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Top 10 Greatest Phaser Effect Recordings of All Time!!!

Friday, June 03, 2011

Posted by: Jeffrey McAlack | Posted in: Artist / Heroes,

Let’s talk about Phasers.  Phaser pedals, as we know them today, have been making life easier for guitar, keyboard and bass players since the late 1960s (no surprise there, it seems like everything was invented in the 60s). Anybody whose played through one of these things knows that a nice phaser pedal can turn an ordinary C major 7 from just another chord in the progression to a symphony of psychedelic swirl. Yeah, we’re all guilty of arpeggiating a simple chord progression through a phaser pedal and calling a “part.” The original phaser pedal, the Shin-Ei Univibe, was created to emulate the sound of a rotating Leslie speaker, and though it did a poor job by most estimation, the pedal still managed to catch on for its lush, swirling, and smoothing effect. The sound became hugely popular in the early 70s with bands like Pink Floyd, Steely Dan and Robin Trower (rest assured, there will be plenty of 70s rock in the countdown below), but phaser pedals are still as popular as ever - queue up a Radiohead record and you’ll hear phaser all over the place.

But how does a phaser work? The classic phasing process is similar to a flanger effect; both require two identical signals running in parallel, one unaffected the other running through an oscillating time delay(i.e. it speeds up and slows down). The primary difference is that the affected signal of the phaser also runs through a series of devices known as “all pass filters”. All pass filters allow all frequencies to pass at equal volume. Both the phasing and flanging processes create a series of peaks and notches in the frequency response. In the case of a flanger these peaks and notches occur in harmonic series (i.e. integer multiples of the root frequency), while with a phaser the peaks and notches do not occur in harmonic series. The end result is the familiar “jet engine” sound of a flanger or the Doppler/rotating speaker sound of phaser.

We should also talk about “feedback” and “resonance.” Feedback is the process of looping the affected signal back around and through the all pass filters. The result of feedback is higher peaks in the frequency response. This intensification of effect is what we call “resonance.”

If you want a nice explanation of how different types of phasers sound, check out the demo video for the Soundblox Tri-Mod Phaser. The Tri-Mod Phaser is a killer pedal with 11 different phaser sounds. Each effect type varies in the number of notches, and the amount of resonance and feedback.  I work for the company, so my opinion may be a touch biased, but if you want an incredibly versatile and awesome phaser pedal, the Soundblox Tri-Mod Phaser is the shit.

Okay, on with the countdown, actually I’m a very impatient person so we’re going to buck tradition and do a “Top 10 Countup”. Enjoy.

1. Shattered - The Rolling Stones In the late 70s the Stones responded to disco, punk and hip hop (the new rising trinity of pop music), with Some Girls, their best record since Exile on Main Street.  Keith fell in love with his Small Stone pedal, it’s all over tunes like “Imagination” “Some Girls” and of course “Shattered”.  Some people questioned the decision to apply the smoothing effects of a phaser to a band famous for its rough edges. But the fact remained, the Stones had reinvented themselves yet again and in the case of "Shattered" created a song unlike anything we had heard before.

2. Have A Cigar - Pink Floyd For David Gilmour, the sound of the Univox Univibe was not just an effect - it IS the Gilmour sound.  Through Floyd’s string of tremendous 1970s albums, the phased guitar is a staple. But you can’t knock the decision, it sounds perfect with the Pink Floyd aesthetic, adding an industrial undulation to the rhythm playing and soaring sheen to the leads. It’s tough to choose between all the great phaser infused tunes in the Floyd catalog, but I have to go with “Have a Cigar” for the opening 4 bars alone. 

Anarchy in the UK - The Sex Pistols I’ve been listening to this tune since I was kid and never really noticed just how much phaser is on the guitars. In my defense, I really didn’t even know what a phaser pedal was when I bought Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols. I only heard the classic Les Paul/Marshall combination, but dear Lord there is some serious phasing going on here. Listen to the song with headphones and you’ll hear two phaser guitars (or maybe it’s one guitar in stereo) panned hard to the left and right with all the dirt coming from a third guitar panned dead center. It sounds HUGE - when it came to production value the Pistols simply crushed the first wave of British punks.

