Create your own Phases, from mellow to madness

Authentic plugin emulations of Bob Clearmountain’s Vintage Analog Flanger & Phaser Rack Modules

Overview

The trippy, undulating sound of flanging and phasing debuted in the ‘60s and ‘70s with songs like Small Faces’ “Itchycoo Park,” Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir,” and Hendrix’ “Bold as Love.” And it’s made its mark on every decade since, playing key moments on tracks by David Bowie, Roxy Music, The Clash, The Cult, U2, Daft Punk, not to mention dozens of tracks by Van Halen.

Clearmountain’s Phases brings you the sounds of classic flanger and phaser processors used in mixing engineer Bob Clearmountain’s studio, meticulously modeling his rare, vintage flanger and phaser rack modules from the mid-seventies. The plugin adds Expanded settings modules, so you can replicate Bob’s advanced workflow, easily dialing in the distinct, engaging modulation effects heard on songs from the world’s most influential artists.

Highlights

Authentic emulations of Bob Clearmountain’s vintage Flanger and Phaser Rack Modules
Phases Presets offers 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.

Clearmountain's favorite flanger at your fingertips

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, setup 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 plugin that required external gear with the original modules. The true “zero crossing” Tape Flange mode reproduces the dramatic effect when two tape machines flange perfectly. You can even “swap out” the core bucket brigade delay (BBD) chip 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.

It's not just a Phase... It's feedback, LFO and vintage analog

The Phaser offers a gentler modulation that Bob uses to create the quintessential watery, undulating electric piano, the 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 stomp box favorites to vintage hardware units to modern plugins. 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 plugin back in time with the Age trimpot, to reproduce the mellowing effects of aging hardware components.

Configuration for your sonic imagination

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 – whatever achieves 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 unique sounds with the Module Config and Sweep Rate Select features.

Access iconic presets or easily dial in your own

When the Clearmountain name is on the box, rest assured that Bob himself pored over every detail, and that includes the presets you get with the plugin. You don’t need an Engineering degree to get started – instead, look over the shoulder of a master 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!

Once you’ve unlocked the secrets of the presets, you’ll find it surprisingly easy to conjure your own Phases, from mellow to madness!

Listen to Clearmountain’s Phases

Breakdown Flanger - "Listen To The Music"

Drum Example - "Kashmir"

Piano Flanger - "Good Times"

Rhodes Flanger - "Good Times"

Phased 80s Synth Example

Clavinet Example

Guitar Example with Clearmountain's Domain

System Requirements

macOS:
• Validated on macOS 10.14.6 and above
• Operational on Mac OS 10.11 El Capitan and above
• Free Pace iLok account – physical iLok not required

Windows:
• Validated on Windows 10 20H2 and above
• Operational on any Windows 10 version
• Free Pace iLok account – physical iLok not required

AAX Native, AU, VST or VST 3 Compatible Host Application

What People are Saying about
Clearmountain's Plugins

RYAN “SKINNY” SHANAHAN

Mixer/Engineer

Alesso, Zedd, Katy Perry, The Naked & Famous

“If you’re looking for the sauce, this is THE sauce! Bob nailed this one, Phases sounds amazing. Its super easy to use, has great presets, and is tweak-ready to unlock endless creativity.”

GREG WELLS

Grammy Award Winning Producer/Mixer/Songwriter/Multi-Instrumentalist

John Legend, Adele, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Carrie Underwood, Katie Perry

“As soon as I put “Phases” on a track, my smile muscles kicked in and haven’t stopped… I may require surgery. It’s absolutely amazing sounding, and Bob’s presets are unbelievable!”

ARKADI

Producer/Mixer/Multi-Instrumentalist

Bryce Vine, Zedd, Kiiara, Meghan Trainor, Jupiter Jones, & Kelly Clarkson

“I installed Clearmountain’s Phases, opened up a project, put it on a random pluck sound and hit the play button. Wow! Just the default preset alone has instantly made it my go-to phaser and flanger plugin.
It sounds so lush and thick and the presets are awesome, which to me is one of the most important aspects of a plugin. Thank you, Bob… thank you Apogee!”

JESSE RAY ERNSTER

Grammy Award Winning Mixer/Engineer

Doja Cat, Burna Boy, Kanye West

“This thing absolutely nails the inherent softness to the dimension of vintage analog modulation units form the 70’s. Plus, now I have the final missing tools needed to recreate the Kashmir drum sound and the “Heaven” vocal shimmer! WOW.”

NEIL DORFSMAN

Grammy Winning Producer/Engineer/Mixer

Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones, Sting

“So, That’s how it’s done!! I’ve wanted something like this for years. In past “mix-in-the box” sessions, I’ve spent a ton of time — often unsuccessfully— trying to create aspects of these set-ups and have been frustrated by having to use multiple plug-ins without getting exactly what I’ve wanted. This has a clean, comprehensive design, sound and user-interface allowing total and intuitive control over all essential aspects of the sound and vibe. Just great!”

