14 Best Phaser VST Plugins 2024

What do you do when you want to add some movement to your tracks?

Naturally, there are many ways of going about solving this problem, but modulation is generally a go-to for adding sonic interest to your projects.

Phaser is a popular effect for guitars, synths, and more, as it can add character, texture, and sweeping and whooshing to your channels.

In this guide, we look at the best phaser VST plugins.

PhaseMistress by Soundtoys – Best Overall

Producer / engineer / keyboardist Richard Hilton says Soundtoys’ PhaseMistress is the best-sounding soft phaser available. We happen to think it’s superb as well.

PhaseMistress takes after some of the best hardware phasers available and loads them all up in a neat little package.

In developing this product, the developer meticulously studied some of the best phasers like the Moogerfooger MF-103 12-Stage Phaser, Bi-Phase, BOSS Super Phaser, Phase 90, Trine, Small Stone, among many others.

Having taken the best aspects of the best phasers, they added additional parameters and features to PhaseMistress, including rhythmic tools.

This phaser allows for deep customization of the phasing circuit, 69 presets, stages (from two to 24), resonance, color, intensity, and more.

With PhaseMistress, you also get near unlimited control over the LFO with a multitude of creative LFO shapes, and even the ability to draw your own curves using the Tweak panel.

There’s also a Rhythm mode for programming your own rhythmic patterns, and Envelope mode for a rhythm-triggered effect.

Use it on guitars, vocals, basses, drums, mixes, and more. It belongs in more places than you might initially expect!

PhaseMistress is very balanced in terms of quality, features, versatility, and price, making it our best overall option.

Learn more: Plugin Boutique

Instant Phaser Mk II by Eventide – Best Premium Option

Eventide’s Instant Phaser Mk II is perfect for just about any genre, vintage or modern. This unit, of course, is based on the original 1971 hardware phaser, heard on Led Zeppelin classics like “Presence” and “Kashmir.”

Eventide added some new functionality to the plugin, with an “Age” knob that will take your phaser anywhere from the 70s to well into the future. The phaser becomes more imprecise and more “analog” as you age it further and further into the future.

Choose from three tonal characteristics, including Shallow, Deep, and Wide. Wide specifically will give you different amounts of phase shifting on the left and right channels. Perfect for adding some size and beef to thin sounding guitars or synths.

The phaser effect can be controlled using the Manual, Oscillator, Envelope, and Remote controls.

Altogether, Instant Phaser Mk II comes with an Age control, three flavors of phasing (Shallow, Deep, Wide), four phasing methods, presets, depth for combining the phased signal with the dry, sidechain functionality with envelope follower, Sync and Retrig for the Oscillator, Feedback, and input / output.

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BLEASS Phaser by BLEASS – Best Budget Option

BLEASS has done an exceptional job of creating an affordable range of quality plugins that should fit nicely into most budgets, and BLEASS Phaser is no exception.

This four-stage phaser is more versatile than you might expect, as it can create anything from atmospheric stereo sounds to resonant swirls.

Try this phaser on vocals, guitar, bass, synthesizers, and more. No VST library is complete without a competent phaser, and BLEASS Phaser specifically offers stereo functionalities, 40 presets, frequency & spread LFOs, and more.

How does it work? Well, BLEASS Phaser sends your signal through multiple all-pass filters, adding the new signal to the original. This results in phase cancellation around specific frequencies or notches. A feedback loop is utilized to move some of the processed signal back into the filter chain.

The interface / effect is comprised of four stages. The first is the Phaser stage, with notches, frequency, spread, feedback, and color controls. The next is the Frequency LFO & Spread LFO stages, with sync, shape, rate, stereo, and amount controls. Finally, there’s the Mix stage.

You’ll be hard pressed to find a better phaser for the price, making BLEASS Phaser our top budget selection.

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Fix Phaser by Softube

Softube’s Fix Phaser is an easy to use, streamlined, versatile phaser effect.

Audio engineer Paul Wolff conceived of a phaser effect that had all the best parts of his favorite phasers, and then came up with this – the Fix Phaser.

From adding texture and movement to your tracks to making elements whoosh and swoosh, Fix Phaser can go from subtle to extreme and handle all types of jobs for guitars, synths, strings, vocals, and even drums.

This plugin features a wide mode, which can transform your mono tracks into stereo, adding some extra width to guitars, drums, vocals, and more.

With a 70s / 80s style vibe, Fix Phaser gives you control over mix, regen, envelope, phase offset, sweep, and rate, along with stereo, stages, and sweep type controls.

