Van Halen's Flanger sound from a T.C. Electronic - G-Major

[VeloDoug]

OK... my band wants to do either "And The Cradle Will Rock..." or "Unchained". I want to do it perfectly including effects. Does anyone know what settings to use on a T.C. Electronic - G-Major to approximate the sound when you click the "EVH" button on the MXR EVH-117 Eddie Van Halen Flanger? I'm hoping to use the 3 day weekend to really dial this in, so if anyone out there has experience, I'd love the Cliff Notes! Thanks again.

 

If it helps, I've heard that this button approximates these knob settings on the pedal:

• Manual = 10 o'clock
  
• Width = 9 o'clock
  
• Speed = 11 o'clock
  
• Regen = 2 o'clock
  

The G-major has 2 Flangers with the following parameters.

 

Classic Flanger

• Speed (range 0.050Hz - 19.95Hz)
  
• Depth (range 0% - 100%)
  
• Tempo (range 1/32T to 1 Bar)
  
• Hi Cut (range 19.95Hz to 20kHz)
  
• Feedback (range -100 - 100)
  
• FB Hi Cut (range 19.95Hz to 20kHz)
  
• Mix (range 0% - 100%)
  
• Out level (range -100 - 100)
  

Advanced Flanger

• Speed (range 0.050Hz - 19.95Hz)
  
• Depth (range 0% - 100%)
  
• Tempo (range 1/32T to 1 Bar)
  
• Hi Cut (range 19.95Hz to 20kHz)
  
• Feedback (range -100 - 100)
  
• FB Hi Cut (range 19.95Hz to 20kHz)
  
• Phase Rev (On/Off)
  
• Flanger Delay (0 to 50ms)
  
• Gold Ratio (On/Off)
  
• Mix (range 0% - 100%)
  
• Out level (range -100 - 100)
  

Here is a link to the G-Major owner's manual for descriptions of the parameters .

 

Thanks again.

 

-- Doug

[fantasticsound]

I'm afraid unless you run into someone who has already experimented to figure this same sound out, you're grasping at straws.

 

One note... I don't know your level of expertise so I'll mention that "regen" on the pedal flanger is "feedback" and "width" on the pedal is "depth" on the G-major. "Speed" is similarly identified on the G-major but I don't know what the "manual" control on the pedal does. You'll have to figure out which control mimicks it on the G-force yourself if no one else can enlighten us.

[splitting hare]

I think MXR has a new flanger out (an EVH model or something) that automatically dials up the "Unchained" settings when you stomp on a certain button. Saw it in one of the catalogs - Music 123 I believe.

[VeloDoug]

I think MXR has a new flanger out (an EVH model or something) that automatically dials up the "Unchained" settings when you stomp on a certain button. Saw it in one of the catalogs - Music 123 I believe.

see the link in my original post -- this is what I'm trying to replicate with my G-Major... I don't want to spend the $200 on a pedal just for a song or two. Thanks, though.

[mdrs]

If you didn't live so damn far away, I'd loan you mine!!

[VeloDoug]

I don't know your level of expertise so I'll mention that "regen" on the pedal flanger is "feedback" and "width" on the pedal is "depth" on the G-major. "Speed" is similarly identified on the G-major but I don't know what the "manual" control on the pedal does. You'll have to figure out which control mimics it on the G-major yourself if no one else can enlighten us.

 

I was hoping to use this parallel information to translate into my settings. Has anyone seen what the ranges are on the settings for the MXR Flanger's knobs? Then I could make a pretty educated guess and fine tune with my ears.

 

My guess about the "manual" knob is that it has to do with the "Hi Cut". The technical description on the g-major is:

Reduces the high-end frequencies in the Flange effect. Try using the Hi Cut parameter as an option if you feel the Flange effect is too dominant in your sound and turning down the Mix or Out level doesnt give you the dampening of the Flange effect you are looking for.

Does anyone with experience with the MXR Flanger think that this accurately describes the behavior of the "manual" button?

[VeloDoug]

If you didn't live so damn far away, I'd loan you mine!!

Amen, my brother... amen. We'd be in an Allmans cover band if I did live closer.

 

You know... try to remember to bring it when you come visit James. I would love to do an A/B comparison to see if my programming comes close.

[fantasticsound]

My point, Doug, is that specs on the controls for the pedal are probably not published. Most pedals operate on the KISS concept.. Keep It S[/i]imple Stupid. remembering settings (if you remember them at all) using clock time to describe each knob's position (as you did in the initial post) is as accurate as you'll get regarding settings. No actual range of operation typically listed. Certainly no indication of what depth, say, 1 o'clock might be.

 

You're better off getting started now. Good luck.

[VeloDoug]

specs on the controls for the pedal are probably not published.

Very true... I asked only in case someone happened to know or if it was indeed published in the specs that come with the pedal. You are probably right, though.

 

 

No actual range of operation typically listed. Certainly no indication of what depth, say, 1 o'clock might be.

No doubt you are right... but then again, if we did know that the MXR speed was (hypothetically) from 0.050Hz - 19.95Hz, I could approximate that 11 o'clock was about 9Hz. This is an obvious long-shot, but who knows... maybe the engineer that developed the MXR is a participant of the forum!!

 

Undoubtedly, this will be a dead end, but thought I'd explore the possibility. The more likely avenue to success will be if I find a Van Halen fan on the forum that has already noodled on his G-Major more than me... hello, are you there fellow VH-techno-geek like me?? ;-)

[splitting hare]

I think MXR has a new flanger out (an EVH model or something) that automatically dials up the "Unchained" settings when you stomp on a certain button. Saw it in one of the catalogs - Music 123 I believe.

see the link in my original post -- this is what I'm trying to replicate with my G-Major... I don't want to spend the $200 on a pedal just for a song or two. Thanks, though.

 

Oops - my bad! I should have read your post more thoroughly!

 

Yeah, that is going to be a tough one to replicate without a good bit of work. I read an interview that Dweezil Zappa did with Eddie some years ago, in which Dweezil expressed some frustration at not being able to duplicate that exact flange on "Unchained". Eddie's response was something to the effect that, "it just works that way for me." It may that, or maybe he is just not sharing his secret!

 

Regardless, 2 excellent song choices! Both my wife and I listened to Fair Warning in the car earlier this week and both agreed it was our favorite VH release, followed closely by Women and Children First . Keep us posted!

 

Cheers.

[VeloDoug]

Both my wife and I listened to Fair Warning in the car earlier this week and both agreed it was our favorite VH release, followed closely by Women and Children First . Keep us posted!

 

Cheers.

 

Make that 3 of us!!! Thanks for the support. I'll let you know what I discover.

 

[VeloDoug]

... I don't know what the "manual" control on the pedal does. You'll have to figure out which control mimics it on the G-major yourself if no one else can enlighten us.

 

Does anyone with experience with the MXR Flanger think that this accurately describes the behavior of the "manual" button?

 

OK... I went to jimdulop.com and downloaded the manual for the MXR Flanger which had a surprising amount of information on MXR's specs and ranges for the pedals knob settings. This information has helped me approximate the settings I'll need as a starting point for my experimentation this weekend. This post, for the most part, is serving to simply document my first guesses before I start this work.

 

Definition of "Manual"

MXR states...

MANUAL: This knob controls the degree of phase shifting. When the Width knob is turned all the way down (counterclockwise), the variable time delay is shut off, and the Manual knob simply selects how far out of phase to put the signal. As the Width knob is turned up, the Manual knob also selects the frequency center of the time delay effect.

I think this primarily maps to the Range parameter in the G-Major, but may also impact the 'Fla Dly' setting.

 

Here are the settings I'll start with:

 

• Range (range -100 - 100) Since MXR's 'Manual' is around 10 o'clock, I'm going to start with a Range of about -30.
  
• Depth (range 0% - 100%) Since MXR's 'Width' is around 9 o'clock, I'm going to start with a Depth of about 30%.
  
• Speed (range 0.050Hz - 19.95Hz) Since MXR's 'Speed' knob has a range of 0.100Hz - 10.00Hz and is supposed to be about 11 o'clock, I'm going to start with a speed of about 4.5Hz.
  
• Feedback (range -100 - 100) Since MXR's 'Regen' is supposed to be about 2 o'clock, I'm going to start with a Feedback of about 30.
  
• Fla Dly (0 to 50ms) - since the MXR has a max of 37.9ms, I'll experiment between 0 and 37.9.
  

[VeloDoug]

I ended up having to rehearse the song without worrying about the effects, so I just got back to this task this weekend. It turns out that the assumptions I had made really weren't too accurate. I think TC and MXR measure things differently, so I just programmed the Flanger setting by ear. I got it pretty close, but I may still do some tweaking if I end up not being too satisfied with this in a band situation. Here are the settings I'm using now:

 

• Subtype Advanced Flanger
  
• Speed (range 0.050Hz - 19.95Hz) 0.100 Hz.
  
• Depth (range 0% - 100%) 30%.
  
• Tempo Ignored (b/c I set the speed parameter... I may decide to use this and a tap tempo)
  
• Hi Cut (range 19.95 Hz to 20 kHz) 501.2 Hz
  
• Feedback (range -100 - 100) 30%
  
• Feedback Hi Cut (range 19.95 Hz to 20 kHz) 3.16 kHz
  
• Flanger Delay (0 to 50ms) 1.0ms
  
• Gold Ratio Off
  
• Phase Reverse Off
  
• Mix 40%
  

 

[Caevan O’Shite]

I thought that VH's "And The Cradle Will Rock..." featured an MXR Phase-90 phaser; was I wrong? (Probably!)

 

If the G' is even half as good as TC's Stereo Chorus/Flanger/Pitch-Modulation + pedal, as long as you're adjusting to taste by your own ear (especially judging in a "with-the-band" context), I'm sure it's going to be alright...