MARK SPIKE STENT

Grammy Winning Mixer/Producer

Beyonce, Ed Sheeran, Coldplay, Cardi B, Lady Gaga

“I really love it!
Hugely creative and gives great depth and dimension, the controller is fab!”

THERON FEEMSTER aka NEFF-U

Grammy Winning Songwriter/Producer/Composer

Movie “Roma”, Justin Bieber, Train, Kendrick Lamar

“Clearmountain’s Domain is the perfect place to discover, create and be inspired. Cooking up sounds you never heard before.”

JOEY RAIA

Mixer/Engineer

Run The Jewels, Aesop Rock, Nick Hook, Tuka

“Clearmountain’s Domain is a powerhouse! It’s your one stop shop for everything you need to create depth, space, and movement in your mix. My new go-to for synth pads and vocals. It’s an intuitive, well thought out interface that lets you experiment and make adjustments quickly, keeping you creative and not confused. “

ROSS HOGARTH

Grammy Winning Producer/Engineer/Mixer

Van Halen, The Doobie Brothers, Keb’ Mo’, Ziggy Marley,
Dweezil Zappa

“I am absolutely loving the new plugin. It’s awesome, so much fun to play with and it’s incredibly flexible! Very intuitive – what used to take me a pile of plugins can now be done better with one – Clearmountain’s Domain! “

TCHAD BLAKE

Grammy Winning Producer/Engineer/Mixer/Musician

Sheryl Crow, U2, Arctic Monkeys, Pearl Jam, Peter Gabriel

“If you really want to learn about Bob’s sonic universe, the Clearmountain’s Domain plugin is an eye-opening education.”

AVRIL MACKINTOSH

Producer/Engineer

Ronan Keating, Louise, TYNI

“It’s THE 80’s vibe brought right up to date without all the patching and crazy SSL console routing. No more painstaking filling in/checking of recall sheets – Its all there instantly at the click of a mouse! It sounds amazing and is very tweakable.”

DON MIGGS

Producer/Composer/Guitarist

Whole Damn Mess, William Corgan, Mick Fleetwood, Boyz II Men, Tyler Florence/Food Network

“I freaking LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE this plugin. Thank you a million times over. Simple and robust, it’s become my first “idea” to add to a track…”

DAVE WAY

Producer/Mixer/Engineer

Fiona Apple, Echo In The Canyon, A Bad Think, Michael Jackson

“Clearmountain’s Domain is my fave recent plug-in purchase. For all of us who’ve wondered and marveled at how Bob creates such a unique, three dimensional picture, this will give you the tools and some insight into how he approaches “space”. Sure the presets are awesome and fun and are authentic to the famous tracks they’re associated with, but this plug-in packs a big punch in terms of tweakability so you can easily sculpt things and create an environment that suits a track perfectly. It can get crazy and complex, or just keep it simple and right. But the secret seems to be in how these sit in a track with personality yet stay in the back and let vocals, drums, guitars etc. keep their punch and focus. Quite a few great reverb convolutions combined with eq, de-essing, pitch shifting, delays, all discrete L&R panning, cross feeding… lots of options! I’ve had it for two months and I feel like I’m still just standing in the foyer admiring the artwork on the walls.”

Clearmountain Essentials Playlist

An essential curated list from Bob’s catalog of work that was the inspiration for Clearmountain’s Domain Plugin.

Listen on Spotify

Check out the Podcast

See More Plugins from Apogee

See More Plugins
from Apogee

Including the only Pultec EQs authorized by Pultec hardware manufacturer Pulse Techniques

Check out Mix This! Bob’s Personal Studio

Check out Mix This!
Bob’s Personal Studio

Bob with Theron “Neff-U” Feemster. Winning at Mix This! Studio.

Create your own Phases, from mellow to madness

Authentic plugin emulations of Bob Clearmountain’s Vintage Analog Flanger & Phaser Rack Modules

Authentic plugin emulations of Bob Clearmountain’s Vintage Analog Flanger & Phaser Rack Modules

Overview

Highlights

Clearmountain's favorite flanger at your fingertips

It's not just a Phase... It's feedback, LFO and vintage analog

Configuration for your sonic imagination

Access iconic presets or easily dial in your own

Listen to Clearmountain’s Phases

Breakdown Flanger - "Listen To The Music"

Drum Example - "Kashmir"

Piano Flanger - "Good Times"

Rhodes Flanger - "Good Times"

Phased 80s Synth Example

Clavinet Example

Guitar Example with Clearmountain's Domain

System Requirements

What People are Saying about Clearmountain's Plugins

Clearmountain Essentials Playlist

Check out the Podcast

See More Plugins from Apogee

See More Plugins from Apogee

Including the only Pultec EQs authorized by Pultec hardware manufacturer Pulse Techniques

What People are Saying about
Clearmountain's Plugins

See More Plugins
from Apogee