This Spotlight discusses the generation of ultrashort pulses in three spectral regions: visible, deep-ultraviolet, and terahertz ranges. We explore a method to control the carrier-envelope phase (CEP) dynamics based on all-optical phase stabilization. The concepts presented here can be used to generate high-intensity, low-cycle laser optical fields with an exactly locked CEP. Such pulses are indispensable to the study of coherent x-ray and attosecond physics.