Flanger

A flanger is similar to a chorus but uses a shorter delay time and feeds back some of the effect signal back to the input. It was originally intended to duplicate the sound of two tape decks that were synchronized together and then pressing on the flange of one of the tape reels (hence the term flanging). This caused the tape decks to become slightly out of sync and created the classic wooshing sound. A great example of this is in the Doobie Brother's song "Listen to the Music" during the bridge.

Parameters

Basic Parameters

• TIME - Adjusts the nominal delay time of the delay line. This changes the character of the effect. Low values give a jet-like sound whereas high values are metallic. Adjust to taste.
• RATE - Controls the frequency of the Low Frequency Oscillator. Use low settings with higher depths for slow moving sounds. Increase the rate for vibrato effects. Set fully CCW to sync to the Global LFO1 oscillator.
• DEPTH - Sets the maximum delay variation. Higher depths increase the amount of detuning. Usually the rate and depth settings should be varied inversely, i.e. if you increase the rate decrease the depth however some unique sounds can be obtained using high rates and depths.
• FEEDBK - Sets the amount of wet signal fed back to the input. Increasing the feedback can give the Flanger a metallic quality as it produces sharp resonances in the frequency response. Note that excessive values can result in marginal stability and may even cause oscillation. Decrease the feedback if this occurs.
• MANUAL - Manually controls the delay time. You can use this along with a foot controller or other controller to control the flange effect. For full manual control set the depth to zero.
• MIX - Sets the ratio of wet and dry. Duplicated from MIX page. A setting of 50% produces the most prominent effect.
• TEMPO - Locks the rate to the global tempo. For example, if the global tempo is 120 bpm and the tempo is set to a quarter note (1/4) then the LFO rate will be 2 Hz (120 bpm / 60 seconds = 2). To ignore the global tempo set the tempo control to NONE.

Advanced Parameters

• DRY DELAY - Adjusts the delay time of the dry signal. This, in conjunction with the TIME parameter can be used to achieve “Through-Zero Flanging” (TZF). By experimenting with combinations of TIME and DRY DELAY you can achieve wild TZF effects.
• PHASE REVERSE - Controls the phase of the wet signal. Either of both channels can be inverted. Use along with DRY DELAY to increase depth of TZF.
• BASS - Adjusts the bass response of the wet signal. The bass can be boost or cut up to 12 dB.
• TREBLE - Adjusts the treble response of the wet signal. The treble can be boost or cut up to 12 dB.
• BASS FREQ - Adjusts the corner frequency of the bass control.
• TREBLE FREQ - Adjusts the corner frequency of the treble control.
• LFO PHASE - Adjusts the phase difference between the left and right lfo waveforms. When set to 180 degrees, the right delay time will be a maximum when the left is a minimum and vice-versa. For maximum stereo spread set this to 180 degrees.
• LFO TYPE - Selects the waveform for the LFO. Sine is the most commonly used waveform. You can achieve strange rising/falling effects using the sawtooth types.
• LFO HICUT - Adjusts the filtering of the LFO waveform. For certain waveform types along with extreme depth or rate settings, clicking may occur at the waveform discontinuities. For example a square wave can cause audible artifacts as the LFO rapidly changes from one extreme to the other. Decreasing the LFO FILTER frequency will mitigate this.
• AUTO DEPTH - When this is set to LOW or HIGH the depth is automatically scaled for the rate. Lower rates therefore increase the actual depth and vice-versa. The HIGH setting allows greater maximum depth. This greatly simplifies adjusting the rate and depth and gives the most musical results. For wild sounds you may wish to set this to OFF which decouples the controls allowing for full depth swing even at fast rates.

RodTAylor