Spaceman Effects Aurora

The Spaceman Effects Aurora is an analog bucket-brigade (BBD) flanger pedal, part of Spaceman's Standard Edition line¹. A bucket-brigade chip passes your signal along a chain of tiny capacitors, and modulating that delay time against the dry signal is what creates the flanging effect. Spaceman describes the Aurora's analog signal path as providing "several shades of flange, vibatro, chorus, phase, and filtery spatial effects"¹, and Gearnews reported at launch that it could create "flange, vibrato, lush chorus, phase and filtery spatial effects"².

What sets the Aurora apart from most flangers is its five-mode modulation bus: two LFO modes, two tape-emulation modes, and a static comb filter³. It was announced in March 2021 at $319²¹, and as of October 2026 it is listed as sold out on Spaceman's product page¹.

The controls

The Aurora carries the standard flanger controls, Rate, Width, Range and Regeneration, plus a Mix control and an Output knob that lets you push above unity gain². Spaceman's own page details what each control does across the five modes¹:

Two footswitches sit alongside the knobs. The BYPASS footswitch engages and disengages the effect through true-bypass soft-touch relay switching¹. The TRIG footswitch is multi-function, and its job changes with the selected mode¹.

The modes: LFO, Tape and Comb

Five modulation modes are available: LFO 1, TAPE 1, LFO 2, TAPE 2, and COMB¹.

LFO 1 produces a triangle waveshape, ideal for a traditional flanger effect at lower speeds, lush chorus and phasing sounds at moderate speeds, and pitch-shifting vibrato at higher speeds with the MIX control fully wet¹³.

LFO 2 offers discrete control over the rise and fall times, letting you craft ramp up, triangle, and ramp down waveforms¹. Gearnews noted that these controls give "a huge amount of ways to affect or modulate your" sweep shape².

TAPE 1 and TAPE 2 mimic the tape deck manipulation of early flange effects, where engineers pressed a finger on the tape reel to momentarily slow it. Holding the TRIG footswitch down begins the upward sweep, and releasing it begins the downward sweep¹⁵. This puts manual, "zero-point"-style flanging under your foot rather than your hand.

COMB freezes the modulation entirely. The RATE and RANGE controls set two different static delay times, and the TRIG footswitch toggles between them¹. Pedal of the Day found the comb filtering effect usable "in a variety of ways, from simple thickening, to exotic, chaotic, robotic clang"³.

TRIG footswitch by mode

• LFO modes: a quick tap resets the LFO to the bottom; holding the switch holds the LFO low¹
• TAPE modes: holding TRIG begins the upward sweep; releasing it begins the downward sweep¹
• COMB mode: toggles between the two static delay times set by RATE and RANGE¹

Power and build

The Aurora runs on 9-12V DC, negative center, through a 2.1mm jack¹. It draws 24 mA bypassed and 58 mA engaged¹⁴, so it needs a proper power supply rather than a battery. Input resistance is 1 Meg Ohm¹.

The pedal is hand-wired and built in Portland, Oregon¹, in a cast-aluminum enclosure with a durable, engraved vinyl faceplate and a jewel indicator light¹. It launched in three colorways, Red, Silver and Blue, which Gearnews noted "all do exactly the same"²; Spaceman now offers the Aurora in its Standard Edition¹.

What reviewers said

Pedal of the Day reviewed the Aurora in May 2021 and came away positive³:

Gearnews described the pedal as "based on a triangle wave BBD flanging effect, with presets that contain comb filters"², and Delicious Audio likewise identified it as an analog bucket-brigade flanger⁶. For players comparing analog BBD flangers, the Aurora sits alongside pedals like the Ibanez FL9, the Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Electric Mistress and the Chase Bliss Spectre, while its tape and comb modes put it closer in spirit to manual-flanging designs like the Catalinbread Zero Point Flanger. More options are covered on the flanger pedals page.

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