NPD: Vein-Tap 'Dark Arts' (Tap Tempo Phaser)

[SumOne]

NPD: Vein-Tap 'Dark Arts' Tap Tempo Phaser

 

Thought I'd post this as it's a bit of an unusual one I haven't seen mentioned before.

 

First impressions are it's got a lot going on, especially considering lots of phasers are just a single dial. It's got a good paint job, decent dials and footswiches, feels solid (in compact enclosure), and has an extra input in-case you want to use an external tap tempo. I thought it was broken to begin with before realising Red = on, Green = off?! (perhaps that's just a wiring mistake though). And it looks different to the ones on the Vein-Tap website but that's becase they are still the v1 details and this is v2. https://www.vein-tap.com/product/dark-arts-tap-tempo-phaser/

 

Basically it's a phaser (or can swicth to vibrato, or they can be mixed) with depth, rate & feedback controls....that's failry standard stuff, but then it also has tap tempo, tempo multiplier (so you don't have to tap really fast), 'centre shift' (moves the centre of the wave shape),  and 16x phase wave shapes that make all sorts of unusual sounds (or can stick with more traditional ones). 

 

At £130 it isn't cheap for a phaser, but is cheap for a tap tempo one (things like the Chass Bliss Wombtone cost >£400), add to that it's unique wave shape options and that it's UK hand-bulit with a lifetime guarentee and it seems a fair price. 

 

Early days but I'd say for those that like phaser/vibrato and mucking about with hardware to find unusual sounds then it seems like a winner. If I'm honest I imagine I'll muck about with it a lot for a few weeks before settling into a fairly standard setting and then my GAS will get me wondering if a Phase 90 might be a slightly cheaper and more foolproof option!...but I don't know though, they aren't much cheaper, are mass produced with limited warrenty and have far fewer features - and who knows when you'll need a vibrato left of centre quad ramp waveform at 180bpm that you can then slow to 60bpm via tempo footswitch?!?

 

 

 

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