This plugin even comes with presets created by the legendary Joe Chiccarelli.

For adorning your tracks with some extra character, you’re going to love Fix Phaser.

Learn more: Plugin Boutique

Phaser BI-TRON by Arturia

Arturia’s Phaser BI-TRON was based on a much-coveted guitar pedal with decided Sci-Fi vibes (the Mu-Tron Bi-Phase). This beauty features dual 12-stage phaser circuits, two sweep generators, and extensive routing options. Arturia took the original concept and elevated it to incredible new heights.

It’s safe to say there’s quite a bit more here than initially meets the eye. At the top of the interface, you’ll find two sweep generators / independent LFOs with switchable rates and waveforms. These can be tempo synced. The two generators can be tweaked to create unpredictability in the effect as well.

Right below it is two “Phasor” controls, complete with depth 1, depth2, feedback, and modulation source controls.

Also onboard is an expressional pedal control which allows you to play with the LFO rates and Phasor circuits.

At the heart of the two Phasor sections, you’ll find routing options. The Phaser BI-TRON effect can be run in mono, stereo, series, or parallel.

The developer also hooks you up with 37 presets.

In summary, you get a dual phaser with a stereo sound, analog response, two tempo syncable sweep generators (LFOs) with three waveforms each and dry / and bypass controls, two 12-pole “Phasor” circuits with individual controls, dual depth controls, and 37 curated presets.

You also get advanced routing for mono, stereo, series or parallel, a 12 dB / oct hi-pass filter, extended Phasor poles, expression pedal (controls LFO rates and Phasor circuits), and a stereo reverse option for both Phasor modules.

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Fazortan 2 by D16 Group

The perfectly rated Fazortan 2 gives you unrestricted access to composer Jean Michel-Jarre’s magical “fairy dust.” His secret is his synthesizer paired up with a killer phaser effect, one that sounds a lot like Fazortan 2.

The developer took advantage of all pass filters identical to Operational Transconductance Amplifiers in creating this masterpiece, and with Fazortan 2, they’ve developed an entry that’s closer to the original hardware than ever.

With a vintage 70s design and a modern eye, you get complete control over two LFOs (rate, depth, waveform) with various waveform modes – triangle, hyper-triangle, sinus, and random.

The two LFOs can be used simultaneously, which is something you could never do with the hardware original. Consecutive all pass stages can also be added to the effect, inserting some compelling irregularities.

All in all, Fazortan 2 is an emulation of a classic analog all-pass phase shifter with two controllable LFOs, LFO sync, 64-bit internal processing, no harmonic distortion at output, tag-based preset browser, two GUI sizes, and MIDI learn.

All things considered, Fazortan 2 is relatively affordable. It’s also a quality effect. So, if you’ve been after that elusive Jean-Michel Jarre sound, it’s well worth a look.

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MPhaserMB by MeldaProduction

MeldaProduction is one of those developers that always seems to go above and beyond the call of duty, and their plugins (save for very few) are always highly rated and well received by users everywhere.

Their MPhaserMB is a multiband phaser well suited to keys, guitars, drums, and even masters (if used sparingly).

The developer openly admits MPhaserMB is not the most versatile phaser out there. But it is easy to use, and it comes with two graphical user interfaces too – a simple, default interface, and a more advanced one with extreme settings.

The multiband phaser comes with one to two fully configurable independent bands with three perfectly transparent algorithms (linear phase, analog, hybrid) with adjustable limits and input gains, continuously adjustable oscillator shape, and four global modulators.

You also get up to eight channels surround processing, full randomization, adjustable upsampling from 1x to 16x, automatic synchronization to host tempo, MIDI controllers with MIDI learn, global preset management, and more.

Learn more: Plugin Boutique

EFEKTOR PH3605 Phaser by Kuassa

Kuassa has been successful in creating a series of affordable guitar pedal style virtual effects, just like this one – the EFEKTOR PH3605 Phaser. They’ve got distortions and overdrives too, which are well worth a look, especially for guitarists.

With space age style sounds, EFEKTOR PH3605 Phaser is simple but versatile. The UI features controls for rate, depth, feedback, level, mix, and three phaser models, from mild to intense – phase one, dual phase, and multi-phase.

PH3605 Phaser also features convenient A/B compare buttons, BPM sync, and mono or stereo mode features.

As you can see from the video below, this is a very capable phaser for guitar. But it would likely sound great on synths too.

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Whirl by Sinevibes

Sinevibes’ Whirl is quite simply a “barber-pole” phaser that takes after the Bode frequency shifter model (with a feedback line).