4. Eruption - Van Halen  Eddie Van Halen’s signature piece. Back in the Roth days, Eddie pretty much had the phaser going 24/7. The effect seems subtle, but in reality it’s not subtle at all, phaser played a huge roll in the achievement of what EVH calls the “brown sound”.  Because of this song, an entire generation of guitarists learned the right handed tapping technique before they knew how to play a C chord.

5. Little Wing - Jimi Hendrix Everybody wants to learn how to play this song. Two bits of advice if you want to play “Little Wing” with some degree of accuracy - 1. Practice 2. Get a phaser. The subtle effect on the rhythm part and heavy duty phasing in the solos add serious color to his recording. Does anybody else out there think this song is way too short?

6. Just The Way You Are - Billy Joel  For a lot of folks, (myself included) the sound of a Fender Rhodes electric piano through a phaser is the sound of the 70s. As far as effects go, it is to the 70s what auto-tune is to the 2000s. It’s simple, throw together a Rhodes, a phaser, and a sax solo and you're transported back to the 70s faster than you can scream, "Welcome Back Kotter!" Kidding aside, Billy Joel’s The Stranger is no joke. If you're like me and you’ve got an insatiable appetite for great music from all eras and genres, you’ve probably got a copy of this monster album lying around somewhere in your house.

7. Paranoid Android - Radiohead I think it was Spin Magazine that called OK Computer the greatest record of past quarter century - I suppose the case can be made.  Jonny Greenwood loves his phaser pedal, it’s all over Radiohead’s records, especially this super guitar driven track. It’s particularly prevalent in the guitar track panned hard left (your left) that comes in at about 0:10.

8. Peg - Steely Dan Gotta throw this one in. Again, we’ve got the Rhodes through the phaser stirring up images of Jimmy Carter and The Brady Bunch. Actually there are two phaser infused keyboards on this track(I believe the other is a Clavinet), creating a fabulous swirling effect during the held chords. While I was looking around Youtube for “Peg” I came across this snippet from the VH1 Classic Albums series (one of my favorite shows) and had to throw it in. You've got to check it out, especially the part where they solo up Michael McDonald's vocal tracks - unbelievable!

9. Bridge of Sighs - Robin Trower The embed code was disabled on the studio version of this track so I had to go with this live recording from 1974. It's probably better this way, the phaser is pretty high and mighty in this version. Like David Gilmour and EVH, Trower also owes much of his signature sound to the phaser. The psychedelic haze of “Bridge of Sighs” lends itself perfectly to some laid-back phaser laced guitar wizardry. 

10. The Rover - Led Zeppelin Not everybody has heard “The Rover” off of Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti, it’s one of those “for Zep fans only” tunes, but I think it stands up to anything in their catalog. This tune is a cavalcade of killer Page riffs, before Plant sings a note, Jimmy has already introduced three riffs that most of us would kill for. We got some serious phaser swirl happening here.

11. Soma - Smashing Pumpkins Oops, I'm going past my 10 song limit again - ahhh screw it. A symphony of phaser here. I think there are three phased guitars happening in the song’s intro – most noticeably on the lead track. Given Billy Corgan’s well-documented fascination with the stadium rock of the 70s, it’s no surprise that he is a big fan of phasers. We here at Source Audio have a special fondness for Billy and the Pumpkins ever since we spotted our Hot Hand Phaser/Flanger in his FX rack during the Zeitgeist tour. 

12. Passenger Side - Wilco OK, now that we’ve gotten past the essential it’s time for me to drop in a few of my personal favorites. Sorry, I couldn’t find the version from the record, A.M. but this demo version still has the perfectly placed phaser guitar intro. This song also has one of my favorite all time lyrics: “You’re gonna make me spill my beer, if you don’t learn how to steer” – Amen to that.

13. Dancin' in the Moonlight - Thin Lizzy Here’s one for the bass players, as well as one of my personal faves. The phaser really makes this stellar Phil Lynott bass line come alive.  Sure, the tune is a bit of an early Springsteen sound-alike, but it’s just too damn good to ignore. For the record, there is also quite a bit of phaser on the guitar, especially during the solo……but ooooh that bass sounds good. Unfortunately the first note or two of the intro gets cut off in this video - sorry.

That's all i got. If you want to read more of my opinionated babbling please check out my list of great flanger recordings, aptly titled, "The Top 10 Greatest Flange Effect Recordings of All Time!!!"

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