I'm fessing up... I don't know squat about Delays.

[JammerMatt]

So, lets' drop us a few hints on how you set up your various delay settings.

You know: delay time, repeat, repeat level, what you call this delay setting(slapback, echo, whale farting, etc.)

This could become vault material.

[Sequanselar]

Re: I'm fessing up... I don't know squat about Delays.

I sit around and set it till it sounds right.

I have a really long delay (I nick-name it Mountain Delay) and a Medium Delay with two or three repeats I like to use a Lot (I nick name It Wes Borland Delay) *shrugs* what kind of delay pedal are you using? I can't exactly help if I don't know. I use a BOSS DD-5 and DD-6

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: I'm fessing up... I don't know squat about Delays.

I totally base the delay off of the tempo of the tune. The easiest way to do that is with tap tempo ... for the math geniuses out there, if you take 60,000 and divide it by the tempo of your song you have the amount of delay in miliseconds you will need for each beat. Delays under 35mS are considered slap back ... delays between 35-100mS are called doubling ... delay-related effects include chorus, flanger, and phase shifting.

[JammerMatt]

Re: I'm fessing up... I don't know squat about Delays.

Keep 'em coming. Right now I have the onboard delay on my Line6, which is just turning knobs and you have no idea what the delay times are. I also have a Boss ME30 that I dusted off, which has a Boss Delay built into it that I can set definite delay times.

What I'm doing is setting up this ME30 in the effects loop of my Line6 (I keep the Tube Screamer on the front end between the guitar and the amp), and setting up pre-set effects. The onboard effects on the Line6 are just too dang cumbersome.

If it helps, just describe your settings like: Delay time 200 ms or 6 o-clock, repeat 3-oclock, etc. I can get a feel from there.

Oh, and thanks.

-Matt

[joelap]

Re: I'm fessing up... I don't know squat about Delays.

Hmmm... speaking of delays, I own a Boss RV-3 Delay/Reverb tank that I despise. No matter how hard I try I can't get good settings to come out of it. I feel your pain Matt!

At least it goes for upwards of 80 bucks on ebay...

[Mincer]

Re: I'm fessing up... I don't know squat about Delays.

i love really long delays, 4 secs or more (my echoplex goes to 198 secs) for sound-on-sound...just use a pedal to control feedback into the delay- instant 'Fripp & Eno'.

[rspst14]

Re: I'm fessing up... I don't know squat about Delays.

I use delay in one of three ways: to thicken up the sound, to give a subtle slapback effect, or for slightly more lengthy delays. I prefer analog delay to digital, so I'm limited to 600 ms of delay time. That's fine with me, as I'm not the type of person who needs ten second delays. If I want to thicken up the sound a bit, I set the number of repeats and delay time very low, and then adjust the level until it sounds good. This produces a subtle delay, good for thickening up the sound and making it seem like two guitars are playing the same thing at once. This is particularly useful in a band with only one guitar player, although a chorus pedal could also be used to achieve this effect. If I want a slapback, I'll turn all three knobs up a little, but I still keep them relatively low. This will provide a slapback feel that trails off quickly after the note is played. If I want longer delays, I increase the number of repeats and the delay time, and then adjust the level. One really cool trick you can do with an analog delay is set it to self-oscillate. This is done by cranking up the knobs as high as they'll go. It gives some crazy sounds that are typically described as "ray gun/UFO landing." It's useful for intros and really wacked-out sounding stuff, and unless they're guitarists themselves, the audience won't have a clue how you're getting that weird sound out of your guitar.

Ryan

[Jono_L]

Re: I'm fessing up... I don't know squat about Delays.

I have mine on a medium-long delay.

Effect mixed at around 50% in, 4 repeats or so @ 500ms. Gives me a nice ambient sound

[InstituteOfNoise]

Re: I'm fessing up... I don't know squat about Delays.

Matt, I just did an article for Line 6 on delays this last month. Go to my site and click on the TONEZONE link. It will be on the main tonezone page until tomorrow, then it will be on the archive page, which you also get to from this main page.

http://www.instituteofnoise.com/L6/tonezone.asp

It has settings and audio samples of each type of delay.