Music: Guide to Flange Effect and It's Parameters

Flange is commonly known as the ''jet plane effect'' to the masses, and it's sound has been a popular staple since the 60s. It can be used on any instrument imaginable, from vocals to guitar to drums.

Flange at it's core is simply a delay effect with the delay parameter set at a very small amount. With today's technology, producing this sound manually is easy as pie.
The customization features on modern flanging units is unparalleled. Dialing in a signature flange style has never been so easy, but it's important to understand the functions of each parameter and why it works the way it does.

The common delay setting to achieve flange with a delay unit are 20 milliseconds and under. Instead of hearing the actual signal being delayed, they will blend together to make a ''jet plane effect'' sound. The reason this happens is when two identical signals overlap each other, some frequencies are ''canceled out''.

Let's go over the parameters that are usually on flanging units.

Parameter One - Delay : This parameter changes the time it takes for the second signal to play after the original. Most times the highest setting will not be more than 20 milliseconds, as mentioned above. In some cases, the delay setting can be to to a negative value to create interesting ambient effects as well.

Parameter Two - Depth : This parameter functions as the control for the ''warble'' of the flange effect. That is, the severity of the changes in pitch.

Parameter Three - Width : This parameter is somewhat similar to Depth, but has a noticeable difference to the ear. It controls the speed at which the peaks and valleys of the flange are reached.

Parameter Four - Rate : This parameter controls the rate at which the warbles repeat themselves. The faster the speed, the faster your audio signal will go through the complete flange process.

Parameter Five - LFO : This parameter isn't on older flange units but is found on more recent software flanges. They enable you to alter the output of the wave in accordance to the flange. The four possible settings are sine, square, saw, and triangle.

Parameter Six - Feedback : Now we're talking. Feedback loops the output signal back into the input, creating a possibly infinite amount of noise. This results in many strange effects, especially in higher settings. If you're using headphones, be sure to keep the volume low before you experiment with this parameter.

This concludes the guide to flange. As always, experiment and use your ear!