Embarrassing question, but: what does the Small Clone actually DO?

[deadlyshart]

Hi guys, so I built the Small Clone a while ago, and it works, and I love it. But I was thinking that I don't totally know what it does. I mean, I know it's a chorus (hence, the "small clone chorus"), but it also obviously has that warbling quality to it that gives it that unique sound, i.e., it's not *just* a chorus.

What exactly is that other part? I know the rough idea from looking at the schematic ( http://www.tonepad.com/getFile.asp?id=97 ), but it's not totally clear to me. I know the 4047 is a multivibrator that supplies a square wave of oscillating frequency to the 3007, and I know that the 3007 is a bucket brigade device, that's basically a (analog, right?) delay. From what I can figure out, the frequency of the square wave supplied to the 3007 determines the delay, so when you make it so the frequency of that square wave is oscillating (using the 4047), it makes the delay oscillate... So would this mean that the Small Clone's main effect, aside from chorus, is that of a Flanger?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flanging

[Mark Hammer]

There are three major differences between flangers and chorus effects:

1) Their respective delay-time ranges are different.  With the short delays of flangers, what is most evident to the listener is the comb-filtering (notches and peaks) created.  With slightly longer delays, what stands out more to the listener is the impact on overall pitch of the content.

2) Variations in pitch only become noticeable when large enough and fast enough.  A 10-second sweep cycle on a chorus will be largely inaudible.  So flangers generally have a much wider range of sweep speeds than choruses.

3) Since their focus is on the comb-filtering, flangers include feedback of the delayed signal back to the input, to enhance or exaggerate the notches and peaks.  Choruses do not provide any feedback path.

There is an intermediate zone between delay times that yield flanging as opposed to chorus.  Increasing the delay time of a flanger, or decreasing the delay time of a chorus, can often produce something that sounds vaguely Leslie-like.  That is, it sounds "swirly" but not doubled, and not filter-ey like flanging.