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Roland AP-2: Set Phasers to Stunning

I decided to treat myself for my birthday (Friday 26th) and bought a vintage phaser from eBay to add to my SX-150 in the Gas / High Skies studio. Of course the combination of the Post Office and being from 1975 killed it on arrival, but when it does make noise, it makes gloriously vintage noise.

Phasing, the king of space effects, which is closely related to flanging, was invented/ discovered independently by Abbey Road Engineer Ken Townsend, whilst working with the Beatles, and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Two synced tape machines were run side by side playing identical tapes. The small differences between the tape speeds would cause phase cancellations, hence ‘phasing’. Some frequencies would disappear almost completely, but as the relative speeds of the machines varied the missing frequencies would reappear and other frequencies disappear, giving the amazing spacey, swirly sound.


Spectrogram of a phaser applied to white noise. Credit:Wikipedia

Roland, established in 1972, launched The Roland AP-2 Phase II in 1975 and was one of only a very small number of effects pedals to bear the Roland name. They used the Boss name from 1976 onwards.

As well as sounding like it’s from 1975; the era of Kraftwerk’s Radioactivity, Tom Baker as Dr.Who and the Polymoog, it also looks like it’s from 1975. I’m sure the Doctor must have had one lying around the T.A.R.D.I.S.
In true Microscopics style, if you zoom into the surface of the AP-2, almost imperceptible to the naked eye is the alien-brain like texture…

GALLERY: Click to enlarge

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