Difference between a flanger and a phaser?

[iain_morland]

Hello,

I haven't been able to find an "idiot's guide" to this. What exactly - in simple language please - is the difference between a flanger and a phaser effect?

And in terms of VSTs, would you need dedicated plugins for each?

For example could Ohm Force's Mobilohm phaser VST produce flanging effects?

Sorry if any of this is asking the obvious...

Thanks

[whyterabbyt]

They're related, as are chorus effects.

http://www.harmony-central.com/Effects/ ... _Shifting/
http://www.harmony-central.com/Effects/ ... /Flanging/
http://www.harmony-central.com/Effects/Articles/Chorus/

[shamann]

Here is the best easy explanation of a phaser:

http://www.harmony-central.com/Effects/ ... _Shifting/

Basically, a flanger is a modulated delay line, where as a phaser is a modulated allpass filter (which is like a delay except on a really small level). They both affect sound in a similar way though, since they both relay on phase cancellation to create frequency notches.

Think of a flanger in terms of its origin, which was on tape. If you run a signal on a tape player and then pull on it a bit with a pen, it'll slow down and cause a flanging sound. A chorus is a flanger, just with a longer delay.

With the Ohm plugins, you won't get a flanger with Mobilohm, but you can get it with Ohmboyz.

[tony tony chopper]

a flanger is a type of phaser

[iain_morland]

Thanks for the quick replies! Most helpful. I'll go and do my homework.

[Stupid American Pig]

Here is the best easy explanation of a phaser:

http://www.harmony-central.com/Effects/ ... _Shifting/

Basically, a flanger is a modulated delay line, where as a phaser is a modulated allpass filter (which is like a delay except on a really small level). They both affect sound in a similar way though, since they both relay on phase cancellation to create frequency notches.

Think of a flanger in terms of its origin, which was on tape. If you run a signal on a tape player and then pull on it a bit with a pen, it'll slow down and cause a flanging sound. A chorus is a flanger, just with a longer delay.

With the Ohm plugins, you won't get a flanger with Mobilohm, but you can get it with Ohmboyz.

actually if my memory serves,the first flangers were "created" by issues with synch'ing 2 tape recorders together. The wow and flutter would cause a flanging effect if the same material was recorded/played back from both decks. Then one of the abbey road engineers got the idea to artificially create that using a slight delay. adding drag to a tape deck would simply add wow and flutter to the playback and modulate the pitch. if you had 2 decks with the same source, and did the tape pulling trick you would have a chorus, as pitch and time are modulated. I think anyway..

[shamann]

Yeah, I guess I left out the original bit about having more than one tape. But a chorus and a flanger are the same thing, just that a chorus is usually a delay of around 25-35 ms and a flanger is around 5ms.

[Stupid American Pig]

Yeah, I guess I left out the original bit about having more than one tape. But a chorus and a flanger are the same thing, just that a chorus is usually a delay of around 25-35 ms and a flanger is around 5ms.

I thought that pitch modulation was what seperated the 2. where a flanger just delayed 2 or more signals a chorus would delay and sweep pitch.

[shamann]

Just try any modulator with a variable delay length (like GMO-1). Set the delay short, get a flanger, set the delay longer, get a chorus.

[Music Engineer]

Basically, a flanger is a modulated delay line, where as a phaser is a modulated allpass filter (which is like a delay except on a really small level). They both affect sound in a similar way though, since they both relay on phase cancellation to create frequency notches.

while this is true, there's something more to say about that: a flanger produces notches and peaks at harmonically related frequencies (and in the analog world even infinitely many) whereas the phaser-notches occur at harmonically unrelated frequencies and there is only a finite number of them.

[speccyteccy]

Are there any plugs that do all three in one - I mean with the same controls - not a plug with three units.

[BertKoor]

Yeah, I guess I left out the original bit about having more than one tape. But a chorus and a flanger are the same thing, just that a chorus is usually a delay of around 25-35 ms and a flanger is around 5ms.

I thought that pitch modulation was what seperated the 2. where a flanger just delayed 2 or more signals a chorus would delay and sweep pitch.

The pitch change is a result of modulating the delay, happens in both! But when modulating only 5ms the pitch will not change notably, while when you do that on 30ms it will.

[Benedict]

Are there any plugs that do all three in one - I mean with the same controls - not a plug with three units.

My SynthStudio Pack "Time" will actually give you the ability to do Flange, Chorus and Phaser all with different knob settings of delay, depth (pitch shift), feedback and phase.

Phasing is best done with real phasers tho as to get that really deep sound you need more 'bands'.

The 3 effects are so closely linked that really at any given point in time you are doing all at once. As someone else said:

Flanger 0-12ms 50 dry : 50 wet mix
Chorus 5-60ms 50 dry : 50 mix
Phaser 0-10ms 50 dry : 50 phase-swap wet mix

[BertKoor]

Are there any plugs that do all three in one - I mean with the same controls - not a plug with three units.

And this one ofcourse: http://www.kvraudio.com/get/815.html

[iain_morland]

Thank you for the responses!