Flamma FS03 DELAY and 80 Sec Looper - Full Review

#flamma #addictedtogear
The Flamma FS03 delay pedal includes 6 stereo algorithms, trails bypass functions, 80 second looper, tap tempo, preset save functions all all this for only $70 USD. The unit it turning some heads because it not only sounds great, but it also priced very affordably. If you are looking for something to open up some creative ideas, check out this delay pedal!
►►For more information: www.flamma.shop
►►For special discounts: www.flamma.sho...
► Checkout great gear on my Amazon storefront: amzn.to/30gKwhC
► Follow me on Instagram - bit.ly/3jXnowj
► Buy a cool Addicted To Gear T-shirt and support this channel here: bit.ly/3jZV6Be

[@alphanumeric1529]

I recently bought the Flamma Delay and Reverb. The delay sounds a little harsh, and I'm hoping they update the firmware for the tweak 1 and 2 knobs to be a little more effective. They sound like they were designed and implemented by an engineer, and not by a musician or a producer. Little care has gone into making the special effect actually musical or musically useful. It's more like, we can do this, like that pedal. Or we can do this like that other pedal. But "this" and "that" were never tuned. They have seemingly arbitrary ranges that never seem to work with the delay itself, the tempo of the delay or the song. Like if Tweak 1 or 2 is a lfo modulating some aspect of the delay, why wouldn't the modulation rate be tied into the bpm tempo of the delay itself, then have the knob work off of that range. So if the delay is doing 1/4 notes, and there is a filter sweep, run the sweep at one whole note, or one bar with the knob at 12 o'clock. Then, with lower values, you get faster sweeps, 3/4, 2/3, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/24, 1/32. And above 12 o'clock, the sweep is slower, 1 and 1/4, 1 and 1/8, 1 1/4, 1 1/3, 1/2, 1 2/3, 1 3/4, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, and 16 bars, and again, all this is based upon the delay tempo. This is what is done by quality pedal builders. They're not just engineers, they're musicians. They know what the engineering needs to do to achieve MUSICAL results. They TUNE their pedals so they sound good, so they sound right, so they sound musical. Often these Chinese pedal companies either just blindly reproduce circuits, or if they try to innovate a bit, taking baby steps, they just add unconsidered features, or they add useful features, but they're not ranged properly, not tuned properly. It's more just an engineer picking a range like 10ms - 100ms for an effect time because its base 10, and base 10 is logical. But most music is base 4. Or rather, music timing is logarithmic. Time is halved, then time is halved again. Those are quarter notes. That is halved again, and those are eighth notes (1/8), then halved again and you get sixteenth notes (1/16). Perhaps these pedal "designers" are unfamiliar with more complex logarithmic scales because they are used to simplistic base 10 scales? Anyway, sorry for the rant. I hope someone from Flamma hears this so their pedals can be SIGNIFICANTLY improved. I see they have a product designer working on their pedals. They look cool. Their fonts and type treatment is a major step above most Chinese pedals. That's great. But the sound of the pedals has been undesigned, instead just slapped together. They spent the time getting the pedals to look good. Great. Now spend the time (and money) to get the pedals to sound good. Perhaps they need a good sound designer (like me), with extensive music and production knowledge, to work with their coder/engineer to TUNE the pedal so their products produce musical results. An example of a company that tunes their pedals is Earthquaker Devices - they don't make just a delay... they tune the delay so it sounds good, in almost all knob positions - for example the Rainbow Machine... Flamma's imitation "Rainbow" does not sound good. It does nearly the same thing as the Earthquaker pedal, but it does it unmusically. It just sounds bad. It is implemented terribly. But it's not inherent to the tech in the pedal, its just poorly designed, or it may even be undesigned, merely an idea to replicate functionality, then arbitrary values used from there. You can't have a programmer designing the SOUND and FUNCTIONALITY of your pedals. You need a sound designer to do that, and have your coder and your engineer implement the designs of the sound designer. I'd be happy to work with the Flamma brand in this regard, free of charge. I like what they are trying to do, and I'd like to help them. But they are going to fail if they don't fix these pedals, and fix them fast. The pedal market is so packed with so many quality offerings at every price point. If Flamma's reputation is established, they will have no place in the market. If Flamma can't hear or understand the difference between their pedals and quality pedals, they need help NOW before they commit any further resources to the Flamma brand, because they will burn out, they'll achieve no market penetration. They've chosen upscale price points for Chinese pedals, but they're NOT delivering the upscale sound/performance the market demands at that price point. Flamma will lose, and their capital will run out when initial interest fades, despite the fairly substantial online/social media marketing push they've put together. These pedals should have been TUNED first, before the launch. Now the Flamma brand is developing their rightful reputation of good looking boxes that don't really sound that good. That is the death of their brand. They NEED firmware updates NOW, before that initial interest period ends, and their reputation is solidified, and people pass them up for either cheaper Chinese pedals that actually do sound good, but have terrible Chinese clip art graphics (truly terrible) or for more expensive western designed pedals that have been designed to sound musical, to sound good. I was psyched, as I recently bought a cheap Chinese delay pedal and it sounded horrible, staticy after each repeat, they'd gone for a long delay time, so accepted the noise that is inherent to their chip which is not really capable of producing clean audio at that delay time. So, in frustration I bought the Flamma delay and reverb based upon some youtube videos. The pedals sound OK. But they don't sound good. And their "special features" like the tweak knobs don't deliver any really usable sounds. I'm bitterly disappointed with my Flamma pedals, in fact. I was just searching youtube for information on these pedals, and I found this video, I was hoping someone had spent some time with these pedals and actually figured out how to use them effectively. I was hoping to learn something, learn what I was doing wrong. But all the examples illustrated in this video really do show the quality of tweak 1 and 2 and the special effects they control... they don't sound good. They're just not implemented well. The potential is there in their tech though, they just need someone who knows what these pedals need to do, how they need to sound. The various algorithms are good, good enough. But again, it's the implementation of the special features that is totally lacking. AND on top of that, the basic delay sound, just the actual sound quality of the pedal... it's not so good either. I don't know if it is their AD or DA converters, or the analog circuitry around that... but the sound is just slightly harsh. That can't be easily fixed by a firmware update. But if they made the various modes of this delay and the modes of the reverb more useable, better sounding, the harsh sound quality could be somewhat overlooked. These pedals would always remain downmarket, but within their market segment, they could earn a place, and actually get sustained sales numbers. I wish them all the best, and if they are listening, please ask for help NOW.

