MetaSkew vs Phase Modulator

MetaSkew is a granular delay and pitch-shift effect built for producers, musicians, and sound designers who want one processor for width, motion, ambience, and controlled damage. What you can shape: - Delay time from tight doubling to long phrase memory - Pitch from deep drops to shimmer intervals - Grain size, smoothing, and gain for soft clouds or chopped repeats - Feedback, pan, mix, and output for clean blend control - Latch for frozen textures and phrase-end captures - Spread and Skew for stereo width, asymmetry, and unstable character The signature Skew control is the fastest way to move from polished enhancement into unstable texture. Keep it low for subtle smear, or push it with Spread, Feedback, and LFO movement for broken motion. Modulation is built in. Three LFOs can run free or sync to musical divisions, with Sine, Triangle, Sample & Hold, and Saw shapes. Route movement to Delay, Pitch, Grain, Smoothing, Feedback, Mix, Pan, Spread, or Skew, then push subtle drift or obvious rhythmic motion. Presets are designed around real production jobs, not random patches. Browse Utility, Width, Pitch, Atmosphere, Motion, Rhythmic, Freeze, Destruction, and Signature categories. Save your own snapshots, recall them later, and keep user presets synced through iCloud when available. For hands-on control, MIDI Learn lets you map parameters to hardware. Default assignments cover the core effect, and MIDI CC broadcast can reflect parameter movement in connected setups. Use MetaSkew for: - Vocal throws and shimmer trails - Wide synth doubles and guitar halos - Drum stutters, glitch fills, and tempo-locked motion - Frozen pads and transition beds - Experimental resynthesis, smear, and warped ambience MetaSkew includes a standalone app and effect plugin for host apps that support AUv3 plug-ins.

PHASE MODULATOR Phase modulation perturbs the running phase of a carrier oscillator with a modulating signal. Sweeping the phase back and forth generates a series of sidebands above and below the carrier, spaced by the modulator frequency, whose number and strength grow with the Index. This is the same technique behind classic FM synthesis: small index values add a little harmonic shimmer; large values produce dense, clangorous, often inharmonic spectra. The carrier you hear is always an internal oscillator. What changes between modes is where its phase modulation comes from. ------ CONTROLS: CAR FREQ Frequency of the carrier oscillator, 20 Hz to 20 kHz. This is the audible tone in both modes. CAR AMP Level of the carrier oscillator before the Output gain. MOD FREQ Frequency of the internal modulator oscillator, 20 Hz to 20 kHz. Active in Osc + Osc only. The carrier-to-modulator frequency ratio sets the harmonic character: integer ratios give harmonic, pitched tones; non-integer ratios give bells and metallic, inharmonic results. In Input + Osc the modulator comes from your audio instead, so this control is inactive. MOD AMP Level of the modulation source before it reaches the phase. Together with Index it sets how far the carrier phase is pushed; think of it as a trim ahead of the Index multiplier. INDEX Modulation index, 0 to 10. The headline control: peak phase deviation in radians equals Index times the modulation signal. At 0 the carrier passes clean; raising it brings in progressively more sidebands and brightness. OUTPUT Makeup gain after the effect, -24 dB to +36 dB. No limiter follows this stage, so watch your meters when boosting. WAVEFORM Carrier oscillator shape: Sine, Saw, Triangle, or Square. Sine is the classic FM voice. The richer shapes already contain harmonics, so phase modulating them produces denser spectra and reacts more aggressively to Index. MOD WAVE Modulator oscillator shape (Osc + Osc mode only): Sine, Saw, Triangle, or Square. Changes the harmonic character of the modulation itself. In Input + Osc mode the modulation comes from your audio, so this picker is inactive. FOLLOW Input + Osc only. With Follow On (the default) the carrier tracks the amplitude of your incoming audio: it speaks only while signal is present and falls silent when the input does, so the plugin behaves like an effect rather than a constant tone. With Follow Off the carrier runs continuously at its set level regardless of input, which suits drones and sustained textures. In Osc + Osc there is no input to follow, so this control is inactive. ----- MODES: OSC + OSC Both carrier and modulator are internal oscillators, set by Car Freq and Mod Freq. Classic two-operator FM with no input required, good for bells, electric pianos, and metallic drones. INPUT + OSC Your track's audio becomes the modulation source, perturbing the phase of the internal carrier oscillator. Note that what you hear is the carrier shaped by your audio, not the audio itself passed through; the input controls the timbre rather than being processed in place. Mod Freq does not apply in this mode. This is the default mode. ------ A NOTE ON ALIASING Phase modulation can scatter energy well above Nyquist, so the effect runs internally at four times the host sample rate and filters on the way back down. At extreme Index settings with the saw or square carrier some residual aliasing can remain; lower the Index or the carrier frequency if you hear gritty, detuned overtones.