Our friends at Eventide have released Instant Phaser Mk II which has a cool bit of history. The original hardware on which this was modelled on was the world’s first studio electronic effects box.

Here’s what Eventide say about Instant Phaser Mk II:

Crafted from the original analog hardware that Eventide created in 1972, the “Instant Phaser” sound has been captured and fashioned for modern-day versatility. The Instant Phaser Mk II delivers the original sonic character and retains the same look and feel of the the first rackmount electronic effects box to ever hit the studio. Harness the effect that was used on countless iconic recordings – such as Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir”, and furnish your mixes with this “Instant” classic.

For a limited time, the Instant Phaser Mk II plug-in is available for only $37*. Restoring the 45 year old hardware and developing software that sounds like the original was no walk in the park: “A true recreation of the Instant Phaser had to satisfy not only our ears but also the ears for the studio owners and the pro audio community who still own and use the original hardware,” said Anthony Agnello, Eventide’s Resident Fossil “A strict digital simulation of an analog component is precise. Components in the real world are not. A 0.1 uF capacitor in cold precise code will be exact while a real world 0.1 uF cap’s actual value will fall within some range close to, but never exactly, 0.1 uF. We discovered that the imprecision of the values of the analog components are key to the Instant Phaser’s sonic character. The challenge was to write code that captured that imprecision.” “This isn’t your typical phaser plug-in, this is owning a piece of history. We’re pleased to release an authentic recreation of the world’s first and cherished rackmount electronic effects processor.”

Main Features

Phasing Control:

• Manual mode allows for precise automation of the phasing effect

• Oscillator modulates the phasing at a user defined rate

• Envelope follower allows the input signal to drive the phase effect, and can accept input from a sidechain source

• Remote mode maps the phasing control to a mod wheel for tactile manipulation of the phasing

Pseudo Stereo:

Like the original hardware, the Instant Phaser Mk II provides a pair of de-correlated outputs offering three different sonic characteristics “Shallow”, “Deep”, and “Wide” for creating a stereo image. Musicians, engineers and producers can use these effects to turn flat-sounding mono guitars into monstrous stereo leads or make a single channel synthesizer fill out the soundscape of the mix.

The Passage of Time:

Eventide’s analysis of their 45+ year old Instant Phaser unit revealed that not only is the analog world imprecise, but it is also ever-changing. As components age, their values drift. In order to match the sound of an Instant Phaser that has been sitting in a rack for all those years, they decided to add an “Age” feature. Simply set the “Age” to “0” to mimic a brand new, perfectly tuned Phaser, or dial in the effect of time passing. Crank the age to “100” and hear how the unit will sound long after the last glacier has melted.

Price & Availability

The Instant Phaser Mk II plug-in is available for Mac & PC and is compatible with popular DAWs, in AAX, VST2, and AU formats for an introductory price* of just $37. Registered owners of the Eventide Anthology X or Anthology XI bundles can get the Instant Phaser Mk II as a FREE download, available immediately from Eventide.

*After February 28, 2019, the price of the Instant Phaser Mk II software will be $129.