I’m just curious if anyone ever ended up getting one of these and how they liked it.
The music shops in Japan say they are hitting Japan in early February, and surprisingly all the shops are advertising them with the old “Bi-Phase” name. I wonder if that’s Japan specific, if they won some kind of legal ruling, or if all the shops have bad info.
I love the Behringer Octave Divider clone and it’s built like a tank. I have a MuTron Micro-Tron III, which cost me a fortune in Japan, and I’d say the Behringer OD feels even more solid and certainly more 1970s with the size and weight. I’m usually not into big effects pedals, but somehow it seems appropriate with these clones.
FWIW, the best octave divider sound example I’ve found is here (paired with the Dr Scientist filter). He is using the real Mu-Tron version, but I’d say the Behringer version sounds basically the same. Love the old school sound which is why I’m curious about the Bi-Phase clone as well.
I’d wondered about the name too. Andertons in the UK, has a picture as well and it is Bi-Phase, so i don’t know the story. Perhaps Behringer had some stock with the older name, that they could sell in those places, before getting more shipments delivered with the new name. ( ? )
Andertons has been selling them for a short period of time so perhaps someone there got one. I haven’t seen any for sale in the US yet.
People though have definitely had them in their hands for a while, i think in beta-test maybe.
Interesting. If they lost a suit about the name as many expected, I can’t imagine them being able to do that. Perhaps it’s only the US where they wouldn’t have rights to sell with that name? Who knows, all speculation.
I hope someone that has one chimes in. I’m almost tempted to be the guinea pig as I have a bit of phaser/envelope filter fetish. I own a few Japanese phasers from the 1970s and a really nice Heptode Maestro phaser clone. The Bi-Phase has always been of interest to me because of Lee Perry, so kind of a know-brainer at the price when I think about it. I could never justify it at MuTron prices because it would be something I would probably use sparingly.
The naming thing reminds me of the MS 1 which originally appeared as the MS 101. I don’t know if Roland had a say in that directly or indirectly but either way the are more than a few MS 101’s in the wild
Just did a little Google-Fu and indeed, Andertons seem to have the Bi-Phase variant in stock, while everyone else has the Dual Phase. I have some silly Bi-Phase FOMO right now.
I always fancied a blue one but the only ones I saw were so overpriced because of their comparative rarity I guess. I’ve got a blue MS1 and I’m happy with that
I got mine a few weeks ago, but haven’t hooked it up yet; It doesn’t come with a power adapter (even though the manual says "included power adapter); it also indicates it can do 9 or 12v, but i don’t have any 700ma, my strymon ps are up to 500; i assume the 12v would give it more headroom…
i’ll probably just hook it up soon and i’m sure it will work with sub 700ma…anyway looking forward to this, i have an original Phasor II which sounds incredible, and the Mu-Tron resissue…
Cool. Same with the Octave Divider, which I really love. I power that off a power supply I have that runs both 9V and 12V (not sure of ma), and it’s been fine. I think I’m going to really like the Bi-Phase. Is yours a Dual Phase or Bi-Phase, btw?
I have to go out today so no time to give it a spin yet, but can confirm that these are more widely available now and they didn’t change the name for the Japan market for whatever reason. I’ll post some impressions when I get a chance.
I was able to put it through its paces the last couple of days. So far I’m digging it. It sounds really great on synth strings and I’m liking it a lot on guitar.
With some overdrive and tape echo it does some killer 70s guitar sounds. With the speed and depth pretty low and the feedback high, you can get these really great hollow, throaty sounds that sound amazing overdriven. Sort of reminiscent of the cocked wah sound, but more unique. I could see that becoming sort of a go to sound for me.
It’s definitely not for the faint of heart and a 12-stage phaser is really not for everyone. It takes quite a while to figure out how the two sides of the phaser interact, but you can dial in some really interesting stuff I haven’t heard from other phasers. I’m sure there are loads of cool sounds I haven’t found yet.
I still haven’t tried it on drums yet. Hopefully this week. I also want to do some more synth experiments.
I’ve never tried an original Bi-Phase, so I can’t comment on how close it is to that.
Forget the Berhringer and track yourself down one of these if you ever see one on Ebay/Reverb. One of my favourite pedals.
Made by Mike Both, who built the Pi-Phase, a perfect BiPhase clone which in its Mk2 variant actually got reskinned and sold by Mutron in the 2010s as the BiPhase. It’s got the same quality of sound but with extra knobs to tip it into insanity. And with the ability to custom adjust phase depths through a built in sequencer. Properly bonkers.
Imagine the marriage of a phase shifter and analog sequencer, and you’ll be imagining something like the infinitphase. However, the infinitphase gets a little twisted and goes far beyond any existing phaser or sequenced device to offer:
extended LFO rate variable from .1Hz to 10Hz
triangle / sawtooth / square / pulse / blended LFO shapes OR step-phased tones OR a blend of both for phased / filter sounds that are out of this world
slew-rate limiting for step-phase control section producing classic sample-and-hold effects or meandering phase tones
positive AND negative resonance adjustable via a single control
a blend of wet and dry signals for subtle phase or outrageous vibrato
AC-powered, internally-regulated +/-15VDC power supply providing a huge amount of headroom for any signal source (guitars / synths / drum machines / etc)
The dimensions of the infinitphase Mk II are: 20.5cm W x 15.cm D x 6cm H (to top of knobs): 8" W x 5.9" D x2.4" H
The infinitphase’s audio section is based on a Mutron Biphase channel (extended to a maximum of 8 phase stages) and, along with the simple yet flexible control section, allows users to emulate traditional phase tones or explore never-before-heard filtering / phase / vibrato / S&H effects.
A brief overview of the ‘standard’ infinitphase Mk II’s controls (more detailed information can be found in the user manual):
rate - controls the rate at which the LFO cycles
symmetry - controls the rise/fall or mark:space ratio of the LFO
shape - pans between triangle and square LFO waveshape
depth - adjusts the LFO depth
range - determines how many phase depth controls are cycled through by the LFO
smooth - adjustable sle-rate limiting of the changes between phase depth control settings
cvmix - determine whether the phasing is controlled by the LFO, the phase depth controls, or a blend of both
blend - controls the blend of clean / effected audio
resonance - selects whether the phased signal is mixed in-phase or out-of-phase with the clean signal
phase depth controls - 9 controls that are stepped through by the internal LFO, and which determine the phase depth when selected
That’s way too much phaser for me. Truthfully, even the Bi-Phase is approaching my limits. I’ll most likely just stick to a couple of settings on it. That mix knob looks like a nice addition though.
Another option if you’re looking for a cheap (Behringer) phaser is the VP-1. It’s an exact clone of a vintage Small Stone, and much much better than EHX’s modern versions which IMO sound nothing like the original. And I say that being a long time owner of a 1981 v3 Small Stone and a former owner of a Small Stone Nano.
A/B-ing my v3 Small Stone against the VP1 and there’s literally no difference in sound, except the VP-1 can’t sweep as slowly. But that’s easily fixed with a change in cap value. I rehoused mine with a stomp switch to flick between two pots for different sweep values and another stomp to replace the Color (feedback) switch. Also added an LPB1 circuit to dial in a phasing signal with no volume drop.
That’s definitely more my speed. I have a thing for phasers, wahs, and envelope pedals. I have sort of bagged my limit for phasers though. I have three Japanese phasers from the 1970s and a really nice Maestro clone. Now that I have this Bi-Phase clone, I’m done I think. Lol.
