Manual Flanger from developer Zazz is a free, Windows-only flanger plugin with a twist!
Most of you are probably familiar with the flanger effect and the sounds you can coax out of it. Zazz has opted to remove the traditional “time” parameter and replace it with a frequency control.
This is the heart of the plugin, and determines where the first dip (notch filter) will appear in the frequency spectrum. This dip is the starting line for the comb filtering effect that we all know and love, except when it’s in our monitoring environment.
Changing the pitch of the comb filtering process gives you some more creative options. Tailor the resulting comb filter to your specific track or mixing needs to make things sit where they’re supposed to.
The developer notes how the accuracy of ManualFlanger dwindles at higher portions of the frequency spectrum because of internal resolution limitations. Sounds like a creative possibility in my ears. Try breaking it!
To further control the sound, ManualFlanger has a feedback knob to make things more pronounced (try automating it!), a lowpass filter control, a handy mix button and an overall gain control.
Zazz is known for its no-frills plugins with easily operated UIs and perhaps overly prosaic names.
In this market, “dry” and to-the-point software that tries to solve actual problems instead of claiming to change your life is quite refreshing after all. And hey – it’s completely free, as are all the other plugins by Zazz.
Check them out at KVR. You might find something to your liking.
If you need an even crazier and more unpredictable flanger plugin, be sure to check out Gooper by brand0. If you have one of those days where everything in your DAW just sounds lame, stale, boring, and overdone, throw Gooper or ManualFlanger on it. Perhaps it’ll make the juices flow more readily.
Subtle flanger on your hi-hat? Why, yes indeed. Bandsplitting your bass and flanging the upper harmonics with some additional stereo widening? Sure.
Completely annihilating your mix bus, resampling, and then using the results as stepping stones to new ideas instead of finishing your current project, even if you promised yourself you’d complete something for once? Every time.
Download: Manual Flanger (FREE – Windows only)
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Last Updated on July 3, 2025 by Tomislav Zlatic.
