Never Gonna Do It Without The Phase On

You heard it straight from Donald Fagen on page 36: If Steely Dan’s sonic signature hangs on one thing, aside from stellar musicianship and songwriting, it’s a Rhodes electric piano through a phaser. This sound anchors many keyboard classics — listen to the Doobie Brothers’ “Minute by Minute” (see June ’00, p. 56) or the late, great Richard Tee’s comping on Paul Simon’s “Still Crazy After All These Years” (Feb. ’01, p. 54). How do you get it with the tools you’ve got?

General Guidelines

MXR’s Phase 90 was simple, and its sound was fairly subtle compared to other phaser pedals of its era — not to mention the effects on most of today’s hardware and software synths. To get that subtlety, follow rules that apply to your hands and conversation on a first date: not too fast and not too deep. Set the rate no higher than 1Hz, and if there’s a depth control, experiment in the lower half of its range first. Likewise for anything labeled “color” or “resonance” — too much and you get that psychedelic wee-oorng — cool in its own right, but not the Fagen EP sound.

Less is more when it comes to adding chorus or the panning tremolo Rhodes once mistakenly called “stereo vibrato.” Though they do the Rhodes as much justice, listen to a Dan tune like “Babylon Sisters” or “Green Flower Street” from Fagen’s The Nightfly, and you won’t hear their time periods obscuring the phaser’s slow, creamy modulation. Some keyboards drench their EPs in these effects, so dial ’em back to bring the phaser forward.

Don’t Throw Out the Hardware

Major current ROMplers and workstations all have solid EP programs, some with just the right vibe already dialed in, others with just small tweaks for you to make.

Korg OASYS: “Real Suit E.Piano” has a stereo phaser in insert FX1’s slot. Hit the onscreen IFX tab, then the IFX 1-12 tab above that. Triton Extreme: “St Trem EP” has the best raw materials. Knob 1 varies tremolo. Hit “menu” then “P8. Edit Insert Effect” onscreen. A phaser is in slot IFX2. Both: Take the wet/dry mix up to around 75%, frequency down to 80–90Hz, and resonance to +10.

Kurzweil PC2 series, PC1X, and PC161: Three words: “That 70s EP.”

Roland Fantom-X series: “StageEP Trem” is a good start. Reduce the tremolo with knob 3 in assignable mode, then hit “Effects.” Assign Phaser (#11) to MFX1. Set its mode to “4-stage” and use the virtual guidelines for other parameters.

Yamaha MO, Motif, and S90 series (including ES): “Sweetness” is very close as-is, with “PhaserVintage” a less swirly variant. S80: Try “19 Roadz,” whose name references Dan’s hit “Hey Nineteen.”

If your keyboard allows, try Fagen’s stereo suggestion using phasers with similar (but not identical) settings in two insert slots, routed in parallel.

Let’s Do It Right

Here’s how to Fagenize the three most popular dedicated EP plug-ins. I’ve also included IK SampleTank, as it’s such a widely-used workhorse for so many sounds.

Apple EVP88: The default “Suitcase Mk1” is perfect, and phaser controls are right in front of you. A rate of 0.85Hz (knob at ten o’clock) sounds just right.

Applied Acoustics Lounge Lizard EP-3: I like “Full Serviced 2” best as a starter sound. Select panel B and kill the tremolo. Back on panel A, choose phasers for both multieffects, and drag upwards on the “Topology” icon so that both feed the reverb in parallel. Set knobs according to Figure 1, bottom.

IK SampleTank 2: Load “Rds EP Stage Piano” and place Phaser (effect 12) in an open slot; see Figure 1, top for the settings. Here, two phasers are overkill, so at most, garnish with a pinch of chorus in the next slot.

Native Instruments Elektrik Piano: This preset-based sampling EP plug is dead simple. Click “File” in its graphical interface (i.e., not your host program’s File menu) for a hierarchal menu of sounds, and choose “MK1 — Phaser.” It sounds fine with all onscreen knobs at twelve o’clock.

There you have it. Set phasers on stun and get busy on those licks from this months “Play” section!