Build Your Own Clone Message Board

Hi all-

This is my first post here so thanks in advance for your help...!!!

I recently built a 5 knob compressor and flanger. the compressor came out great. The flanger though is having some issues.

The effect I am getting is more of a chorus sound with a little bit of flange. I cant dial in any deep, sweeping flange effect. I am also getting a crazy loud feedback sound when I turn the Regeneration knob all the way on. I bought the V3208 chip with the kit and the problem exists with this chip and the stock one. Below is a link to a video of the pedal in action. Please help...!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hv6yoFcSU7U

Many thanks,

William

Photos of the build

I apologize; I'm away from home and am listening on my iPod speakers and nothing too unusual is popping out at me. Have you compared it to BYOC's demo. Set your knobs like his and see if you get the same sounds?

I realize this post is old but I thought I would add that mine works like yours. You may have already found this out but to really hear a deep flanging effect you really need to add some distortion - otherwise it will sound very close to a chorus.

My oscillation starts at the same point as yours although it is more prominent with the normal mode than the differential. Also, if you reach that point and back off the depth to about 10:00 it goes away. I'm guessing there is a sweep frequency beyond that point that causes the oscillation to get worse. The adjustment for the flanging with distortion does not really appear linear to me and seems to have the same level over much of the travel of the regen/feedback knob - would really like to know how to improve this.

I would try to get a really nice clean chorus effect with Regen at zero and then hear the difference when adjusting only the regen. If your pedal is like mine I use these settings without distortion:
Rate - 2:00
Depth - 9:00
Regen - 7:00 (fully CCW)
Manual - 3:00
differential mode
if this sounds like a good chorus (it's the best setting on mine) then start to play with the Regen knob and listen to how it changes the character. It's very subtle without distortion but with distortion it's easier to hear.

At times the typical flanging does not sound very strong to me. The setting I use to get a strong VH "unchained' flanging sound is using distortion with the following:
Rate - 10:00
Depth - 2:00
Regen - 2:00
Manual - 7:00 (fully CCW)
Normal mode

Sounds like the balance of the 'wet' to 'dry' signal may be off. Although it is very true that flangers only sound really flangy when the input signal is harmonically complex with a lot of high end content. For a guitar that normally requires some distortion in front of the flanger.

Flangers work by splitting the input into two signal paths - one path is just a buffered version of the input signal and the other path is delayed slightly. These two paths are mixed together in equal parts and because of the delay some parts of the two signals add together and some cancel. The result is a signal that appears to have passed through a comb or multiple notch filter where the spacing between the notches is harmonically related. For this to work the two mixed signals must be of equal size. What really makes the flanging effect evident is when the delay on the delayed signal is varied. This creates the characteristic whooshing sound as the filter notches move through the signal.

The Regen control is a positive feedback control that makes the effect sound more resonant and 'hollow'. If the circuit is unbalanced for some reason it is possible for the Regen to get too large - enough positive feedback and the circuit will oscillate.

You could try eye-balling the components around the BBD (IC2) and IC1a and IC4a for mistaken values. Or there might be a problem with IC1 or IC4.

The critical resistors involved in mixing the signals are labelled on the circuit diagram and the instructions include a modifications section for tweaks.