Whirl comes with three configurable phase stages. This means you have complete control over the subtlety / extreme wetness of the effect (resonant filtering).

Its user interface is clear, colorful, and easy to use.

Whirl also comes with variable stereo phase offset, lag filters on all continuous parameters, multiple channel configurations (mono, mono / stereo, stereo / stereo), preset management functions, and widow size scaling up to 200%.

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Phase Motion 2 by AudioThing

AudioThing’s Phase Motion 2 is the meeting place of versatility, affordability, ease of use, and quality sound.

Phase Motion 2 features up to 32 phasing stages. It also comes with Rate (which can be adjusted in Hertz or synced to host tempo), six LFO waveforms (square, sine, triangle, ramp up, ramp down, random), and Depth and Feedback.

Because Phase Motion 2 is a stereo phaser, you can apply two different settings to each channel.

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Rift Filter Lite by Minimal Audio

Not a phaser effect specifically, Minimal Audio’s Rift Filter Lite is a versatile but easy to use morphing filter that’s capable of phaser style effects.

The 24 filter types, in fact, include phaser, vowel, peaking filters, and more.

Rift Filter Lite also features morph, stereo spread, pitch snapping, transposition, and MIDI tracking for added flexibility.

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Philta XL by Vengeance Sound

Vengeance Sound’s Philta XL is considered a must-have by some electronic music producers. But this isn’t just any ordinary filter effect. It has up to 96 dB cutoff with LFPS and even envelope followers.

Philta XL features 130 Manuel Schleis (German music producer) presets, two high quality filters (12 dB, 24, dB, 48 dB, 96 dB), variable filter resonance width, bandpass & notch filter (phaser), two tempo-synced LFOs with five shapes, and two envelope followers with variable source frequency.

You also get filter saturation (pre- or post-filter), ring modulator, rate reducer / bit crusher linkable to cutoff frequency, output limiter, automatable parameters, and a 100% timing precise and click free design.

As with Rift Filter Lite, Philta XL is not exclusively a phaser effect. But it is capable of phaser style sounds with the bandpass and notch filter. So, it could be another entry worth exploring.

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Rackmode Signal Processors by Cherry Audio

Cherry Audio’s Rackmode Signal Processors is not a phaser specifically, but it does come with a phaser!

This effects bundle comes with seven virtual effects that take after the classic 70s and 80s Moog Signal Processors.

For this occasion, Cherry Audio collaborated with DSP legend Mark Barton, who created detailed emulations based on the original rackmount units.

This collection comes with a Rackmode vocoder, Rackmode phaser, Rackmode ring modulator, Rackmode string filter, Rackmode frequency shifter, Rackmode graphic EQ, and rackmode parametric EQ.

You could create quite the signal chain with these effects, whether for synths or vocals!

Expanding on the original concept, Cherry Audio added syncable LFOs, presets, stereo processing, and Apple Silicon M1 native support.

Rackmode Signal Processors also come with over 150 presets, mono / stereo modes, MIDI control, DAW automation, and tempo sync.

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Godfazer by D16 Group

D16 Group’s Godfazer is no ordinary effect – it’s practically an advanced modulation suite, combining various modulations and filter types into one plugin.

Godfazer is quite extensive in scope, and the most powerful modulation effect the developers have ever put together.

The Ensemble section comes with various delay- and amplitude-modulation options, including BBD choruses, rotary speakers, Solina style ensembles, tremolos, auto-panners, and more.

The two Multi Filters come with 40 filter types including formant, dual shelving EQ, low-, high-, and band-pass models, and even vintage and modern phasers.

The dual modulators offer four styles of cutoff / center frequency modulation, a constant modulator, LFO, envelope follower, and a 16-step step sequencer.

Godfazer even comes with various routing options.

In total, Godfazer comes with 22 models / effect types, adjustable speed and depth, two multi filter modules with 40 models / filter types, adjustable cutoff / center frequency and emphasis, balance control (and optional mid / side mode), and independent modulation amount control.

You also get two modulation blocks with constant modifier (value offset controls for left and right channels, link option), LFO generator with adjustable stereo phase, six LFO waveforms, optional tempo sync, and panning control, peak follower with attack, decay, and sensitivity, and a 16-step step sequencer with adjustable rate and optional tempo sync.

To top it all off, you get six topologies for the Multi Filter and Ensemble modules, 64-bit internal processing, tag-based preset browser, over 100 presets, resizable GUI, MIDI Learn, and no harmonic distortion at output.

