When to phase and when to flange?

[woody]

Howdy guys and gals,

for those of you who like both flanger and phaser, what are your reasons to use one over the other in a given situation?
I am putting together a board right now and I thought about whether I want phasing and flanging and it got me thinking about their respective use cases...

 

[Bruce]

Phase more for wah like color than the actual effect. Flange for the jet engine effect and nothing else. Always before the amp.

And if I were picking one over the other: phaser all day long.

 

[sleewell]

I have a flanger set ultra low in mix as an always on type of effect. It's barely noticeable but adds some nice thiccness.

I also have it set so that when I turn on my phaser it turns off the flanger. Phaser is set slow as a modulation effect just to make sections more spacey/trippy.

I prefer phaser because it goes up and down whereas the flanger just goes up but I guess they both have their place.

 

[Fireproof]

This is a good thread. I need to mess with both effects more!

 

[DrewJD82]

Yeah, I'm with Bruce on that one.

A phaser can chill on a lead tone and give it some depth without being distracting, a flanger tends to be a bit more "Listen to me!" I definitely prefer flangers in quick bursts rather than whole passages, unless the passage is meant to be a departure in some way.

Perfect example; VH's "Seventh Seal", Ed kicks on a flanger in the bridge and plays a bunch of flanger-friendly stuff that accentuates the sound of the pedal and keeps it on during a chill part, making it sound like the guitar tone is taking off from the speakers (no, I'm not high yet) in turn making it a pretty cool transition point in the song. Gonna shamelessly drop my cover of it here, queued up to the flanger spot-



That said, there's the Electric Mistress, which can do a pretty cool chorus sound and Gilmour used it all over The Wall and The Final Cut for exactly that. A bit outside the norm for flanger use.

 

[Stone]

Love the tone of phaser
set to start @3:.06



Since was a tribute to EVH he used a EVH MXR Phaser

 

[itchyfingers]

If I had to choose, I would say neither.

UniVibe all day every day.

 

[metropolis_4]

I think I tend to go phaser when I want something more subtle that will give some movement to a soft tone, and I go flanger when I want something more dramatic.

Occasionally I’ll use a subtle flanger the same way I’d use a chorus, but typically I use it for a more overt effect

 

[dk_ace]

I typically use phaser for funky stuff.

Flanger, I’ll get back to you on that…. I keep trying to work it into my stuff but I rarely use it. Maybe it just isn’t my thing…

D

 

[Bruce]

Flangers kill on a snare drum during a break down, or even for the whole kit. Use them in weird places.

 

[Alex Kenivel]

Flangers kill on a snare drum during a break down, or even for the whole kit. Use them in weird places.

Live Wire!

 

[Stone]

Unchained !

 

[DrewJD82]

Flangers kill on a snare drum during a break down, or even for the whole kit. Use them in weird places.

I put them on every reverse cymbal, too.