You’ve Been Lied to About Chorus & Flanger Pedals

[@MaxPower-js1sk]

In the 80s, I used to perform using a Boss BF-2 for chorus, phaser and flanging. I still have my 1981 BF-2.

[@justPiero]

The best chorus is a flanger, I think so too! Also my favourite flanger is the boss bf2 :D It's a great pedal, almost a "do it all" modulation machine!

[@jturquoise]

Meh I’ll keep a separate chorus and flanger

[@DrewTurock]

This was a great help! I now understand the sound I'm hearing on a few songs I need to learn (definitely flanger!). Thank you!

[@FakeGlasses]

For this reason I have a DC-2 on my board and a BF-2, no CE-2, because the BF can do the CE thing. I am curious to try the BF-3 out cuz of the extra tricks it can pull.

[@sroelit]

Nicely done. There is definitely overlap in terms of the sounds you can achieve with different effects: chorus/flanger, phaser/vibe, overdrive/distortion, reverb/delay etc.

[@markharwood7573]

Don't forget rotary. Flangers can do it well & phasers aren't too bad at it. I am sure my Danelectro Big Spender rotary is a weedy flanger.

[@natemendsen1629]

I had a bf-2 since the mid 90s and it was cool for the heavy res swooshing flange stuff and making steel drum sounds, but it wasnt until I watched Andy Demos really explain how to use the pedal that I realized what all it could do .I had no idea what the Manual knob was really about.Now I get chorus out of it, but if you set that to minimum and pull back the speed and a good bit of depth, you almost get a double tracking thickening thing going on .

[@JacksonBrooksby]

For me it’s a very underrated modulation pedal

[@SquareWaveSymphonies]

I don't think chorus and flanger really are that much different in the way they work. The major difference between the two is the delay time, with the flanger having a much shorter delay time. The one modulation type that is quite different in the way it works is phaser. But, it makes sense that chorus and flanger sound quite similar as they are really not worlds apart from another. A very nice demo. :)

[@IconicPhotonic]

Well you wrote it so I don't have to. As someone who has experimented with schematics using the BBD chips and DSP using PureData, I can confirm this. Flanger is usually considered to be sub-10ms delays that create more of a combing. My beloved MoogerFooger ClusterFlux has a range toggle between the two even. But given this cutoff is a bit arbitrary, its not surprising at all that some manufactures would have their pedal's parameters exceed it. I'm not totally sure on the bounds of the definitions, but I have encountered a lot more stereo choruses (180 degree phase shifted LFOs) and multi-voice (2+) ensemble type effects classed as choruses. As far as I recall, I've never encountered a 4-voice flanger for instance, but they are maybe more likely to include unique LFO wave shapes!

[@Marimba7]

I use a TC Electronic Vortex flanger as it covers most bases anyway (as per the video here!) but it’s also one of their TonePrint pedals, where you upload specific artists’ effects into the pedal…which include more phaser, chorus and/or vibe focused sounds. Epic pedal and well worth the (relatively) cheap price 👍

[@IconicPhotonic]

@@Marimba7 Ah yes and a vibrato is just a chorus with no dry signal! I guess what I forgot to say is the that a delay line will naturally modulate the pitch when the delay read/write time is modulated. I haven't tried a ton of these pedals but I think I agree with the sentiment that some flangers might be a more flexible Island package. I just have a strong personal preference for BBD (such as a Juno chorus) as it reduces the bandwidth, and makes the sound a bit darker and lo-fi crunchy. Of course some digital emulsions pretty much nail this these days. The real interesting one is a Hammond scanner vibrato.

[@alanturingandthetapes5575]

i was able to tell but i think only because i was prepared to listen for a difference. i think i've certainly heard worse chorus tones than either of those flangers. i thought the pedal b flanger sounded particularly chorus-like. thanks for putting this video together. out of them all i preferred pedal c which is convenient because that's the one i own!

[@ksneric]

Great video! My personal favorite chorus pedal as a guitarist was always the ce2. Classic chorus sounds in a second! But from all 4, Komorebi can do way more i believe. Having 3 different waveforms for the LFO and rates from super slow to super fast you can do really crazy stuff. Ring modulation is one of that. and playing with feedback and static knobs you can actually get all between chorus and flanger. Also the patch points can turn this box into a chaos machine. Sending LFOs or envelopes controling komorebi's parameters is something that can shift the guitaristic way of view of pedal effects to an other level. (i own both boss peadals and komorebi).

[@fishchips5121]

modulation beginner here, my guesses were: A is a chorus, B is flanger, C is chorus, D is flanger. I had half a mind to start off with just a flanger but there's some majestic quality in the riff at 4:51 the choruses had and the flangers just couldnt match. Thanks for the showcase!

[@evanharnett]

I could listen to flange chorus all day!

