://bobbycressey.bandcamp.com/album/cali-native

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I used a Boss Stereo Chorus on my Fender Rhodes. It leaves one side unaffected and modulates the other with a square wave. That side has a pitch drop of a few cents, then comes back to proper pitch.

 

I never could get my hands on that old original MXR Phase unit that sounded so good. A sax/keyboard player friend of mine had one, but he held onto it so tightly I couldn't yank it from his cold, dead fingers.

 

OK, they weren't yet dead.

 

I probably should've shot him again. :rolleyes:

"Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent." - Victor Hugo
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The Mutron Bi Phase is the GRANDADDY of all phasers. It was a staple in all the old reggae studios (think of the intro to 'Exodus'), and is a coveted piece of technology. It's also a beast to try and rebuild.

Kawai C-60 Grand Piano : Hammond A-100 : Hammond SK2 : Yamaha CP4 : Yamaha Montage 7 : Moog Sub 37

 

My latest album: Funky organ, huge horn section

https://bobbycressey.bandcamp.com/album/cali-native

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I I've also used the vintage Mutron Bi-Phase, which is totally awesome.

 

Yeah I know...just watched Weather Report "Montreux 76" and the sound from Zawinuls Rhodes (not to mention his playing) is OUT OF THIS WORLD !!! So good that I got chills...

 

But, I think that one is out of my pricerange (if I could find one)

 

I wonder if the Moogerfooger could enter the same ballpark ???

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

Arthur Schopenhauer

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The Phase 90 is what Fagen and all those guys used back in the day. The one you go buy today is different from the one of yesteryear however.

 

That´s true, but according to a very good Rhodes tech in Sweden (one of the guys behind http://www.fenderrhodes.com/), Richard Tee used the Smallstone. Also a very good sound...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

Arthur Schopenhauer

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I used a Small Stone on my Rhodes all through the 70s, and LOVED it. I used an MXR Phase 100 on my CP30 and liked it too, better built, but the Small Stone had that "something".

 

T

 

I also had a Small Stone on my Rhodes after seeing Richard Tee get that great sound with it.

Everybody's got to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer. W. C. Fields
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My hands-down favorite is the EH Small Stone. I use it for everything from guitar to Rhodes to analog strings to bass, and it sounds killer in every application. It has a special vibe. I also have a Phase 90 and a Phase 100, but I much prefer the Small Stone. I bought mine new in 1980, and I still use it quite a bit.
Reality is like the sun - you can block it out for a time but it ain't goin' away...
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I used a Small Stone on my Rhodes all through the 70s, and LOVED it. I used an MXR Phase 100 on my CP30 and liked it too, better built, but the Small Stone had that "something".

 

T

 

I also had a Small Stone on my Rhodes after seeing Richard Tee get that great sound with it.

 

Yeah, If I decide to buy a new (mono)phaser, I might go for the Small Stone since it´s affordable and hopefully sound better than the MXR Reissues.

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

Arthur Schopenhauer

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I like this one because of nostalgia,

http://www.tk560.com/herophaser.jpg

 

but I think this one is pretty cool too.

http://www.xscapesprops.com/star%20trek%20props/fc%20phaser%20signature%20edition%20MR-ST-102S.jpg

 

"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

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I used a Small Stone on my Rhodes all through the 70s, and LOVED it. I used an MXR Phase 100 on my CP30 and liked it too, better built, but the Small Stone had that "something".

 

T

 

I also had a Small Stone on my Rhodes after seeing Richard Tee get that great sound with it.

 

Yeah, If I decide to buy a new (mono)phaser, I might go for the Small Stone since it´s affordable and hopefully sound better than the MXR Reissues.

 

The way I looked at it back then, the Small Stone was to the Rhodes like the Leslie was to the Hammond. It completed the sound.

 

Looking back, I can't believe how much outboard gear and cable we used to hump in those days. It's so much better now.

Everybody's got to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer. W. C. Fields
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I I've also used the vintage Mutron Bi-Phase, which is totally awesome.

 

Yeah I know...just watched Weather Report "Montreux 76" and the sound from Zawinuls Rhodes (not to mention his playing) is OUT OF THIS WORLD !!! So good that I got chills...

 

But, I think that one is out of my pricerange (if I could find one)

 

I wonder if the Moogerfooger could enter the same ballpark ???

 

I don't know, but I have a pretty nice emulation on the built in phaser in my Nord Stage.

Moe

---

 

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I put my old Farfisa Matador through a Mutron back in the late 70s, early 80s which REALLY improved the sound. I had the MXR chorus for the Roland MP-600 piano which gave it an almost CP-70 like aura. Wish I still had them both. :(

"The devil take the poets who dare to sing the pleasures of an artist's life." - Gottschalk

 

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Aethellis

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I just spent the last week in a very nice studio recording a new CD. On one tune needing a Rhodes/phaser sound, we ran the Rhodes through a Fender Deluxe, mic'd with an antique RCA 77, through some very nice preamp I don't recall, and into a Mutron Biphase. Very, very nice sound, though not one easily recreated onstage.

Turn up the speaker

Hop, flop, squawk

It's a keeper

-Captain Beefheart, Ice Cream for Crow

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I've tried a slew of them and ended up keeping the Vermona PH-16 (analog dual phaser, stereo or series mono, dead quiet, very smooth like butter, single rack unit). There are some quite good dual/bi-phase emulations on Line6's MM4, which is surely not as fat as the analog originals, but is also not as noisy (problem also with the Smallstones), is stereo in and out, and does a nice Rhodes style panned tremolo. Didn't care for Pigtronix EP-1 on keys. For something a little different you really can't go past a Moog MuRF. No it's not a phaser, but if you like that sort of thing it's real tasty.

Gig keys: Hammond SKpro, Korg Vox Continental, Crumar Mojo 61, Crumar Mojo Pedals

 

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I raced out and got an MXR Phase 100 for my Rhodes after hearing Billy Joel's "Just The Way You Are." Not sure what he used, but I really liked the Phase 100.

"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing."

- George Bernard Shaw

 

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I had a dream last night and in one part, there were these shelves with a bunch of old broken guitar stompboxes. A few were MXR 100s, but the cases were broken and parts were hanging out, etc. I think I said in the dream that they looked like they had been run over by a truck.

 

 

 

Man, I have been spending too much time in KC...

"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

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The MXR is classic, but I discovered the Marshall RG1 Regenerator Pedal and loved how it worked on a Rhodes Suitcase...

Yamaha (Motif XS7, Motif 6, TX81Z), Korg (R3, Triton-R), Roland (XP-30, D-50, Juno 6, P-330). Novation A Station, Arturia Analog Experience Factory 32

 

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