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What exactly does a flanger do?

#2
it makes your bass sound spacey, I can't explain it in electronics, but every time I hear a flanger I think of a jetfighter flying around or taking off

and, you use a flanger the same as you use every other pedal: when it's appropriate to use it

having said that, a flanger isn't an effect that can be used an awful lot, I sometimes use it in a chorusey manner, but it's best suited for short ambient pieces
 
#5
Also check out Youtube. There's always videos of people showing off what a pedal can do. Search for Boss BF-3 to get a rough idea of what flangers do. Thats not the best flanger you can get, but it gives you an idea to their effect.
 
#12
flange works very similar to how both chorus and phase shifters work. theyre based on modulation..its more similar to a phase, though. the only way to put the sound into words is that phase shifters modulate in a circle and flange modulates back and forth in a line. if you listen to samples of both that might make sence..

i dont find flange to be very usefull, but i think phase is an extremely usefull effect, and can give you that "jet plane taking off" thing at slow speeds (and a more watery, funky sound at faster speeds.)

might not be a perfect explination..but i tried..
 
#14
tomvelsor said:
flange works very similar to how both chorus and phase shifters work. theyre based on modulation..its more similar to a phase, though.
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Technically it's so much like a chorus that it's actually the exact same circuit just with slightly different values. About the only thing it has in common with a phaser is the up-down cycling swoosh. However I'll grant that to many ears they sound a lot alike, so they're similar if you're not into the technical side. ;)
 
#15
bongomania said:
Technically it's so much like a chorus that it's actually the exact same circuit just with slightly different values. About the only thing it has in common with a phaser is the up-down cycling swoosh. However I'll grant that to many ears they sound a lot alike, so they're similar if you're not into the technical side. ;)
Click to expand...

I hate to disagree with Bongo, and I very rarely do ... but I do here. They are all very similar circuits. In all three circuits, the signal is split into two channels, one channel is passed straight through, the other is modified in some way, and then the two channels are combined again for the output. Correct me if I'm wrong in any of these cases. In a phaser, the wet channel passes through some all-pass filters that simply put it in a changing amount out of phase with the dry channel. In a flanger, the wet channel is time-delayed by a constantly changing amount. In a chorus, the wet channel is pitch-shifted by a constantly changing amount (granted, this is usually accomplished by a delay circuit).
 
#17
The first two, as you describe them, as the same. In fact, they essentially ARE the same. IIRC, they are both de facto moving comb filters created by varying phase difference. The difference is in implementation to imitate known effects. IMHO.
 
#18
bigchiefbc said:
They are all very similar circuits...
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Well yeah, but nah. :D I guess it's all about where you draw the line in the sand isn't it?

They are somewhat similar, but me and Bongo exist in a Tron-like land of lasers and magic where people like to pretend that they've read The Theory Of Relativity and understood what it means. We are the kind of people who tell you off for saying "ATM machine" and "PIN number" and can't believe that your turned on your new mobile phone BEFORE you read the manual 5 times.
 

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