WHY PHASE PLANT IS THE MOST FLEXIBLE VSTi-LSA

WHY PHASE PLANT IS THE MOST FLEXIBLE VSTi

WHY PHASE PLANT IS THE MOST FLEXIBLE VSTi

A lot of our students seem to be perplexed when we are teaching Phase Plant, a plugin by ‘KiloHertz’. A couple of things inside Phase Plant makes it distinct and unique from the rest of the synthesizers that give its own modular capacity to route whatever to wherever. The idea of giving user the ultimate freedom to do whatever they want is something that has been undermined by a lot of Synth makers in the industry, and KiloHertz tends to exploit it by introducing us to Phase Plant.

From a generic sound designer’s perspective, the UI is very simple and intuitive, which makes it even better for the beginners, as well as the advanced sound designers. Today we are going to talk about those top features of Phase Plant which makes it stand on top from rest of the VSTi plugins. So, let’s get started.

Features:

Fully Controlled Sampler:

WHY PHASE PLANT IS THE MOST FLEXIBLE VSTi

The very first thing which for me would be an eye candy in any synth would be this, a fully controlled sampler gives me so much of possibilities that I wouldn’t have to rely on any other stock or third-party sampler. This gives us the possibility of performing grain-table synthesis as well inside Phase Plant. Grain-table synthesis is an advanced part of granular synthesis. The granular synthesis is performed by looping one small portion of an audio file, the length of which could be determined by the user, but conventionally it shouldn’t go above 50 ms. Unlike other synths, the sampler inside Phase Plant gives us various sustain and looping options which we can exploit to the fullest to get a very unique sound. Also, the fact that the built-in samples are sufficient enough, I have used Phase Plant for making choirs and even some vocal chops with the synth.

Creating Groups:

WHY PHASE PLANT IS THE MOST FLEXIBLE VSTi

Needless to say, it feels so good when everything is organized. Phase plant gives us the opportunity to make things as organized as possible, which gives us unbridled creative freedom to do complicated routing. A lot of people feel demotivated and uninspired when the routing is not organized. In Phase Plant, be it in sound generators section or in the audio effects section, we can create groups which makes it easier for us and avoid confusion.

Route Anything Anywhere:

WHY PHASE PLANT IS THE MOST FLEXIBLE VSTi

Okay, this may sound absurd but have you ever wondered if you can modulate more than just amplitude and frequency of the main oscillator with the second oscillator? Well, Phase Plant gives you more than what we think. The output of the second oscillator can be used to modulate any of these parameters, viz. Amplitude (Level), Semitones/Cents, Frequency and Phase. And the best part is, you can give more than two sources for modulation, by introducing a third oscillator which can also control any of these parameters mentioned above. This is the reason why Phase Plant is very compelling to a lot of Sound Designers, since, they are giving completely modular Synth Engine to connect however you want and the possibilities becomes endless.

Unlimited Sound Generators:

WHY PHASE PLANT IS THE MOST FLEXIBLE VSTi

Now, this might sound a bit weird but the idea of adding unlimited oscillators, samplers, noise oscillators and wavetable oscillators is absolutely intriguing. I was perplexed by this idea when I truly started exploiting Phase Plant for generating sounds. The problems of layering could be solved in one go, adding multiple oscillators and creating multiple groups gives the possibility to create endless layers of a single sound. Needless to say, that the only limitation here is your creativity and the processing power of your workstation.

Independent Effects Lane:

WHY PHASE PLANT IS THE MOST FLEXIBLE VSTi

Okay, this is probably one of the coolest features in Phase Plant. Have you ever wondered, what if, we had the possibility of creating a return track inside a VSTi plugin itself and add, as many effects as we want? Well, Phase Plant offers 3 effects lane which are completely independent of each other and gives us the opportunity to create a dry/wet balance of the entire lane chain including the single effect module inside a lane. That being said, we can do insert/serial processing and parallel processing at the same time, inside the plugin itself without moving out in the DAW and do complicated routing there.