You’ll love this plugin if you’re looking for a modulation workstation, but if a standalone phaser is what you need, look elsewhere in this guide.

Learn more: Plugin Boutique

What Should I Look For In A Phaser VST Plugin?

You’ve looked at the best of the best. You’ve compared the options available. But you’re still not quite sure which phaser(s) to buy. We know where you’re coming from.

When it comes to phaser effects, most are going for a vintage 70s or 80s sound. Of course, that isn’t to say there aren’t some modern phasers too, but compared to other plugin categories, phasers lean heavily in a singular, classic / old school direction.

So, what are you looking for in a phaser? Do you want to create movement in your tracks? Add texture and character? Make your channels swoosh and warble mercilessly? All the above? Something else?

Most phasers can handle a variety of applications, but depending on which VST plugin you choose, your hands could end up being tied by the tool you’ve chosen. After all, you can’t combine plugin A with plugin E, no matter how much you might want to (although if your budget can handle it, you could purchase both).

So, just to make sure you’re on the right track, we’ve dedicated this section of the guide to helping you find the right plugin selection for you. Here are the key criteria considered here:

• Sound quality
• Features
• Budget

Let’s look at each at length.

Sound Quality

It’s important to listen to every phaser before deciding on one. This may seem obvious, but it’s easy to overlook and buy things on emotions. Most if not all of us have done that and tend to repeat those patterns too.

This doesn't mean buying on impulse is always bad, but the track record is generally marked by wins and losses.

There are convenient audio samples and videos for every plugin, so take your time and explore each. If at any point you get tired of listening or can’t tell the difference between effects anymore, take a break and return to the task later. Ear fatigue is a real thing.

Taking your time is generally good advice no matter the purchase.

When it comes to modulation effects, there are a few basic things to pay attention to – how it sounds applied to different instruments, the movement it adds to the tracks, the subtlety / wetness / intensity of the effect, the quality of the effect, and so on.

Since there are no right or wrong answers, we can’t necessarily tell you which phaser to buy. But we do suggest listening to the ones you’re interested in, and we do suggest choosing a plugin that you feel will work nicely in your workflow and projects.

You’re probably not going to be using a phaser on all your tracks unless you especially like the effect. So, it’s not necessarily as important as EQ, reverb, or compression. But for those times you need it, it’s nice to know you’ve got a tool you can count on.

Features

When it comes to phaser features, you’re probably looking at things like:

• Algorithms / tonal characteristics
• Multiple layers
• Multiple bands
• Filters
• LFOs, waveforms, envelope followers, etc.
• Rhythmic effects / step sequencers
• Sidechain functionality
• Width / stereo control
• Presets / preset browser
• Routing options

No two plugins were created equal, so you won’t necessarily find a plugin that does it all, but the more advanced options do come with enough features to satisfy the needs of most producers.

Again, we can’t necessarily tell you which plugin to buy, but exploring your options is a good way to ensure you’re ultimately satisfied with your purchase.

Some plugins may come with fewer features, but you do have the option of making up for the differences by building your own signal / effects chains. Imagination is about the only thing stopping you.

Budget

Here’s a bit of good news for anyone shopping for phasers – for the most part, phaser VST plugins aren’t all that expensive!

You can pay $500+ for advanced Kontakt libraries, mixing and mastering suites, reverbs, and even synthesizers. But you’d be hard pressed to find anything in that range for phasers.

Phaser VST plugins generally cost $25 to $130, and there are plenty of competent solutions in between. This is, after all, a guide featuring only the best phaser VSTs, so you’re not going to find anything terrible here, even if you end up going with a budget option.

But we still need to put our standard warning in here – don’t go into debt for any VST plugin purchases. We know the temptation well, and we also know that having to pay down your credit card months or years after the fact is no fun at all.

If you have a limited budget, use it as a filter for your purchase. And if you’ve settled on a more expensive option, no problem, simply save up for it.

Top Phaser VST Plugins, Final Thoughts

Phaser is sometimes thought of as a subtler flanger. That’s a reference point that can help some, so it’s worth mentioning.

It’s a great effect for guitars, synths, strings, and other higher-pitched lead instruments. Experimentally, it can, and has been used on vocals, basses, drums, and even entire mixes. There are many applications for phaser VSTs, depending on the intended effect.

So, it’s worth investing in a quality phaser, and best of all, it should not cost you an arm and a leg.

We hope you found what you’re looking for and wish you a blast messing around with your new phaser VST plugin.