[@halkieria7581]

My favorite "chorus" pedal is the Mooer Jet Engine. Found some settings that enable me to switch from a "chorus" type effect to a "phaser" type effect just by changing the rate

[@adrianhjordan1981]

Agreed. I have a ThorpyFX Camoflange and it does a great "chorus" tone!! In fact, I have bought and sold a few chorus pedals because I still prefered the Camoflange lol

[@JacksonBrooksby]

The Camoflange is a great choice!

[@markharwood7573]

Good stuff. For me, the right flanger (MXR Micro) could stand in for all my chorus, phaser & rotary units. Still tempted by a harmonic tremolo though.

[@Personalnadir]

I’d be curious to know what the differences between a chorus and flanger are. By the book it’s just the delay time so maxing the komorebi’s delay time should produce a chorus sound. However I get a sense that there are subtler differences.

[@KYCDK]

flanger is a more interesting chorus actually you can say that about a few effects flanger rotary tape delay chorus now ill make a note on the last one that i prefer this over a boss chorus or something like that because if you get for example an el capistan, you can make it so it's not too close, so it creates a chorusy effect, and the wobble vibrato is a bit unique compared to the vibrato used in normal choruses, and using the age knob can make it a bit more interesting too all 3 of these i prefer over chorus the only chorus pedal i like is the small clone or neo clone because again, it's interesting but only on the low depth mode

[@Mindartcreativity]

I was sure A and B are chorus then when C came up it made me question that.

[@musicplaylists59]

interestingly i found that i liked the chorus pedals more for the hard strumming parts and the flanger pedals more on the gentler, picking parts

[@patrickr6505]

I can get a chorus and flanger sound from my Raster 2 and it's a modulated pitch shifting delay 😁

[@dimitrisking7590]

BF-2 is the best chorus pedal (with boss ce-2 and dc-2 of course) all made in japan!!!

[@Paul_Lenard_Ewing]

The Flanger in a band context may pass as a Chorus but it is always thinner sounding than a Chorus. The big difference are the signal in a Chorus has more delay. If a pedal does both it simple has a variable delay. As for makes and models I have had most of the classics but for a Flanger I find Reto Sonic's religious duplication of the E-H Electric Mistress can not be beat. It is dead easy to get the perfect usable sounds but you can add 'weird' if like. There are several Choruses I find simply fine. I will mention the NUX Reissue series because they use the reissued Panasonic chips every big name classic used and at $60.00 USD you won't find better ..because 'better'has the same damn chips, lol.

[@Matthew-px9nu]

Strymon Zelzah the new BF-2 ?

[@guscost]

Zelzah does AD/DA conversion, so it could only ever be the new BF-3 😉

[@serranodavid3247]

Great playing pal 👍, by any chance are you related to Joe Walsh.....

[@3rdStoreyChemist]

You’ve not been lied to, just these two types of effects are not really about analogue pedals, it’s the end result as they can be achieved in a variety of ways. Flanging came from manipulating the speed of two tape machines against each other creating comb filtering from minor delay offsets and Chorus comes from double tracking and techniques and technology invented to speed up that process. In the natural world, Flanging is the Doppler Effect whereas Chorus is multiple voices of something not quite perfectly in tune, an orchestra string section is the classic example. Pedal manufacturers then utilised BBD technology to emulate these effects and how they achieved these effects with this technology isn’t a million miles away from each other. But just because these pedals are very similar doesn’t mean these effects are.

[@bthjf12003]

A - Flanger B - Chorus C - Chorus D - Flanger

[@ProCoRat]

Somersault is like its own thing, IMO. If you want a traditional chorus, vibrato, or flanger sound out of it, you will not get it. I have it on my board.

[@geraldhenrickson7472]

I certainly like the Dreadbox Komorebi. I best start saving up the funds for another pedal... Thanks for the video.

[@v-gc7257]

Nice Flanger. Chorus pedal

[@ukaszukasz7059]

flanger is chorus with dirt :P for me B and D sound almost the same

[@adamv2949]

A Flanger B Chorus C Chorus D Flanger

[@jonathanmcgregor6297]

Guessing: a, b flanger, c,d chorus

[@jonathanmcgregor6297]

Got it! Thought the bf-2 sounded phenomenal here.

[@thomasonebane]

Phase/flange/chorus are defined by shorter to longer delay times. Phase being the shortest and chorus being the longest. Not sure we’re being lied to. But you got me clicking. Nice bait

[@devinsinderwitcz9134]

A, sounded the worst. Very plastic in demo 1. B and C sounded the best overall and warmest, to my ears. Not crazy about boutique pedals because they're usually overpriced and limited availability which is great until you have to get a replacement.

[@ckngmad1357]

Open it up, redraw the circuit Separate which is which (voltage, signal, vref, ground) Test it on oscilloscope Know ur gear