You can make the lane depend on each other by setting the respective outputs of the lanes. For instance, the output of lane 1 will go to lane 2; the output of lane 2 will go to lane 3; and finally, the output of lane 3 will go to the master. This is how we create a chain with reliability on one another, whereas, we can also make each lane independent of each other. For instance, the output of lane 1, lane 2 and lane 3 could directly go to the master channel instead of being dependent on each other. We can also control the level of each lane, which makes the mixing of different returns even more efficient and effective.

Completely Customizable LFO:

WHY PHASE PLANT IS THE MOST FLEXIBLE VSTi

Now, all of us can agree that at some point, we feel to have full control over the LFO shape. At times, I used to wonder, what if a plugin would give a pencil option to draw our own LFO shape as we want. Well, Phase Plant seems to have read my mind, because what I wished for is now a reality. This is enough to completely win me over all the other LFOs that I have seen in various VSTi softwares. You now have the option to either create step sequences and make the LFO of Phase Plant act as a step sequencer.

You also have the options to create points and change the curvature of the slopes created by those points. And finally, the ultimate winner, you now have the option to select a pencil and draw your own shape of the LFO however you want it to be. You can also select the type of modulation (Unipolar – Which means Unidirectional or Bipolar – Which means Bidirectional) outside of the LFO editor window. I mean, how cool is that right?

Global Unison:

WHY PHASE PLANT IS THE MOST FLEXIBLE VSTi

I hate it when I don’t have an option to add more unison voices on the samplers in different synths. And when designing super saws for Future Bass, I wish there was a single knob to add unison voices on all the generators. Well, now you do in Phase Plant. This is one of the ultimate time-saving features I have ever come across; all I need to do now is to create different waveforms in the oscillators. Add some modulation on those sounds, like FM or AM or Phase Modulation if required and then move the Global Unison setting and adjust the unison voices directly from there, and voila!

Unison Stacking:

WHY PHASE PLANT IS THE MOST FLEXIBLE VSTi

You can now make chords with Unison voice directly, all you need to do, is press a single key on your keyboard and it will play any of the chord settings you have selected from the Unison stacking option. Plus, it gives you additional experimental features which enables you to have more creative freedom in terms of sound design.

All KiloHertz Plugins:

WHY PHASE PLANT IS THE MOST FLEXIBLE VSTi

I have saved the final one for the best. You can add all of the KiloHertz audio effects plugins inside Phase Plant. In the above picture, you can see how many effects are there which you can add in a single effects lane. Not to forget that unlimited number of plugins could be added in a single lane itself. And each knob/parameter on these effects module could be modulated by different modulators (LFO, Envelopes, Random LFOs, Min and Max modulators). I mean, what is left of it to add in this plugin right?

Space Invader:

WHY PHASE PLANT IS THE MOST FLEXIBLE VSTi

This one cackles me up, every time I open the plugin and I go to this tab to find a piece of game waiting to be played. KiloHertz kind of outdid this, but I honestly love it, there have been so many times, when I get bored by just working while making some sounds and save some presets and just when I feel like abstaining myself from touching my smartphone, because it causes a lot of distraction, just when I want to take a 5 min break for a refresher, this is where I go to. This is a really good way Phase Plant is telling us, have fun while you’re at it. The sound design cannot be done out of compulsion but should be practiced for fun.

I personally think this is more than enough features to declare Phase Plant as a clear winner in my opinion. Obviously, there are going to be more plugins in the future which would offer so much more than this. Needless to say, I want to see how AI (Artificial Intelligence) fits itself in the idea of sound design.

Also, UVI Falcon 2, has more immersive features to look at but then again, too much of anything make things a bit more complicated, this is the reason why I like Phase Plant. And that’s pretty much everything you need to know about it, I’ll see you in the next blog. Thanks for reading this one.

