The flanger perception
A music production snapshot from the making of “This Sundered World” by Icarus Machine. .
So there is this song. And there are these wave files that I created by yelling miserably into the microphone, because that is what the song warranted. So I was a bit intimate with the mic. It happens right? And the take turned out just how I wanted it. I didn’t really check the result in the file.
So that’s all fine and dandy. Files are sent to Bill. He puts them in place, sounds great.
Except for this little click I hear. It annoys me. Now, fast forward a few weeks when we go back and forth working on the mixes for this album – This Sundered World. Many things are redone and fixed, and straightened out. But that click is still there.
Bil: “Where? I can’t hear it.”
Fast forward some more. I’m ready to bite my fingers off.
Bill is ready to send me to the lunatic asylum. I’m hearing things all over the place.
Finally we get some other problems taken care of, everything is fine.
Except for that click. That damn click.
Bill: “Where? I still can’t hear anything.”
Silence
Bill: “Well, there is that tiny little click there. I thought it was part of the flanger.”
Silence.
Bill: “Oh. What are the F-ing odds of that? It’s in the flanger. Shut that off and it’s gone.”
Me: “Ah.”
Bill: “the main shape of the flanger setting is rectangular
with no smoothness, it’s got a vertical transition across the waveform axis. All I did was change the shape of the flange and it’s fixed.”
At that point I glazed over and started thinking about other things. Not that I don’t understand it, but there is a reason I sing. I can be a tiresome pain in the ass and in the end Bill will fix the bad I create, and I don’t need to understand waveform politics.
Me: “So it wasn’t all my fault then?”
Bill: “Well, if you had been singing it differently…”
Me: “Blow me.”
So, In the end I’m not going to the asylum, although I’m certain that Bill will find more reasons to send the dreaded men in white to Ontario. But I can deal with that.
more importantly; I will check my files more often. And Bill will never again trust a flanger.
JennyK – From the dungeons of phase shifting and zero-crossings.