How to Get Daft Punk's Phaser Sound

For years, the assumption was that Daft Punk had tweaked a phaser themselves.

It turns out it was preset 38 on an old effects processor.

The unit is called the Ensoniq DP/4, and it's a multi-effects processor from the early 90s.

The preset is called "Key Funk Phaze". That's all it is, and it was used on many famous tracks during that era such as "Fresh", "Aerodynamic" and "Music Sounds Better With You".

Other artists such as Alan Braxe and Sébastien Léger used it as well, just to name a few.

Getting it without the hardware

DP/4s still come up secondhand, but they're pretty expensive for outdated technology. These two plugins do the job instead:

Phaser-DDL by Dusty Devices is that one phaser preset and nothing else. It has the same controls as the hardware, and a choice of three sample rates if you want the older converters in the signal. It's around £20, VST3 and AU, plus a Rack Extension if you're in Reason.

DEEP/4 by Temecula DSP recreates the entire unit. It has all four ES5510 engines, 43 working algorithms, and serial, parallel and feedback routing. The plugin costs $100.

They both have free demos, the Phaser-DDL one is fully working but has a short mute every 30 seconds.

Which one

If you want just the phaser, buy Phaser-DDL. Daft Punk used other presets on the DP/4 as well, so if you want the rest of the unit, that's what the $100 is for.

Daft Punk used it mainly on disco loops, but it also went on synthesizers, and it was part of the vocal chain on "One More Time" and on "Music Sounds Better With You".