Apogee Digital: Clearmountain’s Phases Plug-In

Earlier this year, I called Tape Op editor Larry Crane to ask if he could help me with a mixing dilemma. I wanted to recreate the vocal effect on Steely Dan’s “Daddy Don’t Live in That New York City No More” for a song I was mixing. There’s an exaggerated flanging/phasing occurring when Donald Fagen digs into the “ess” sounds. Long story short, I couldn’t recreate it with any plug-ins I had. Well, now I have Clearmountain’s Phases, and I was able to get pretty darn near the exact sound! Apogee really nailed it with this one. I understand how phasing and flanging work in theory, but I’ve always had a hard time dialing in the exact sounds I hear in my head. One thing I know for sure is that modulation plug-ins have never sounded as smooth and exciting to me as hardware units. Right out of the gate, I heard the difference with this plug-in. It sounds watery and juicy, not digital or cheesy (something I can’t stand about most modulation plug-ins). By now, you probably know I love a good gear manual, and the Clearmountain’s Phases manual is excellent. It explains the basic concepts of flanging and phasing and goes through the plug-in’s controls in a way that’s easy to understand – the pop-up “Help Text” is super useful and can be accessed by simply hovering over a button or knob. There are two separate modules: the CFX Auto Flanger and the CFX Auto Phaser. They can be loaded up individually, in parallel, or with one feeding the other. Quick note: I don’t typically care too much about a plug-in GUI’s look, as long as it works well and is intuitive. However, I love that this plug-in looks like it’s from the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon! The imagery, functionality, and emulation are based on the vintage flanger and phaser rack modules from Bob Clearmountain’s own collection.

Many vintage analog flangers used a bucket brigade device, or BBD, to create the delay times essential to the flanging effect. Different hardware units used other chips, which gave each effect its own unique characteristics and timing. You can choose from six different BBD models in the CFX Auto Flanger module, giving you tighter chorus-like sounds to longer stereo-friendly delays – and longer delays mean broader flanging potential in the stereo field. Thanks to Apogee’s clever use of delay times and delay compensation, you can achieve subtle to extreme flanging effects. For instance, when you engage the Tape Flange button on the GUI, a fixed delay is applied to the dry signal so that the wet signal can float ahead and behind the dry signal – just like when real tape flanging was done with two tape machines! Another cool feature of the CFX Auto Flanger module is an expanded setting that controls the amount of aliasing and distortion applied to the effected signal. I find that it thickens up the sound quite nicely when added to sources such as vocals and acoustic guitar. The CFX Auto Phaser module is just as fun to play with and sounds excellent on everything. Where the CFX Auto Flanger has the expanded aliasing and distortion controls, the CFX Auto Phaser’s expanded controls offer a setting that simulates component age. It doesn’t necessarily add distortion so much as a wonkiness to the tone of the phaser. I love how it brings out the upper mids of a snare when applied to drums! The phaser in this plug-in does a fantastic job of making elements “move” in the mix without sounding too noticeable or digital. I have already gone through some working mixes and replaced many of my go-to widening and modulation plug-ins with Clearmountain’s Phases. It sits in the mix the way analog modulation hardware does, maintains a solid stereo image, and is endlessly fun to tweak.

LFO rates can be synced to your DAW’s tempo, or you can set rates manually. This plug-in creates a full and dynamic stereo swirling effect by offsetting the left and right LFOs. Modulation can be powerful when used subtly and can be an iconic effect when used with a heavy hand. However, I believe it takes an understanding of how the effect functions in order to use it successfully. Digging deep into this plug-in helped me understand a lot about Bob Clearmountain’s mixing style. Clearmountain’s Phases is a plug-in that can teach you about modulation while helping you to achieve those flanger and phaser sounds you’ve only been able to hear in your head until now!