Apogee Electronics Clearmountain's Phases Modulation Plug-In (Download)

Apogee Electronics Clearmountain s Phases Modulation Plug-In (Download)

Bring the sound of legendary mix engineer Bob Clearmountain s vintage analog flanger and phaser rack modules to your digital tracks with the Clearmountain s Phases modulation plug-in from Apogee Electronics. By combining current technology for precise authentic models with the experience and ears of Bob Clearmountain himself, this plug-in offers classic, tripped-out effects of the 60s and 70s, heard on records by Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie, and many more.

Start with instrument-specific presets (crafted by Bob Clearmountain) made to replicate the processing used on a massive list of hit songs, or build your own using the plug-in s array of parameters. Adjust distortion, aliasing, and aging to emulate the original hardware, or go beyond the analog units with expanded settings such as custom routing and LFO sync.

Highlights

• Authentic emulations of Bob Clearmountain s vintage flanger and phaser rack modules
• Presets offer access to Clearmountain s personal settings for iconic songs and applications
• Use Module Config to combine the flanger and phaser for complex, evolving soundscapes
• Expanded settings modules offer a universe of possibilities beyond the original units
• Dial in the distortion, aliasing, and component aging of the hardware units, or keep it clean
• AAX, Audio Units, VST, and VST3 plug-in formats
• macOS and Windows compatible

Clearmountain s Favorite Flanger

Originally created through a laborious process requiring two tape machines playing back the same material in sync, but with a slight varispeed on one of the machines, the flanger effect required a lot of gear, set up time, and expertise to pull off. Clearmountain s Phases brings Bob Clearmountain s favorite hardware flanger processor to your fingertips, with control over the original manual sweep, sweep oscillator, and mix.

With expanded controls including feedback, LFO phase, high-pass filters, and polarity-reverse controls, you can emulate workflows in the plug-in that originally required external gear with vintage modules. The true zero-crossing tape-flange mode reproduces the dramatic effect that happens when two tape machines flange perfectly. You can even swap out the core bucket-brigade delay (BBD) chip emulation to explore vastly greater sweep ranges. Finally, to really add the grit and flavor of the original hardware to your tracks, dial in your desired amount of distortion and aliasing.

Phase, Feedback, and More

The Phaser offers a gentler modulation that Bob uses to create the quintessential watery, undulating electric piano, occasional psychedelic drum kit, and more extreme textures in combination with the flanger. You ll find many of the same original and expanded controls as the flanger-feedback, LFO phase, high-pass filters, and polarity reverse controls-for a consistent user experience.

With the Stages knob, you can reproduce the sonic characteristics of hardware phasers, from stompbox favorites, to vintage hardware units, to modern plug-ins. Dial in feedback to intensify the effect with added resonance, then adjust the feedback tap knob for even more sonic variations. Engage the Analog button to more closely model the original hardware s feedback implementation. Finally, send the plug-in back in time with the Age trimpot, to reproduce the mellowing effects of aging hardware components.

Customizable Configuration

When Bob was looking to create a richer, more extreme texture, he d send his tracks through both flanger and phaser modules, and you can do the same with the Module Config feature. Flange the phaser, phase the flanger, or apply both and mix to achieve the sound in your imagination.

To add a swirling width that moves across the stereo soundstage, he d patch in multiple modules, then set different sweep rates for the left and right sides of each module. Listen to Mick s vocal on the Stones Heaven track, or Bowie s China Girl recording to hear the result. You can recreate these special sounds with the Module Config and Sweep Rate Select features.

Iconic Presets

When the Clearmountain name is on the box, rest assured that Bob himself reviewed every detail-even the presets you get with the plug-in. You don t need an engineering degree to get started instead, look over the shoulder of a legendary mixer.

Bob has carefully created each preset based on specific instruments and processing from his extensive catalog of timeless hit mixes. Want to experience the Stones Heaven vocal sound described above? Simply load the preset.