How To Get 6 Modulation Effects From a Basic Flanger
Want to get more from your flanger? Here are some of the things you can do with any basic four knob flanger. I’m using the Boss BF-2 but similar pedals like the classic MXR M117 and cheaper alternatives like the Harley Benton Classic Flanger will work well too.
Understanding the Controls
You will likely want to tweak settings from the ones I’m suggesting here, so having a good understanding of what the controls do will help a lot.
Manual is delay time, longer to the left and shorter to the right.
Depth or width is how wide the sweep is.
Rate or speed is how fast the modulation happens.
Resonance, feedback or regeneration control feeds the delayed signal back to the input, which intensifies the flanging effect as it’s turned up.
Chorus
For chorus sounds set the resonance very low to reduce the more cliche intense flange sound. Set manual, remember this is the delay time, very low, because chorus usually has a longer delay time than flangers, we want it set long to get away from the comb filter sound that a shorter delay gives, the longer delay sounds more like two signals overlaid onto of each other which is what we want for chorus.
Set the depth fairly low, flangers can get really wide and extreme in how much they alter the pitch, we want a fairly subtle smooth sweep for a more traditional chorus sound. Rate can be set to taste but on the BF-2 it can go very slow on the lower settings and all the more noticeable settings that I associate with a chorus type sound are up in the top range of the control.
Signal Chain: After overdrive/distortion
Rotary Speaker
For more of a rotary speaker type sound you can use mostly the same settings we used for chorus but increase the depth for a wider sweep. You can hear that sound of what’s really a chorus pedal emulating a rotary speaker effect. I find it’s nice for organ type sounds or John Scofield type lead playing.
Signal Chain: After overdrive/distortion
Uni-Vibe
Now if you raise the manual control to shorten the delay time it gets into more of a phasing type sound which is quite similar to a uni-vibe. It doesn’t quite have the full throb of a real uni vibe but you could use it in the classic rock way, a bit like Hendrix and Robin Trower would where you combine it with a fuzz and a lightly driven amp.
Signal Chain: After fuzz/distortion but before overdrive
Vibrato
If you crank both the depth and rate controls you can get a pretty good vibrato pedal type sound, I like using this setting to highlight certain notes and only have it on momentarily. You can back off the depth and rate controls to make it more subtle if you want but if you back them off too much I find that it sounds more like a chorusing effect again rather than slow vibrato because you can hear the originally signal blending with the modulated signal like a chorus, where as when the rate and depth are set higher, you can’t hear that dry signal as clearly so it can kinda sounds more like a vibrato pedal would.
Signal Chain: After overdrive/distortion
Phaser
Now if you raise the manual control so there’s only a very short delay time, it creates more of a phasing sound because the original signal is so close to the sound of the modulated signal. So it sounds very similar to phasing with a more shimmery thinner sound that a phaser has.
I tend to use slower speed settings for chord playing and faster speed settings for funk style lead playing. Experiment.
Wah
If you like that funky phaser type sound but want it to sound a little more like a wah pedal, you can move away from the phasing sound and more towards an auto wah sound by backing off the manual and depth controls and then raising the resonance control so you get more of a fluctuation in tone rather than pitch. The more you raise that resonance control the more it will start to blend with more traditional flanging sounds. It also requires a certain style of playing to carry off the wah effect from a flanger, overdriven blues lead playing can work quite well.
Signal Chain: Before overdrive/distortion
Sci-Fi Synth Madness
And of course it wouldn’t be right to not include an example of a flanger on its more extreme settings. For this just crank all the controls but set the rate knob to taste.
Signal Chain: After overdrive/distortion