Flanger depth/detune issues

[Hypocrite]

Here's the thing: I've always wanted a flanger, ever since I got my first practice amp, a Roland Cube-30 with lots of built-in effects, and last week I finally pulled the trigger. A TC Vortex Mini, had my eye on it for a while, and considering it is TonePrint enabled I thought I would be able to get any sound I want from it. Wrong.

Even after obsessively fiddling with the Toneprint editor for days, I can only get two sounds out of the pedal; a usable subtle chorus-like flange, and complete hairbrained madness. There is no inbetween.

The problem for me is the detune. To my ears, the Depth control not so much controls the range of the sweep, but just detunes the signal, again in a non-usable way. I have no idea what the Feedback knob functionally does except add some horrible metallic shimmer when turned to zero or cranked, nothing inbetween, and the Delay setting goes from 0.1ms to 50ms, yet I hear no difference.

So please, I beg your help. Is there a way to flange without an unusable detune?
Should I trade the Vortex for a different flanger, or do I actually want a chorus?
Is it possible to get a flanger without such a pronounced detune outside of my old Cube-30?

 

[gregmon79]

Im sure there is a flanger out there out there for you in pedal form. But it sounds like the mini vortex isnt it. Why dont you try an SA Orbital or a BOss BF2/3. Ive had really great success with both those. The cool thing about the Orbital is the fact that you can have one side for flanger and one for chorus. Or phaser. Or resonator. And for the price of one pedal just about. used anyway. I havent had any real modultation GAS since I got my Orbital almost two years ago. Sounds to me like the mini vortex isnt what youre looking for. I had the regular vortex and I did like it. In the end I flipped it because I thought I could find something better, more pronounced and usable. And I did.

 

[Hypocrite]

Thank you Greg, maybe the Vortex isn't for me and I just jumped in with both feet. That being said, I've still got a few days to play around with it before I can return it to the store, if that's what I go with. I'm a bit wary of SA pedals for some reason, I want a pedal to be a pedal, not a pedal and a MIDI-hub and an expression pedal and a finger ring (I get that all those are optional, but still.)

One quick question for me to ponder over until I'm off work and can noodle around with the Vortex again: Do you recall/anyone know if it is possible to reduce the amount of detuning by lowering or raising the delaytime?

 

[Solarmist]

I have the standard Vortex, and just love the thing ... one of the wildest flangers I've heard to date.

From the TC website under Feedback: The Feedback knob allows you to feed the modulated signal back into the pedal, which basically gives you more of everything that’s so cool about flanging.

I set mine at about 9:30 or 2:30, and the Speed set at near minimum to 10:30, but it depends on what sound you're after.