Bounce Chord’s Pedal Brawl: Three Tape Flangers Enter, Only Your Ears Survive

Bounce Chord wastes no time gathering three tape flange contenders: Spaceman Aurora, Catalinbread Zero Point, and Strymon Orbit. Each brings its own flavour to the pedalboard, from analog to digital, with enough quirks to keep things interesting – or infuriating, depending on your taste for chaos. There’s also a Keeley-modded BD-2 dirt pedal in the chain, because, as anyone with ears knows, flangers only really slap when there’s some grit involved.

Aurora and Zero Point both try to channel the tape-flange spirit, but they couldn’t be more different in their approach to controls (or lack thereof). The Aurora is all knobs and tweakability, while the Zero Point is a minimalist’s dream: no controls at all, just stomp and go. Strymon Orbit sits in the middle, a digital machine masquerading as tape, with its own set of tricks up its sleeve. This isn’t a shootout, but make no mistake – every pedal is fighting for its place in your signal chain.

Both the Aurora and Zero Point serve up momentary action, letting you stomp your way through flange territory like a club doorman with a heavy foot. The Aurora’s footswitch controls the width of the sweep, bouncing back to a not-quite-centre position when released—just enough weirdness to remind you this is all smoke and mirrors, not real tape.

The Zero Point, meanwhile, throws you straight into comb-filter land with a single press. There’s no tweaking here: you hit it, you get pure tape-ish swirl, and then you’re back out. It’s a more musical bypass than the Aurora, at least to Bounce Chord’s ears. Both pedals capture the spirit of tape flanging, but in their own stubborn ways.

Strymon Orbit is the odd one out, flexing digital muscles in a world obsessed with analog mojo. No momentary switch here – you’re working an expression pedal, controlling just the mix. Even with the mix at zero, the Orbit can’t resist sneaking a bit of LFO into your signal. Heel down, you’re clean. Toe up, you’re in full flange territory, with the settings tweaked for maximum tape impersonation.

Discontinued but still easy to find, the Orbit gives you all the standard controls and then some. Bounce Chord keeps it locked in through-zero mode, chasing those elusive tape flanger vibes. If you want tweakability and that Strymon sheen, this one’s got your back (just don’t expect true tape weirdness).

When it comes to pure sound, Bounce Chord reckons the Zero Point steals the show—if only the sweep could go faster, and maybe let you control something. There’s beauty in simplicity, but sometimes you want just a touch more chaos at your toes. The Aurora, on the other hand, is a tweaker’s dream—or nightmare. Too many knobs mean you’ll never stop fiddling, but at least you can dial in exactly what you want.

Analog flangers are an endangered species, so both the Aurora and Zero Point have their place. The Orbit’s digital flexibility can’t be denied, even if it lacks that foot-triggered immediacy. In the end, it’s all about what gets your signal chain grooving and your toes twitching.