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Why no Mix knob on Phaser?? Why??

Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2016 3:15 pm
by Liquid Guy
I use my foogers with a guitar and am really missing a Mix knob on the 103 phaser!
I own the 101, 102, 103 and 107 and all but phaser are "mixable". I love the sound of the 103 but it baffles me why... Why? Anybody has a clever way of working with it? It just takes over when it's on, really frustrating.
Rant over...

Re: Why no Mix knob on Phaser?? Why??

Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2016 2:33 am
by latigid on
Phase shifters are all-pass filters with resonant notches. To get the classic "wooshing" sound, you need to compare the filtered sound to the original input. The resonance control effectively works as an FX mix: as you lower the resonance the all-pass filter becomes flatter and its output more closely resembles the dry signal.

Re: Why no Mix knob on Phaser?? Why??

Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2016 3:41 am
by c7sus
If you have to have mix control there are some pedal solutions.

Here are a couple. I haven't tried these but it seems people are using these with big-box Origin compressors and getting good results.

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/XBlender

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MosBlendExp

Re: Why no Mix knob on Phaser?? Why??

Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2016 4:08 am
by stiiiiiiive
I've used a SubDecay Quasar DLX for years: great little phaser, quite flexible (16 wave shapes, CV in, tap tempo, 4-6-8 poles...) and that features a mix knob. It does not act exactly like the resonance knob that sits next to it and allows positive and negative feedback. It just blend the filtered signal and the original one. Plus it allows to go "100% wet", i.e. filtered signal only, hance getting kind of a vibrato. Coolissimo.

At some point I wanted to compare it to the MF-103 so I got one. They sound a bit different, and the second point that surprised me is that the Moog had no mix setting. That's how it is.

Re: Why no Mix knob on Phaser?? Why??

Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2016 4:50 pm
by Liquid Guy
Thanks for the answer guys!
I build pedals myself and have thought to place a mixer inside the phaser enclosure with a mix knob on the front panel. I guess I wanted to ask and see if I'm not missing something. I guess it's the way to go if that's what I need.
About using the resonance knob as a mixer - it's just not the same, as stiiiive above me stated. I need to mix my original, unaffected signal, in withe the phaser so it is not so drastic when it comes in.

Re: Why no Mix knob on Phaser?? Why??

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2016 9:20 am
by _DemonDan_
I totally agree with c7sus on the usefulness of those blender pedals.

To round out the choices, I'd also add:

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/LS2Boss
Cheaper, and also a Swiss-Army-Knife (with many other uses as well). Just connect a Send/Return between the Phaser and the LS-2. Leave the other Send/Return unconnected, which will make it your Dry channel. When "A+B" is chosen, you can then use the Green + Red knobs to set independent levels for Dry and Phase.

If you want to have blending and still have stereo, you can go for this:

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/StereoXBlender
It allows three individual stereo effects to be added to your dry signal. Two of them have footswitches and level controls.

Re: Why no Mix knob on Phaser?? Why??

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2016 11:35 am
by bichuelo
You can also use it as an auxiliary send in most mixers, if it can be set as Pre-channel then you can mix both signals independently.

I wonder if the difference between the almost dry signal with the Resonance at zero and no LFO applied to the Sweep control is recognizable though...

Re: Why no Mix knob on Phaser?? Why??

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2016 2:24 pm
by stiiiiiiive
Maybe I'm splitting hairs here but...
Blenders won't mix the original vs. the phase-shifted versions of the signal. They will mix the original vs. the original+phase-shifted. That's not exactly the same.
Not sure about what Liquid guy wants though...

Re: Why no Mix knob on Phaser?? Why??

Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2016 1:10 pm
by Liquid Guy
stiiiiiiive wrote:Maybe I'm splitting hairs here but...
Blenders won't mix the original vs. the phase-shifted versions of the signal. They will mix the original vs. the original+phase-shifted. That's not exactly the same.
Not sure about what Liquid guy wants though...
You're right but that's as good as i can get cause there's no way to get a "wet only" signal from the phaser.
I guess I'll look into it a bit more, I'm not going to add another pedal to my already too heavy board, just for this.