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Summary of Flanging

In view of the above, we may define a flanger in general as any filter which modulates the frequencies of a set of uniformly spaced notches and/or peaks in the frequency response. The main parameters are

Possible additional parameters include

Note that flanging provides only uniformly spaced notches. This can be considered non-ideal for several reasons. First, the ear processes sound over a frequency scale that is more nearly logarithmic than linear [431]. Therefore, exponentially spaced notches (uniformly spaced on a log frequency scale) should sound more uniform perceptually. Secondly, the uniform peaks and notches of the flanger can impose a discernible ``resonant pitch'' on the program material, giving the impression of being inside a resonant tube. Third, it is possible for a periodic tone to be completely annihilated by harmonically spaced notches if the harmonics of the tone are unlucky enough to land exactly on a subset of the harmonic notches. In practice, exact alignment is unlikely; however, the signal loudness can be modulated to a possibly undesirable degree as the notches move through alignment with the signal spectrum. For this reason, flangers are best used with noise-like or inharmonic sounds. For harmonic signals, it makes sense to consider methods for creating non-uniform moving notches.


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[How to cite and copy this work] 
``Physical Audio Signal Processing for Virtual Musical Instruments and Digital Audio Effects'', by Julius O. Smith III, (December 2005 Edition).
Copyright © 2006-07-01 by Julius O. Smith III
Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA),   Stanford University
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