Alexander The Great
Alexander Pedals is from Garner, North Carolina, and creates meticulously crafted effects pedals designed by the visionary Matthew Farrow and his team. Renowned for creating tones that marry familiarity with uniqueness, the new Dynaflanger is yet another unique example of this boutique company's ability to spark a unique fire from just some twigs and leaves.
A Quick Lesson
What the heck is a flanger? Glad you asked. A flanger works by mixing two identical audio signals together, with one of the signals playing at a slightly slower speed. This creates the effect of two recordings playing simultaneously, but with one going slightly slower than the other. If you've heard it before, it's pretty easy to pick out and is NOT to be confused with its counterpart, a phaser.
Now, the Fun Stuff
Great, now that we're up to speed (no pun intended), let's talk about this flanger, and what makes it so special. First, it looks cool: while most of Alexander's pedal sport really awesome designs with cool graphics, this one is oddly simple looking. Don't judge the book by its cover, though, because it does way more than you might think based on how it appears. A follow up to the Alexander F13, this new M213 is essentially a modified and some would say, improved version of its predecessor, offering some cool new functions including ten flanger modes, eight presets, stereo-out, mono-in, expression options, and a menu that allows for adjustments of just about any feature on the pedal. Immersive versatility is an understatement.
Swiss Army Flange
Versatility is the name of the game with the Dynaflanger. You can control every nook and cranny of this pedal with an LED menu, four discrete knobs and two switches, all giving you control over how any element of the sound you create interacts with any other element of this pedal. It's the kind of pedal that lets you blend in like a chameleon or stand out in just the rights ways. In an unusual turn of events, it also comes stocked with a slew of very cool presets that won't make you cringe.
Yeah, I said it—cool presets.
Let's take a moment to jump into some preset options that are banked in the Dynaflanger, shall we?
Dynamic Mode:
Like having a flanger into a volume-controlled envelope filter that's extremely responsive to the dynamic levels of playing, hence the name.
Dual Auto Mode:
Two flangers battling it out, for a total of four signals. Adjustability is key in this preset, as you can time the pairs of flangers against one another for cool nuanced effects.
Spiral Preset:
Four flangers going at it together, creating a mathematical symphony of (you guessed) eight total signals. The name is likely inspired by the spiraling effect it has on a guitar tone.
Echo Preset:
Reminiscent of a Polychorus by Electro Harmonix, this feeds a flanger into an echo with adjustability on the decay, signal wet/dry and some added ability to control how hard the flanger hits the echo.
Flerb Preset:
A flanger into an adjustable hall reverb, for some shoegaze fun, if that's what you're into.
Filter Preset:
A flanger into a randomized filter—a tremolo-flange hybrid that sounds like someone using two different pedals, except in one box.
It's also important to note that the Dynaflanger sports a unique ramping function, allowing users to set two presets to each preset function, giving the ability to "ramp" up to one of them from the other, gradually or aggressively.
The Dynaflanger is the mad scientist of the effects pedal world. If flanger is your thing, there are few pedals in the conversation that offer as many options for customization as this one, and it's also jam-packed with a ton of cool presets so you don't need to do much more than push a few buttons to get it rolling.
Dynaflanger, and a Mission to Do Good
Alexander Pedals is not just a brand, but a commitment to doing good as well. With every pedal purchase, a portion of the proceeds goes toward the fight against childhood cancer, honoring Matthew's brother Alex, who succumbed to neuroblastoma in 1987.
