Demo of Source Audio Soundblox Tri-Mod Flanger

A while back Will Cady of Source Audio sent me a Soundblox Tri-Mod Flanger to check out and demo for EffectsBay.com. Source Audio is really starting to get their name out in the guitar/bass effects world. Their Soundblox and Soundblox pro pedals are starting to find themselves on various boards and backline rigs. Artists such as Billy Sheehan, Adrian Belew, Billy Corgan, Bela Fleck just to name a few. Please check out their artist page for more info! Some serious talent there.

Okay, let’s talk about the Soundblox Tri-Mod Flanger. The Tri-Mod Flanger came from the original Hot Hand Phaser/Flanger system in a smaller system. The tri-mod flanger has 11 preset ‘effects’. The presets include:

1. Classic flanger with resonance
2. Delayed subtracted from input, producing a hollow sound
3. Multiple individually varying delay lines summed
4. High resonance, peaks only, no notches
5. Multiple delays, no resonance
6. Multiple delays, with resonance
7. Classic flanger with resonance, but with extra delay network inserted into feedback path
8. A lot of individual delays with resonance and extra delay network in feedback
9. A lot of individual delays with resonance and extra delay network in feedback
10. Classic flanger, hollow sound
11. Delayed signal only, no flanging effect. Meant for pitch modulation, such as vibrato.
– There is also a calibration setting.

My first reaction with this pedal and these pre-sets, you can achieve just about ANY flanger effect you’re looking for. The options were plentiful, and these starting points for initial effect covers just about everything a flanger is known to do. Subtle flange to crazy jet flange with huge sweeps is possible with this pedal!

There are three controls available. These control delay, depth and speed to the preset effect selected.

Delay – Adjusts the amount of time delay used to create the flange
Depth – This is actually a multi-purpose control. Primary function is to control the depth of the flange effect and controls the type of modulation used. Options include Envelope or LFO.
Speed – In envelope mode (see Depth control) it will control the attak of the envelope. In LFO it will control the oscillation.

Optionally this pedal can be used with a HotHand attachment. The HotHand is a like a tethered ring with a accelerometer in the ring. By triggering the accelerometer you will be able alter the effect from your playing hand. The Depth and Speed knobs have ‘HH’ values there. You can control the depth response via the HH and Flail/Pick controls which are part of Speed. The HotHand is sold separately.

For this demo, I again enlisted the help of Jimmy Rolle. Immediately we were both impressed with the insane amount of flange tone/control/effects that are available, and to present them all within a demo video or two is impossible. It would be easy to devote a 5 minute video of each preset effect! For this demo, we broke it down to two videos. One for ‘clean’ and one for ‘gain’ amp settings. All played with a Les Paul Elegant Custom Shop guitar into a Rivera Knucklehead 100w head through a Marshall 4×12 cabinet. Cabinet was mic’d with Shure SM57 and Fathead Ribbon Mic. Nothing else in the signal path between the guitar and the amp.

Below Jimmy is playing on Channel 2 of the Rivera Knucklehead (clean channel)

You can listen to the high quality MP3 clip via SoundCloud

Next up is the Tri-Mod Flanger on the gain side of the amp.

You can listen to the high quality MP3 clip via SoundCloud

As you can see there is a big variety of flanger/vibrato sounds that can be acquired with this pedal, and we just scratched the surface. If you’re looking for a flanger with variety and quality, then you may need to look closely at the Source Audio Soundblox Tri-Mod Flanger.

The Tri-Mod Flanger is currently available for $99 at Amazon.com, or you can find a dealer from Source Audio’s website!

If you want to learn more about what Source Audio offers, please visit them on the web, like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter!