Waves Audio MetaFlanger User Guide
MetaFlang er
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Quick Start
Flanger effects
Chorus effects
Producing a phaser effect
Chapter 3 More About Flanging
Chapter 4 Controls & Displa ys
Section 1: Mix, Feedback and Filter controls
Section 2: Delay, Rate and Depth controls
Section 3: Waveform, Modulation Display and Stereo controls
Section 4: Output level
Chapter 5 Frequently Asked Questions
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Chapter 6 Block Diagram
Chapter 7.........................................................Tempo Sync in V5.0.............22
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Chapter 1 - Introduction
Thanks for buying Waves processors.
MetaFlanger is an audio plug-in that can be used to produce a variety of classic tape flanging, vintage phaser emulation, chorusing, and some unexpected effects. It can emulate traditional analog flangers,fill out a
simple sound, create intricate harmonic textures and even generate small rough reverbs and effects.
The following pages explain how to use MetaFlanger.
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MetaFlanger’s Graphic Interface
Chapter 2 - Quick Start
For mixing, you can use MetaFlanger as a direct insert and control the amount of flanging with the Mix
control. Some applications also offer sends and returns; either way works quite well.
1 When you insert MetaFlanger, it will open with the default settings (click on the Reset button to reload
these!). These settings produce a basic classic flanging effect that’s easily tweaked.
2 Preview your audio signal by clicking the Preview button. If you are using a real-time system (such as
TDM, VST, or MAS), press ‘play’.
You’ll hear the flanged signal. Briefly speaking, a low frequency oscillator (LFO) varies the delay time of the
‘wet’ audio which, when rejoined with the original audio, produces a huge and creative variety of effects and
pleasant harmonic shifts.
3 Click on the ‘Bypass’ button to hear the raw audio, i.e. your audio track without any flanging effect.
The focus of this Quick Start is on the three prime components that allow us to control MetaFlanger’s LFO
element: Delay, Rate and Depth.
C l i c k o n t h e R e s e t b u t t o n a n d n o t i c e h o w t h e d e f a u l t M i x s e t t i n g i s 0 . 5 , i . e . 5 0 % o f t h e o r i g i n a l a u d i o i s
a f fected by the LFO, or is ‘ wet’. It’s important to rem em ber you need at least a little percen t a ge of Mix to have
a ny flange ef fect at all . For more ef fect , keep the Mix near 50% (equal mixtu re of wet and dry ) . To redu ce the
f l a n ge ef fect , l ower the Mix percen t a ge - if you lower it all the way down to zero, t h ere’ ll be NO ef fect .
Delay
Default setting: 2.2ms (range is 0 to 20.0ms in 0.1ms increments)
The Delay control sets the general sound of the effect. Lower values (0.1 to 0.5ms) are useful for phaser
effects. Delay settings from 0.5 to 3ms are suitable for flanger effects and finally, 3 to 20ms settings can be
used to achieve chorus effects. These are merely general values. In fact, Flanging can actually take place at
many Delay settings (if the Tape button is engaged). This will be discussed later in the manual.
By the way, to change the Delay value, you can either:
* Click and hold on the Delay text box and drag your mouse up and down
* Click once to select the Delay text box and type in a numerical value
All the control buttons feature similar operation (see the WaveSystem Manual for complete details. You’ll
discover many powerful features built-in to all Waves processors,plus you’ll have an edge on the people who
don’t read it).
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To hear the effect of changing the Delay setting, you must have sufficient amounts of Mix, Rate and Depth.
Clicking on the Reset button will give you sufficient settings for your experiments.
Rate
Default setting: 0.2Hz (range is from 0.0 to 20.0Hz in 0.1Hz increments)
Increasing the Rate increases the oscillation speed of the flanger. As you increase the Rate, you’ll notice the
indicator in the Modulation display will sweep from side to side at a correspondingly higher rate. As before,
there must be sufficient Mix, Delay and Depth settings in order to hear and see on the display the full effect
of adjusting the Rate. If you set the Rate to zero, you will hear a “fixed” effect (due to the non-modulated
Delay). A good preset to illustrate this is Queenguitar.
F i n a lly, you can link the Ra te para m eter to the Depth para m eter using the ‘ L i n k’ but ton . This keeps the
Met a F l a n ger ef fect rel a tively the same “f l avor ” at any ra te set ting (by keeping the actual pitch shift the same).
Depth
Default setting: 1.0
The Depth control sets how widely the wet signal is shifted in time, which results in small pitch changes.
This controls how powerful the effect is. The “center” of the changing time d elay is set using the Delay control. In other words,if Depth is 0%, the delay is fixed at the value shown. When Depth = 50%, the delay
time will vary by half of its value. The default Depth setting is 100%, so the Delay time (2.2ms) will vary
between 0.0 and 4.4ms.
Notice the green indicator oscillating back and forth in the ‘Modulation’ display (this display is located
under the Waveform control!). If you set the Depth to 1.0, the green indicator will travel right from one end
of the display to the other (at a speed determined by the Rate setting), and you’ll hear your audio swoosh
accordingly! If you set the Depth to 0.1, you’ll see the same green indicator move from side-to-side, barely
changing its horizontal displacement at all,and you’ll hear a much smaller flange-effect. Zero Depth means
no flanging!
Rate and Depth Link
Default setting: unlinked
Click the ‘Link’ indicator ‘on’ in order to keep the flanger on the same t one while you adjust the Rate or
Depth. The linking keeps the relative pitch depth constant.
Please read about the Feedback,Filters, Tape, Waveform, Stereo and Output Gain controls under their individual subheadings in the Controls & Displays Chapter.
H i n t : T h e d e f a u l t s e t t i n g s a r e e a s i l y c h a n g e d f o r r a d i c a l e f f e c t s b y s i m p l y c h a n g i n g t h e s t a t u s o f p h a s e b u t t o n s
and the Ta pe but ton .
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Flanger Effects
Cl i cking on the Re s et but ton sets Met a F l a n ger ’s para m eters for a gentle phasing ef fect (see the beginning of t h e
Q u i ck Start ) . Cl i ck the Ta pe but ton for a classic Flanger ef fect . Ex peri m ent with the Depth and Mix con tro l s .
A high er Mix set ting (nearer 50%) produ ces a stron ger flange ef fect . P l aying around with the Feed b ack
con trol and the Mix phase reverse swi tch wi ll yi eld even more intense ef fect s . Use long Del ay times to
emu l a te analog del ay-line flangers (more on that later ) .
There are several flanger presets in the Load menu,and even more in the external file installed into “Waves
Setup Libraries” folder, called “MetaFlanger Presets II”.
Chorus Effects
Load the ‘Chorus medium’ factory preset.
The two main considerations for producing chorus effects are setting:
1 the Mix low
2 the Delay high
The long delay avoids phasing effects while producing a “duplicate” of the input that is slightly delayed and
has a slightly varying pitch. In general, any chorus effect you produce using MetaFlanger is two-voiced. In
other words there’s the original voice and a second voice (wet audio) that runs behind the original according to your Delay setting. (However if you have the Stereo control set to a significant value,then there are 2
varying voices, for a total of three).
For chorusing effects, the rate and depth settings are quite a bit lower than those for flanging or phasing are.
Small changes do a lot.
Experiment with the Depth, Delay, and Rate controls.
Producing a Phaser Effect
For ph a s er ef fect s , the Del ay set ting needs to be low to en su re phasing takes place bet ween the signal affected
b y t h e o s c i l l a t i n g d e l a y ( i . e . t h e w e t ) a n d t h e o r i g i n a l s i g n a l . I t i s t h i s l o w d e l a y t h a t m a k e s M e t a F l a n g e r a c t a s
a p h a s e r r a t h e r t h a n a f l a n g e r .
Load the Up’n’Down Phaser factory preset. Notice that it has a very short delay of only 0.6 milliseconds.
The Mix and Feedback phase inverse switches are also on, giving an effect with much more edge. Notice the
feedback is rather high(70). This yields a thin sound. Less feedback will make the effect more subtle.
P h a s ers were devel oped using all-pass net works inste ad of del ay lines, with very small shifts of the wet sign a l .
( F l a n gers with del ay lines are discussed in the next ch a pter ) . Th ere were several different ph a s er de s i gns and
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e a c h h a d v a r y i n g c o n t r o l s ( s u c h a s I n v e r s e p h a s e o n t h e w e t s i g n a l , m o d u l a t i n g t h e l e f t a n d r i g h t s e p a r a t e l y ,
a n d s o f o r t h ) . M e t a F l a n g e r h a s j u s t a b o u t a l l t h e s e c o n t r o l s a n d m o r e , a l l o w i n g y o u t o e m u l a t e n e a r l y a n y
classic phase module ra t h er cl o s ely.
The rate in this setting is low, but of course there are no rules! Play with the Rate setting and choose for
yourself the value that best suits your taste. Make noise. Have fun.
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