astrogarage's Reviews

Maybe the most fully featured phaser on the planet...

This is pretty much the polar opposite of something like the Phase 90 with its one big knob; Chase Bliss have made this into possibly the most fully featured and versatile phaser on the planet (though I'm guessing the Empress Phaser comes close from what I've seen). So what you get is ultra-fine control over waveshapes, mix, stages, mix, form, depths and rates. Much of this is controllable either via an expression pedal (which is my preferred way to use it) or automatic ramping (moving from one setting to another). The automation is configurable via an impressive array of dipswitches on the back of the pedal, or can even be controlled via MIDI - yikes. As Joel at CB says, this can all be a bit daunting at first; a good start is to set pretty much everything at noon, plug in and bathe in the syrupy loveliness on offer before setting the controls for the heart of the sun. The manual comes with some pretty helpful settings which are a good starting point for experimentation, which is what this pedal is all about. It's expensive, but you gets what you pays for; it can move into vibe/trem territory, can do subtle shading or full on chewy, filtery funk. The addition of a decent expression pedal gives it much more potential and once you get the hang of the dipswitches (which took me some while) you'll be in phaser heaven (set to stun or otherwise).