- Analogue replications and workhorse softsynths are staple tools for any software-based electronic musician, but it's often the niche, specialist options that get the most affection. And sometimes, it's these light touches that end up defining your sound. Psychic Modulation's Phonec plug-in was inspired by "the mystique of video logos you hear at the beginning of worn-out VHS tapes." (In case you've forgotten what they're talking about, there are some fine examples on their website.) If that reminds you of a certain pair of brothers from Edinburgh, you're on the right track—the Phonec 2 is often just one or two hidden mathematical codes away from the Boards Of Canada sound.
That's not to say it's a blind tribute. The plug-in has its own character and quality outstripping its price tag. The feature set is familiar and easy to use, with some pockets of unique functionality. It's packaged in an upfront, uncluttered fascia with a burnished '70s aesthetic. There are two regular oscillators and a sub-oscillator alongside more esoteric flavours like Peak, Cluster and Organ. You can mix them directly or with ring modulation, sync and Boolean operators such as AND or OR, which result in harsh digital sounds. The modulation options also include a high frequency oscillator (HFO), which is a way of applying FM and audio frequency modulation to filter cutoff frequency, oscillator amplitude or pulse width. There are also Drift and Width controls on the oscillators. These options are capable of producing a wide range of timbres for the basis of your patch.
The filter section contains a low- and high-pass filter in series, with four LP filter types and a dedicated ADSR envelope. You can time-stretch, invert and change the contours on the envelope between linear, exponential or inverse exponential. The amp envelope and HFO have the same controls. There's a relatively basic but healthy collection of bespoke modulation sources, too. First are the three LFOs, whose rates can be beat synced or left to run freely. They can also be phase-adjusted or set to have a fade-in time. These can be applied to some not-so-common modulation destinations like the attack and decay times of the amp and filter envelopes and the HFO's pitch. The two envelope modulators have the same controls as their amp and filter counterparts. These can be assigned to a small handful of destinations, including LFO depth.
Consideration has clearly been given to keyboard expressiveness. Aftertouch and velocity controls for the HFO envelope, filter and amp modulators are all new additions. The arpeggiator and sequencer are fairly basic but include some interesting quirks. Besides an arp velocity on/off control, you can set the sequencer length to odd numbers and randomise playback direction. Additional complexity is somewhat redundant considering the scope of modulation options. The range of sounds runs from solid, clear basses and leads, digital robot sequences and dial-up modem chirrups to complex pads that glitch in a natural and random fashion. There's a lot of depth and dimensionality available without having to push for it. This is mostly to do with the effects, but the oscillators and filters have an endearing analogue character that avoids the flatness marring other emulations.
Speaking of the effects, there's an Echoshifter for pitch-shifting, filtered delays. However, the Melt knob is where things really get Boards-ey. It combines random pitch-shifting, two types of saturation and what sounds like light phasing into a one-knob effect. If you don't have time to build a Leslie speaker out of an ice cream tub, this is where can get "that sound" with almost banal simplicity. Dialling Melt into pretty much anything—particularly sustained open fifths—sounds very familiar indeed. The presets make good use of this, with names such as Crop Circles, Hexagon and Cold War Secrets reproducing the heavy sawtooth unison sounds of Geogaddi or the floral, bird-like leads of Music Has the Right To Children. You can also run sounds from external sources through the Echoshifter or Melt sections. As you might expect, this kind of implementation doesn't quite give rise to the subtlety you'd get from treating the effect path with more care but it does a remarkably good job for what it is.
The Phonec 2 has the potential to become a go-to workhorse for producers who generally favour a more physical sound and its compact feature set is concise enough to learn pretty quickly. For people who equate authenticity with sonic imperfection, it's worth checking out.
Ratings /
Sound: 4.2
Cost: 4.4
Ease of use: 4.3
Versatility: 3.9