[@addictedtogear]

Thank you for the input. Maybe someone from Flamma will hear you and make improvements for the next models.

[@alphanumeric1529]

@@addictedtogear Not likely. I've left another comment concerning the looper which doesn't work as a minimally functioning looper, basically you can't use this pedal as a looper, as in this video, you didn't use the looper as a looper, you just recorded a segment of audio, but didn't LOOP IT!. I think this is why no one really demos the looper when demoing this pedal. The addition of a looper to this delay pedal which has tweakable delay settings, while also still keeping a delay function on the looper setting is what put me over the edge to buy this pedal. Believe it or not, this was an expensive pedal for me, a really expensive pedal. And to find that its looper function won't work as a looper is SO frustrating. I'd sell it at a loss, just to recoup some money, but ebay is so greedy now, and it seems only scammers are left on ebay - I've successfully resolved all issues, as a BUYER, and was ultimately refunded my money, but it takes a lot of effort and time, both I don't have, and can't be regained - But as a seller, I'm sure I'd just be pantsed, losing the pedal, and the price of the pedal, and the price of shipping, just so many scammers. So I'm stuck, with this so so delay, and no looper. PISSED! FLAMMA EAT ROCKS!

[@vanlalstephen1657]

Is Dotted 8th delay capable

[@jeffrey.a.hanson]

You just needed to leave it at this- The modulation is digitally tuned incorrectly. In fact Idk if I’ve ever quite heard a warble sound so tuned. Modulations bring life and character to a world where sound reflection are imperfect.

[@Rico_B]

Great video/review Tony... miss your (every) Sunday morning shows. I really like the split screen you did for this review-Thanks!

[@addictedtogear]

More to come!

[@shanewalton8888]

$68 discounted? That's a good price.

[@addictedtogear]

Yes and the pedal is very well made too!

[@Keaneo]

Great demo! I have one of these, my 1st delay pedal. Found this vid very helpful. Thank you 👌

[@kevinmusso2397]

The reverb is nice too

[@patcaploe7250]

Thank you for the demo! The part I enjoyed the most started at 05:24, when you actually let me HEAR the pedal. May I make a suggestion? It took me 5 minutes of listening to talking before I actually heard the pedal...I think you smell what I"m cooking here...thanks!

[@addictedtogear]

Yeah thats why you can skip forward LOL thanks for watching!

[@patcaploe7250]

@@addictedtogear Thanks!

[@Paul_Lenard_Ewing]

The Flamma stuff is killer even for the gigging musician. You can save several standard usable delays to save messing around between tunes and get high end tone and needed convenience at a fraction of the cost of a good standard vanilla gigging pedal like a Boss.

[@addictedtogear]

Can't beat the price!

[@alphanumeric1529]

You can only save a single preset in each algorithm. So, it's not like you can save 5 presets in a single algo if that algo is what you use. So, you can only save 7 presets altogether, 1 for each algo. Which is a bummer.

[@addictedtogear]

@@alphanumeric1529 yes that is correct.

[@jeffrey.a.hanson]

Companies like Flamma, Joyo, and Donner have been great for the industry. This needs work on the algorithm, but the tap tempo and slot saving is innovative.

[@BarryGrueter]

Very nice review thanks for sharing 👍

[@cooltunesmadeeasy]

Cool pedal for sure

[@madbaker76]

does it save the time setting into a patch as well? thank you!

[@thiagosmditbarp3306]

What do you think about this pedal comparing to TC flashback? It seems you can be more focused on playing and adjust less than TC flashback

[@addictedtogear]

Not the same thing at all.

[@peace2u2]

@@addictedtogear could you elaborate your answer!

[@mykhedelic6471]

Nope, get a Way Huge Atreides--- ALL THE EFFECTS, ALL AT ONCE!

[@mykhedelic6471]

This is a really interesting delay, in many ways-- the only thing I didn't like is the stereo seemed really light with this one. I record in headphones in an apartment and like a good ping pong or wide spread but this was just so frustratingly narrow-- otherwise, it's really pretty sweet and has its own thing going on. Nice design, unique features.