Using flanger effects
Flanger effects are similar to chorus effects and create a copy of the original sound, adjusting the delay times. The copied sound is delayed usually between 5 and 25 ms. A low-frequency modulator is applied to the delay time to oscillate between shorter and longer delay times. Since the waveforms are the same, wave interference occurs as discussed in Chapter 5, Sound Design and Audio Envelopes. At certain interfering frequencies, resonances are created. You can think of resonance as an intense tone made more pronounced than other frequencies. The low-frequency oscillator moves around the waveform to find different resonances. We call this sweeping resonance sound a flanger. Flangers take advantage of the feedback to resend the output sound back into itself and create additional resonance.
As a general guideline, consider applying flanger effects to hi-hats, guitars, and pads. These often complement the sound of the instrument. When mixing, you want to place flanger effects before your delay and reverb effects in the signal chain.
Let’s apply a flanger effect to an instrument:
- Load up a sample or an instrument with notes and route it to a new mixer track.
- Add the Fruity Flanger effect. When you play your instrument, you will be able to hear a flanger effect:
Figure 7.18 – Fruity Flanger
- To hear examples of flanger effects, left-click on Presets in the top right of the plugin.
The following is a description of the Fruity Flanger plugin controls:
- DELAY controls the minimum time to wait before playing the copied delayed sound.
- DEPTH controls the modulation of the wait before playing the delayed sound.
- RATE adjusts the speed of the modulation.
- PHASE widens the stereo image.
- DAMP allows you to filter the selected frequencies.
- SHAPE adjusts the shape of the low-frequency modulator between a sine wave and a triangle LFO. Sine waves are smooth, while triangle waves have more abrupt pitch transitions.
- FEED (short for feedback) sets the level of feedback on the sound fed back into Fruity Flanger.
- INV FEEDBACK/INV WET allow you to invert the output signal phase.
- DRY/WET/CROSS control the level of the output signal.
Next, let’s discuss phaser effects.
