Fix Flanger and Doubler

While using the envelope, the best results are often achieved by using a moderate amount of envelope modulation on the flange.

VSO: In OFFSET MODE the VSO knob sets the delay. In VSO MODE, it sets the speed of the delay change (see “VSO Mode” below).

Auto/Man Sweep: Sets the balance between AUTO SWEEP section and the MANUAL SWEEP section. When set fully counterclockwise, only the Auto section will affect the delayed signal. And of course, when set fully clockwise, only the MANUAL SWEEP section will affect the delayed signal and thus the flange effect.

Servo: The amount the delay bounces when the delay is changed.When set fully clockwise, this knob will induce a form of “sluggishness” and smoothness when quickly changing the offset or simulated speed of the slaved tape (VSO). Servo will also affect the parameters on the Auto sweep, but to a lesser degree.

VSO mode: In VSO MODE, the VSO knob emulates how a VSO (Variable Speed Oscillator) knob works on a tape machine. By having two tape machines, where you vary the speed of one machine while blending both outputs together, you achieved the original Beatles style tape flanging. The VSO MODE emulates this behavior. This means that rather than directly setting the delayed offset between the dry and delayed signal, the VSO knob will set the relative speed of the slaved tape recorder and thereby creating slightly different kind of flange behavior. When the VSO knob is set to -50 ms, also marked HALT, the tape reel will stop.

Offset Mode: In OFFSET MODE the VSO can be used to directly set the delay the audio, ranging from -50 to 50 ms.

 

Tweaking Tips: Flanger

The Flange effect is highly dependent of the setting of the Mix knob, since the typical hollow flange is created by the differences between the delayed input and the original input.

Since the Fix Flanger can delay the signal with negative delay times, the dry signal passing through the plug-in will always have a 50 millisecond latency (look-ahead) which makes it less suitable for using live. However, Fix Flanger will always work well as post-recording treatment, and all major DAWs will automatically correct this latency.

Through-Zero Flanging

For true “through-zero flanging” set the Mix balance to 50%, use negative Delay Polarity (lamp indicator is ON) and set Regen to OFF. This will completely cancel out the signal when the delay passes through 0 milliseconds.

Using the VSO mode

Since VSO MODE emulates much how an old-school tape flanging rig works, one has to imagine flanging as trying to keep “the second tape-machine” in near sync by speeding up and slowing down its speed against the dry signal. This is achieved by looking at the flange meter and trying to keep the flange as much as possible in the middle by “chasing” the through-zero pass-through with the VSO knob. The servo motor emulation amount can also be handy in order to induce some natural “motor lag” when chasing the flange up and down the sonic spectrum.

By using VSO MODE with a completely wet signal (Mix set to DELAY), you can emulate a tape stop by turning the VSO knob all the way counterclockwise.

Chorus Effect

By using the AUTO SWEEP section and setting the Sweep knob almost fully to OFFSET (2 – 5%), you’ll get a nice chorus-like effect. Adjust the Mix between 25-75% to set the amount of the effect. Delay Offset should be around 10–15 ms, but by setting it to positive or negative offset you can get different styles of chorus.

 

User Interface: Doubler

The Fix Doubler panel contains the following ten controls.

Mix: Sets the balance between the doubled and the direct signal. Set it to INPUT to only get the input sound, or fully to DELAY to only hear the delayed signal. Set it somewhere in the middle (30-70%) to get a nice doubling effect.

Engage: Use Engage as a smooth bypass if you want to turn on or off the effect during a song.

Stereo: Turn on to widen the stereo image, or turn a mono signal into a stereo signal. Make sure to insert the plug-in as a STEREO or a MONO-TO-STEREO plug-in for the widening effect to work.

Regen: Sets the amount of delay feedback. Turning Regen up makes the effect sound fuller, but too much Regen will make it sound flangy and hollow. This control is not active (greyed out) when Auto Double is in use.

Auto Double: Turns on and off the AUTO DOUBLE mode. The Auto Double mode will put the secret sauce in the stew and make everything sound great!

Delay Offset: Sets the delay offset of the doubled signal. Longer delay times will yield a more slap back kind of doubling while shorter delay times will sound more flanger-like.

Sweep: Sets the balance between the fixed Delay Offset and the sweep. Turning this knob clockwise will cause the sweep to affect the doubled signal more.

Rate: Sets the speed of the sweep, ranging from 0.01 milliseconds to 6 milliseconds. The sweep amount is also reversely affected by sweep rate (see below), so that faster rates makes the sweep less apparent. This is by design to ensure a more natural doubling sound and a constant pitch change in the delayed signal.

Dual Sweep: Turn this on to get two independent doublers out of phase with each other for the LEFT and RIGHT channel. This can make the doubling effect sound fuller, and also create a nice stereo effect for mono tracks.

Sweep Type: Selects the type of waveform used for the sweep: TRIANGLE, SINE and RANDOM.

TRIANGLE: Constant pitch during the sweep, suitable for low Sweep settings and Dual Sweep.

SINE: Pitch is changing throughout the whole sweep, nice on monophonic instruments and higher Sweep settings.

RANDOM: The pitch shift is random, and will sound more natural when used sparingly. Low Sweep and Rate is preferred for this one.

 

Tweaking Tips: Doubler

Here are a few pointers to guide you when using the Fix Doubler:

Delay Offset

Using 20 to 45 milliseconds of delay and subtly mixing the delayed signal with the original tends to “fatten up” the sound, especially when using the STEREO or DUAL SWEEP modes.This creates an illusion of more than one singer or player and is also an excellent method of adding lushness to string or horn sections. Instruments with sharp transients, such as rhythm guitars or drums, will typically require a shorter delay, vocals medium delays, and strings and horns slightly longer delay times.

Mix

Mix ratio is essential to the perceived “fatness” of the resulting signal. A completely wet signal (Mix fully clock-wise) can be OK when using more extreme settings in order to create vibrato effects, but normally a mix between 20% and 50% is recommended to create a subtle, natural sounding vocal doubling or chorus.

Sweep

The Sweep is the key ingredient when creating a subtle or fat doubling chorus. Too much Sweep, and it will sound pitchy and wobbly, too little and you’ll just get a slap back echo effect.

Chorus Effect

A natural sounding chorus effect is easily obtained by using the auto double function while setting the delay offset at a low setting (around 20–30 milliseconds), Rate at around 3–4 Hz and Sweep almost all the way to OFFSET.

Tape Wow and Flutter

By using a short Delay Offset at around 7 ms, Sweep set to 2–3%, RANDOM waveform with slow Rate, and Mix fully clockwise, you will get a tape machine like wow and flutter effect.

Vibrato

A vibrato effect can be achieved by using a completely wet signal, a fast sweep (Rate at 5–6 Hz), Sweep at 5–10%, and SINE or TRIANGLE waveforms. Use Delay Offset and Regen to get different characters of vibrato.