WHY PHASE PLANT IS THE MOST FLEXIBLE VSTi

A lot of our students seem to be perplexed when we are teaching Phase Plant, a plugin by ‘KiloHertz’. A couple of things inside Phase Plant makes it distinct and unique from the rest of the synthesizers that give its own modular capacity to route whatever to wherever. The idea of giving user the ultimate freedom to do whatever they want is something that has been undermined by a lot of Synth makers in the industry, and KiloHertz tends to exploit it by introducing us to Phase Plant.

From a generic sound designer’s perspective, the UI is very simple and intuitive, which makes it even better for the beginners, as well as the advanced sound designers. Today we are going to talk about those top features of Phase Plant which makes it stand on top from rest of the VSTi plugins. So, let’s get started.

Features:

Fully Controlled Sampler:

WHY PHASE PLANT IS THE MOST FLEXIBLE VSTi

The very first thing which for me would be an eye candy in any synth would be this, a fully controlled sampler gives me so much of possibilities that I wouldn’t have to rely on any other stock or third-party sampler. This gives us the possibility of performing grain-table synthesis as well inside Phase Plant. Grain-table synthesis is an advanced part of granular synthesis. The granular synthesis is performed by looping one small portion of an audio file, the length of which could be determined by the user, but conventionally it shouldn’t go above 50 ms. Unlike other synths, the sampler inside Phase Plant gives us various sustain and looping options which we can exploit to the fullest to get a very unique sound. Also, the fact that the built-in samples are sufficient enough, I have used Phase Plant for making choirs and even some vocal chops with the synth.

Creating Groups:

WHY PHASE PLANT IS THE MOST FLEXIBLE VSTi

Needless to say, it feels so good when everything is organized. Phase plant gives us the opportunity to make things as organized as possible, which gives us unbridled creative freedom to do complicated routing. A lot of people feel demotivated and uninspired when the routing is not organized. In Phase Plant, be it in sound generators section or in the audio effects section, we can create groups which makes it easier for us and avoid confusion.

Route Anything Anywhere:

WHY PHASE PLANT IS THE MOST FLEXIBLE VSTi

Okay, this may sound absurd but have you ever wondered if you can modulate more than just amplitude and frequency of the main oscillator with the second oscillator? Well, Phase Plant gives you more than what we think. The output of the second oscillator can be used to modulate any of these parameters, viz. Amplitude (Level), Semitones/Cents, Frequency and Phase. And the best part is, you can give more than two sources for modulation, by introducing a third oscillator which can also control any of these parameters mentioned above. This is the reason why Phase Plant is very compelling to a lot of Sound Designers, since, they are giving completely modular Synth Engine to connect however you want and the possibilities becomes endless.

Unlimited Sound Generators:

WHY PHASE PLANT IS THE MOST FLEXIBLE VSTi

Now, this might sound a bit weird but the idea of adding unlimited oscillators, samplers, noise oscillators and wavetable oscillators is absolutely intriguing. I was perplexed by this idea when I truly started exploiting Phase Plant for generating sounds. The problems of layering could be solved in one go, adding multiple oscillators and creating multiple groups gives the possibility to create endless layers of a single sound. Needless to say, that the only limitation here is your creativity and the processing power of your workstation.

Independent Effects Lane:

WHY PHASE PLANT IS THE MOST FLEXIBLE VSTi

Okay, this is probably one of the coolest features in Phase Plant. Have you ever wondered, what if, we had the possibility of creating a return track inside a VSTi plugin itself and add, as many effects as we want? Well, Phase Plant offers 3 effects lane which are completely independent of each other and gives us the opportunity to create a dry/wet balance of the entire lane chain including the single effect module inside a lane. That being said, we can do insert/serial processing and parallel processing at the same time, inside the plugin itself without moving out in the DAW and do complicated routing there.

