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Category: Phasers

12 Stage stereo phaser.

15/08/2025 / / 0 Comments

Creating a multi stage Stereo Phaser with a Resonator.

You’ll need third party modules for this project.
I used these modules created by Davidson;
DAM List Block Grid
DAM V Knob
These modules by Elena Novaretti;
ED GUI Divide (Float)
ED GUI Add (Float)
ED GUI Line 3
ED GUI Fixed Value (Float)
This TD Module;
TD SV24B (You could use the Stock SV Filter, but I don’t think it sounds quite the same)
This QTN Module;
QTN VoltToGUI (Float)

Left and Right Phaser container.

Structure of the phaser/resonator module

Multi-Stage All-Pass filter

This although looking complex is actually twelve All Pass Filter modules in series, with the outputs of modules 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 connected to a Switch (Many > 1) allowing the selection of how many filters are in the chain. The control voltages are used on all the Filters, and only the first All Pass Filter is routed to the input IO module.

The all pass filters

Stage Selector.

Here I have used a 3rd party module, Davidson’s DAM List Block Grid (you could substitute the stock list entry module but I personally think this looks better.
It’s connected to the PatchMemory List3 module to convert to the green list plug.
As with any list all the values will be automatically read from the module it’s connected to.
Settings.
The only settings I have changed on the Block List grid are;
Columns Max = 6,
Columns Visible = 6,
Rows Max = 1,
Rows Visible = 1.
To adjust the height and width of the Block Grid, open the panel view, select the grid and drag the borders to the required size.
Note: I will be doing a separate post on all the features and settings of this module in the near future.

The selector switch

The DAM List Block grid is also used in the same manner for the +ve/-ve audio switch, just change the columns to 2, and the rows to 1.

The control knobs.

This is another one of Davidsons 3rd party modules. This one has the advantage that it can be customized, and even better resized unlike the stock Knob control.
As with the stock Image2 module when using it for a control knob, the Animation position is fed through a PatchMemory Float3, and a Float to Volts module to provide the DSP voltage output. As per usual the range of the control is set from the Min/Max setting of the PatchMemory
Settings.
The only settings I have changed on the DAM V Knob are;
Radius = 70 This can be adjusted to suit your GUI. It controls the total radius of the control knob,
Back Line Top ARGB = FF880000 This is the colour of the line on the outer rim of the control that follows the needle,
Start/End position = 30 as this makes the knob behave more like a traditional control knob. This controls the start and end positions of the controls rotation,
Number Display (In the module properties panel drop down list) Change this to “Number Text”
Font ARGB = FF000000 you can change this to your own choice of colour, this is the number displayed in the centre of the control.
Needle ARGB = FF880000 to match the Back Line colour.
Needle Size = 0.6

Note: I will be doing a separate post on all the features and settings of DAM V Knob module in the near future.

The control knob Sub-control

Resonator.

The resonator is a TD_SV24_B filter module set to BP 12 module. There is a Level Adj module on the Res 0-10 input with it’s Input 2 plug set to a value of 9V so that the filter stays just below the point of self-oscillation. The filter type is set to BP12.
The Level Adj module in the output controls the amount of signal from the Resonator reaching the output mix.

The resonance module

Phase Indicator.

This is linked to the outputs of the Left and Right LFO outputs to give a visual indication of the phase difference between the two outputs.
This relies completely on third party modules.
The QTN_Volt2GUIFloat take the DSP input voltage and convert it to GUI Float, which is then fed into the ED GUI Divide (Float) module where we divide by 10 (Put a value of 10 on Input 2), and add 0.5 on Input 2 of the ED GUI Add (Float) module where it is then fed to the ED Line 3 module. I changed the thickness setting to 5, and the Line and Background ARGB settings to give red and green for the two channels, on a dark grey background

The LFO phase indicator

The complete Phaser

The LFO is a TD_LFO__ST with Phase control on the Right channel, and the LFO Type set to TriSaw. A good range for the LFO Hz control is 0.01 to 5.

The completed phaser project

The Phaser control panel

Related posts:

  1. All Pass filters in Synthedit.

All Pass filters in Synthedit.

10/10/2023 / / 1 Comment

I can hear those of you who have never heard of an All-Pass filter thinking “hang on a filter that passes everything? What possible use is that, how can this be a filter?”
Well they are very useful items. They do indeed have an almost flat frequency response (see below), and technically they are a filter when connected up in the correct manner.

All pass filter frequency spectrum.

But if we put a 1kHz sine wave through the filter, and compare the output with the 1kHz tone direct from the oscillator something is happening to the signal passed through the filter:

How the APF affects phase.

Now we change the filters “pitch” control (below)

Increasing the phase shift

You can see that the phase of one signal has changed with regard to the other, so although the frequency response is flat, the phase of the signal passed through the filter is changing with frequency. This is useful, it will create a well known musical effect for us, the phaser. A phaser is quite a simple effect to create.

Creating a phaser in Synthedit:

If we connect an All-Pass filter to a noise source, then mix the direct noise signal with the signal passed through the filter you can see there’s a pronounced dip in the signal level at roughly 1kHz. This is where the filter has shifted the phase by 180 degrees relative to the input, so when the signals are added in the Level Adj module we get a cancellation effect causing a “notch” at that frequency.

A basic Phaser effect.

Adding a second filter in series

By adding the second filter we get a second notch, at roughly double the frequency, so we can change the sound once again just by adding a second filter coupled to the first.

The resonance control adds a degree of feedback into the filter module.

Two stage Phaser for SynthEdit.

The structure below gives us a Phaser module like you might find on a guitarist’s pedal board. Adding the TD LFO A allows us to automatically sweep the notch frequencies up and down at a rate set by the speed control, and a frequency range set by the sweep control.
The mix control on the X-Mix control allows us to go from the “dry” unfiltered signal through to the fully filtered “wet” signal. The LFO type on the TD LFO A is set to “triangle” which is the sweep waveform on most phasers, and the modify plug has a value of 0 Volts to give us the triangle shape. The speed slider can be set to a minimum of 0.01 volts, and a maximum of 5 volts giving a useful LFO range of 0.01Hz to 5Hz.
Note: Unlike SVF or Moog filters it’s a good move to have your resonance control connected to all the All Pass filters, this will give you the deepest notch(s). This won’t cause any nasty overloads or oscillations.
Note: The All Pass filter module has two frequency to control voltage settings:
1 V/Octave and 1 V/kHz. The latter 1 V/kHz is perfectly good for a phaser, and uses less CPU power.
Note: When you connect two All Pass filters in series, you won’t create a deeper “notch” effect, as the second filter adds it’s own phase shift onto the shift introduced by the first filter, hence you get a second notch at a different frequency, and by adding a third filter we get yet another new notch frequency.
Adding filters always adds new notch frequencies.

Complete two stage phaser

Getting a better “resonance” sound from a SynthEdit phaser.

However the resonance control as it stands, won’t sound quite right due to the way synthedit handles feedback, but we can remedy this by adding a peak filter like so with its control voltage to pitch response set to 1 V/kHz and a variable resonance control added instead of being connected to the second phaser stage. The resonance we get when the SV filter is set to single stage band pass will sound much better than we can ever get from the stock All Pass filters.

Two stage phaser with improved resonance control

Related posts:

  1. SynthEdit Filters
  2. 12 Stage stereo phaser.

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