It's ALIVE!

[Mark Hammer]

I swore to myself I would finally finish my PAiA Hyperflange before the year's end, and I think I'm going to make it.  There is still a lot of calibrating to do, what with 5 trimpots to adjust, but I had positive and negative flanging, vibrato, and variable LFO waveshape.  I should be able to finish before tomorrow's end, and will hopefully be in a position to post samples on Friday - a great way to bring in the New Year.

It took 28 years, but I got it done.  When I finally fired it up I got nothing, and even got +12Vdc on the V- pin of the quad op-amp.      All these years later, I finally figured out that V- was connected by wire jumpers and not automatically by the PCB from the power supply input.  Once I got that ironed out, I still couldn't get any audio.  Turned out the 4136 I was using was fried.  Stuck in a new one, and got it going.  The trimmers seemed a little..."crunchy", so I'm wondering whether I may need to replace a few.

I'll find out tomorrow.  In the meantime, I feel like a great weight has been lifted.  This thing has been staring at me since before some of you were born.  I'm gonna sleep well tonight. 

[digi2t]

Does that mean you're shaving the playoff beard now?

[duck_arse]

what are we going to use as comedy material now?

[Marcos - Munky]

28 years and I was thinking I'm taking too long to finish my 3 years old amp I just made the board and nothing else.

Btw, photos are also mandatory. We like to see it!

[iainpunk]

that project is older than i am... wow,

sound samples and pics are mandatory i guess

cheers and happy new year, Iain

[11-90-an]

that project is older than i am... wow

Nearly twice as old as me...

[deadastronaut]

28 years..

and i thought i was a lazy sod..

[Kevin Mitchell]

This thing has been staring at me since before some of you were born.

Let's all take a moment to visualize where we were 28 years ago.

Mr. Hammer working hard tinkering away on his PAIA flanger.

Kevin getting cheered on to conquer his fear of toilets.



Looking forward to seeing this one! Happy new year everyone.

[digi2t]

This thing has been staring at me since before some of you were born.

Let's all take a moment to visualize where we were 28 years ago.

Mr. Hammer working hard tinkering away on his PAIA flanger.

Kevin getting cheered on to conquer his fear of toilets.



Looking forward to seeing this one! Happy new year everyone.

Probably doing exactly what I'm doing now, sitting on the couch, enjoying a hot cocoa, and watching the news. But, with much less grey hair.

Ironically, 31st of December 1992 was also a Thursday. Don't read too much into it. Just celebrate the flanger completion.

[anotherjim]

I can't get this scene out of head.
Bedroom:
"Honey, wake up!"
"Wha.. is it, I was sleeping."
"But this is huge! I got my Hyperflange working!"
"Go sleep on the couch".

Well done Mark H!

[iainpunk]

that project is older than i am... wow

Nearly twice as old as me...

are you 14 y/o?

[Mark Hammer]

Not that the two were ever connected in any particular way, but yes I think the "playoff beard" may be getting attenuated by 6-8db, Dino.  I'm getting a little tired of it obscuring my vision of the bedroom TV when I'm lying in bed.  I've also grown a little bored with combing the crumbs out of it from all the bread I've been baking.

And Kevin, without going into details, I'll just let you know that fear-of-toilets follows an inverted U-shaped function over the human lifespan.

But I think I know a little about how someone feels  being released into regular life at the end of a long prison sentence...or maybe quitting a miserable job to move on to a better one.

imgur is being a little finicky at the moment, so pics are not forthcoming yet.  But soon.  Thanks for all the good wishes.

[Kevin Mitchell]

And Kevin, without going into details, I'll just let you know that fear-of-toilets follows an inverted U-shaped function over the human lifespan.

Although I only meant that I was barely out of diapers 28 years ago I had to dig up Yerkes-Dodson law as I wasn't sure what you meant.
It actually does explain a lot about myself. And now I can only hope to one day conquer the porcelain throne that is life.

[Mark Hammer]

So, here's a sonic comparison of 5 flangers, ending with the Hyperflange.  It's not all the flangers I have, but I wasn't going to spend the whole weekend on it.  I tried to nail the same settings to get the same kinds of sounds, but it was not always possible, given the taper of the respective controls.  Slowest and widest sweep was easiest.  Fastest sweep rate in each of the pedals differed considerably, so I had to dial back the speed in some instances.  In some cases, I needed to adjust the delay-time range.  One thing was fairly clear to me, however.  The Hyperflange does have pretty much the widest sweep of all of them.  I don't have an A/DA to compare it to, but I imagine it would fare quite nicely.

The sound quality is fair, the playing utilitarian.  Enjoy.
https://soundcloud.com/mark-hammer-662907085/5-flangers

The physical build itself is nothing special.  The board is big, but has a fairly spacious layout of components.  Many smaller pedals likely have as many chips and passive components, just spacing them more closely, using a double-sided board.

The chassis is something I was originally using for a custom preamp for a keyboard-playing classmate back in grad school in 1983.  There's lots of holes drilled into the rear skirt, which I expect to use for additions I have planned: envelope follower, trigger/gate generator and triggered envelope generator, and possibly a noise generator to supplement the input signal.  I left some 3-pin molex connectors in the power supply, to power whatever I might add.  Still, more holes than likely needed, both in the front and the back.  Let's just call it "ventilation".  I'm still not convinced I have it perfectly calibrated, but so far it sounds great.

Thanks for your patience all these years, and for prodding me to finish it.

[Invertiguy]

28 years? Good God man, this project is as old as I am! At least now I don't feel so bad that my Flange With No Name clone has been sitting in the corner of my bench for 2 years now. It'll get finished someday... 

[stallik]

Well done Mark. Sounds great.
I think a lot of us may now be feeling a little less guilty about our 'long term projects' but my 5 year Klon build ranks me as a mere amateur

[anotherjim]

I thought the HyperFlange was the smoothest full feedback. The Line-6 was the only one I recognise as extreme flanging, which can't be used much, but it's nice to be able to.

[StephenGiles]

Sounds very good Mark, I must fire mine up sometime!

[Kipper4]

Very nice and very musical too. Worth the wait.

[Mark Hammer]

I thought the HyperFlange was the smoothest full feedback. The Line-6 was the only one I recognise as extreme flanging, which can't be used much, but it's nice to be able to.

It does something a little weird at the lowest point in the sweep, which I gather is a matter from trimpot adjustment.  But moving the initial-delay control over a hair sidesteps the weirdness.

The Liqua-Flange is an undeservedly much-overlooked flanger, with some very interesting modulation capabilities, positive and negative flanging, thru-zero capability, stereo ins and outs that provide sweep across the landscape (what I like to call "instant Eddie Kramer") and several other tricks.  The Alesis is a weird little beast.  Also stereo, it has a number of interesting modulation capabilities, some of which are similar to the Liqua-Flange.

Somewhat unfair to compare the MXR pedal - a 2-knobber, that I "entoggled" (new word for 2021! ) to have dry-lift for vibrato, and three different delay-time ranges - or the Deluxe Electric Mistress, with a mere 3 knobs, to units with far more control, modes, and modulation options.  I have other flangers I could have used (e.g., Boss BF-1, Chase Bliss Spectre), but thought I'd keep it as simple as possible.  And, to be honest, I'd completely forgotten how to make the Spectre behave in a "normal" fashion, so expediency won.

But thanks for the nice comments, gents.