You can make the lane depend on each other by setting the respective outputs of the lanes. For instance, the output of lane 1 will go to lane 2; the output of lane 2 will go to lane 3; and finally, the output of lane 3 will go to the master. This is how we create a chain with reliability on one another, whereas, we can also make each lane independent of each other. For instance, the output of lane 1, lane 2 and lane 3 could directly go to the master channel instead of being dependent on each other. We can also control the level of each lane, which makes the mixing of different returns even more efficient and effective.

Completely Customizable LFO:

WHY PHASE PLANT IS THE MOST FLEXIBLE VSTi

Now, all of us can agree that at some point, we feel to have full control over the LFO shape. At times, I used to wonder, what if a plugin would give a pencil option to draw our own LFO shape as we want. Well, Phase Plant seems to have read my mind, because what I wished for is now a reality. This is enough to completely win me over all the other LFOs that I have seen in various VSTi softwares. You now have the option to either create step sequences and make the LFO of Phase Plant act as a step sequencer.

You also have the options to create points and change the curvature of the slopes created by those points. And finally, the ultimate winner, you now have the option to select a pencil and draw your own shape of the LFO however you want it to be. You can also select the type of modulation (Unipolar – Which means Unidirectional or Bipolar – Which means Bidirectional) outside of the LFO editor window. I mean, how cool is that right?

Global Unison:

WHY PHASE PLANT IS THE MOST FLEXIBLE VSTi

I hate it when I don’t have an option to add more unison voices on the samplers in different synths. And when designing super saws for Future Bass, I wish there was a single knob to add unison voices on all the generators. Well, now you do in Phase Plant. This is one of the ultimate time-saving features I have ever come across; all I need to do now is to create different waveforms in the oscillators. Add some modulation on those sounds, like FM or AM or Phase Modulation if required and then move the Global Unison setting and adjust the unison voices directly from there, and voila!

Unison Stacking:

WHY PHASE PLANT IS THE MOST FLEXIBLE VSTi

You can now make chords with Unison voice directly, all you need to do, is press a single key on your keyboard and it will play any of the chord settings you have selected from the Unison stacking option. Plus, it gives you additional experimental features which enables you to have more creative freedom in terms of sound design.

All KiloHertz Plugins:

WHY PHASE PLANT IS THE MOST FLEXIBLE VSTi

I have saved the final one for the best. You can add all of the KiloHertz audio effects plugins inside Phase Plant. In the above picture, you can see how many effects are there which you can add in a single effects lane. Not to forget that unlimited number of plugins could be added in a single lane itself. And each knob/parameter on these effects module could be modulated by different modulators (LFO, Envelopes, Random LFOs, Min and Max modulators). I mean, what is left of it to add in this plugin right?

Space Invader:

WHY PHASE PLANT IS THE MOST FLEXIBLE VSTi

This one cackles me up, every time I open the plugin and I go to this tab to find a piece of game waiting to be played. KiloHertz kind of outdid this, but I honestly love it, there have been so many times, when I get bored by just working while making some sounds and save some presets and just when I feel like abstaining myself from touching my smartphone, because it causes a lot of distraction, just when I want to take a 5 min break for a refresher, this is where I go to. This is a really good way Phase Plant is telling us, have fun while you’re at it. The sound design cannot be done out of compulsion but should be practiced for fun.

I personally think this is more than enough features to declare Phase Plant as a clear winner in my opinion. Obviously, there are going to be more plugins in the future which would offer so much more than this. Needless to say, I want to see how AI (Artificial Intelligence) fits itself in the idea of sound design.

Also, UVI Falcon 2, has more immersive features to look at but then again, too much of anything make things a bit more complicated, this is the reason why I like Phase Plant. And that’s pretty much everything you need to know about it, I’ll see you in the next blog. Thanks for reading this one.

Explore Professional Mixing & Mastering Courses in Ableton Live online at Lost Stories Academy

Know more about Lost Stories Academy – India’s Premier DJ, Music Production School