The best flanger?

[eggman6]

Apart from the ADA Flanger. Whats the best flanger unit?

Or more accurately, which flangers do you like best?

[Sir_Ian]

I'm was just thinking this same thing. Thanks for asking it. Sorry I have no opinions for myself.

[plankspank]

I like my analog MXR unit. The digital ones sound harsh to my ears. Mine sat dead for years in my closet, until I found a bucket brigade chip for it (thanks to Small Bear). When it came back to life...sweet.
The SAD 1024's are getting rare...much like germanium nowdays....

[Mark Hammer]

I'll let you know once I finish building my PAiA Hyperflange one of these days! (Started in 1992)

"Best" is a largely inappropriate term to use with almost any pedal, and certainly with flangers.  The A/DA is generally appreciated because it has a very wide sweep, but that's only one trick.  There are SO many possible parameters to adjust with a flanger that can affect the sound in pleasing and useful ways that few commercial units can contain all of them.  Ironically, some of the best-loved ones, like the Electric Mistress, are only 3-knobbers.  Even when they do start to include more than the 3 or 4 standard knobs, so as to be able to do unusual and exotic things, like on the EHX Flanger Hoax, people start to whine about how complicated they are to use. 

[earthtonesaudio]

I loved my $30 Arion flanger.  It sounded so sterile and synthetic, but I dug that about it!  I think my old bass player stole it, and I don't think they make them anymore.  Sadness... 

[rocket]

ibanez dfl - digital flanger from the L- series!!

[MikeH]

I'll let you know once I finish building my PAiA Hyperflange one of these days! (Started in 1992)

Ha!  That's the year I first picked up a guitar!

[Drake120]

I'll let you know once I finish building my PAiA Hyperflange one of these days! (Started in 1992)

Ha!  That's the year I first picked up a guitar!

Ha HA! That's the year I was born.

[petemoore]

  Here's a list of stuff:
  Noise Floor.
  *Size.
  *Number of knobs. One or two Flanging adjustments [+ rate] might be enough if they were both 'right.
  Featured functions, [through Zero Flanging, very thick ?, super high speed?]
  Other Features. [boost?, tone control?]
  Durability.
  Voltage requirements. [will it be easy to power up?
  Color.
  To name a few of the things that might be best' to a particular user and his/her 'other stuff you need to Flange'. 

[Jered]

  Definitely not the Boss BF-2

[nordine]

  Definitely not the Boss BF-2

Definitely not, some black'n pink ibanez flanger, from soundtank series, 'HORRID'


i'd like to add, Hollis's Ultraflanger would be pretty neat, this is, a highly acomplished flanger, IF:

-waveform issues at different speeds would be fixed
-noise floor reduces

i know some people built it stock and liked it, but if you look at the noise filtering network, you'll see its pretty tame... i see it as an experimental design (complex fx with fewest parts), now i've been experimenting with filtering and alternative ways of dealing with the 'manual' control (which i think is the reason the waveform gets mashed -converts to a ramp- at low speeds).... does anyone else share these considerations?

[jimbob]

I have an old BOSS HF-2 Hi Band Flangeri really like

[mdh]

i'd like to add, Hollis's Ultraflanger would be pretty neat, this is, a highly acomplished flanger, IF:

-waveform issues at different speeds would be fixed
-noise floor reduces

i know some people built it stock and liked it, but if you look at the noise filtering network, you'll see its pretty tame... i see it as an experimental design (complex fx with fewest parts), now i've been experimenting with filtering and alternative ways of dealing with the 'manual' control (which i think is the reason the waveform gets mashed -converts to a ramp- at low speeds).... does anyone else share these considerations?

I agree, this circuit has a lot of potential if it were suitably refined.  Awhile back I looked at a lot of flanger schems (A/DA, the other usual suspects on Tonepad, and some things that Mark Hammer has posted) to get an idea of what was "left out" of the Ultra Flanger.  Somewhere on my ever-growing to-do list is to build a little board that breaks out the clocking and BBD portion of the circuit, which as I understand it is the strongest element of the design.  Then, you know, experiment with different LFOs, filtering, etc., and ultimately add a second delay line for TZF.

Of course, this has been on my to-do list for a couple of years, somewhere after "finish thesis" and before "world domination."  I mean, you can't achieve world domination without an ultra-quiet TZF flanger, can you?

[StephenGiles]

It really is very much a matter of opinion, but I would go for the Standard Electric Mistress every time for it's rich sound and quickness to set up in a gig situation. However, for being flash at home the ADA wins hands down to my ears, but I would not use it in a band situation simply because the output volume drops too much at the top of it's sweep.

[DimebuGG]

Hollis designed flanger could be the best(especially in DIY). Mine has a medium signal boost which pretty was pretty loud when fronted with a distortion. cool and sometimes annoying. 

[cloudscapes]

the 30$ arion sfl-1 is incredibly udnerated.

-noise floor, no noise to sleapk of, whether in bypass or effect
-quality bypass (to my ears)
-good range of the effect

the ibanez FL9 fails in every of the above points (I own both)

the flanger hoax is one of the funnest modulation pedals I've ever used! shame it's so big

[oldschoolanalog]

Did somebody say Flanger?
http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w121/oldschoolanalog/DSC00806.jpg

(Sorry about the crappy photo. )
Dave

[Processaurus]

Being totally mystified as how to flange tastefully, I could only say featurewise the Line 6 liquaflange is pretty crazy, with all of the normal stuff and craqzy random waveforms, envelope control, triggered rise/fall, tap tempo, etc.  Honestly a mystery how/when to use it... Dean Ween might know.

[DougH]

I like my liquiflange and find the envelope and triggered functions useful for getting a subtle effect that is controlled by how you pick. I prefer that over the typical endless cycling ("rrEOWrrEOWrrEOW"). That can get kind of annoying IMO, depending on how you set it up. But the thru-zero sounds with the liquiflange model are really cool with a slow sweep, distortion, and a little delay.

I have a BF-2 as well and have consistently found it fairly useless...

[Mark Hammer]

The Liqui-Flange IS a pretty fun unit with a nice feature set.  I agree with Doug that the triggered/envelope settings set it apart from a lot of others.  Pity it's not better known.

The original PAiA Phlanger (with op-amp upgrades) from 1977 was also a nifty unit, and something that set my own personal standards for what a flanger should be.  It had 5 panel controls (mix, speed, initial, regen, width), and two control-voltage inputs (for initial delay and speed).  Though it "only" clocked from 30khz up to 500khz (a 16.7:1 ratio, so not especially dramatic sweep), that tended to provide a higher sweep than many counterparts.....until the A/DA.  The Phlanger actually wasn't all that dense a board, using only 4 op-amp sections, a 4013, a 566 VCO and an SAD1024.  The space allotted to the on-board transformer is easily conserved by use of a 12.6VAC wallwart.  It could easily be reduced from its original footprint to a 1590BB with ease.