Soundtoys PhaseMistress - Manual (Page 39)

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Attack
The Attack knob controls the how fast the phase effect will react to an increase in
signal level. A fast setting will cause the envelope follower to react very quickly to
transients, and will produce a very dynamic, staccato-like phasing effect. Setting the
Attack knob to a slower setting will smooth out and lengthen the attack response the
envelope follower. PhaseMistress will behave like it has had a few too many beers!
Release
The Release knob controls how fast or slow the phase signal will react to the input
signal as it decreases (the opposite of the Attack knob). Again, a faster release set-
ting will produce a more dynamic effect, and slower release times producing a slower,
smoother effect as the sound decays.
Random S/H Mode
The Random S/H (Sample and Hold) Mode produces a waveform that jumps from one
value to another at each cycle. This effect was used with a resonant filter (and
abused by ELP) in the beginning of Brain Salad Surgery, you know…"Welcome back
my friends to the dinosaur that never ends" as well as other cheesy sci-fi movies to
mimic the sound of bleeping and burping computers. However, it is an especially cool
effect when applied to phasing and PhaseMistress offers a few twists so that its sam-
ple and hold can be synced to the tempo of your music.
Tempo
As before, you can either use Tap Tempo to define the BPM of the random signal or
sync it to Midi Beat Clock. When using MIDI beat clock the display will show the cur-
rent tempo. Use the Tap Tempo as previously discussed.