The Care and Feeding of Delay Effects

[Hellion]

Re: The Care and Feeding of Delay Effects

For my mind, the best sounding echoes that I EVER got were with my Roland RE-501. It had a chorus effect as well, and you could adjust tape speed and saturation as well as output. They were amazing. I wish they'd build them again. I'd have another in a minute.

 

[slash857]

Re: The Care and Feeding of Delay Effects

thanks screaming daisy. i think i might go for the dd6. still not anytime soon though, maybe. im gettin the fulltone ocd first.

 

[Bludave]

Re: The Care and Feeding of Delay Effects

For me I use Delay (I have a DD3) to add alittle flavor to my chords. When you use a Delay this way it needs to be set to be "in time" with the tempo you are playing in.

If you use it to fuel your solos I like to set the delay to a "slap back type of setting. I set it to repeat on th 1/8th notes. All I am really after is to add a little character to the notes. A little more color than just reverb.

 

[MikeRocker]

Re: The Care and Feeding of Delay Effects

The formula for calculating delay time is 60,000 divided by the bmp (beats per minute) of the song gives you the millisecond setting for quarter note delay.
Ex.:
60,000÷136bpm = 441ms delay setting. Split that in half to get an eighth note delay setting, again for a sixteenth. Or you could be lazy and go to one of these sites:
http://www.ondespirale.com/delaytimeonline.htm
http://www.thewhippinpost.co.uk/tools/delay-time-calculator.htm

Here's another graphical representation of the dotted ⅛ note delay trick (I found out my computer can make ⅛th notes)
You play: ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪, etc.
You hear: ♪ ♪ ( ♪ ) ♪ ( ♪ ) ♪ ( ♪ ), etc. Note that if it's set correctly, the delay will not kick in until after you play the second note. It doesn't just repeat the previous note you played, it repeats the second to last note you played. I know it may sound confusing, just try it!

 

[proxy]

Re: The Care and Feeding of Delay Effects

I like a little delay on my lead tone... usually a subtle 400MS, 20% feedback, about 18-22% as loud as the dry signal. I think delay sounds great in a parallel effects loop if it is a good unit. I use a TC Electronics G-Force and have since '98. It is bullet proof and sounds great. The G-Major is probably great too- it wasn't available when I bought my rack stuff. The Fulltone Echoplex thing looks really interesting but I think I am sticking with the modern offering and avoiding a few tape delay headaches. Anyone tried that Fulltone yet? It sounds pretty amazing. If you are really needing that beautiful Eric Johnson clean delay sound I think the Fulltone is your solution.

Fulltone Echoplex MP3

I f-ing LOVE the way that sounds!!!! Beautiful sounding delay!

My guitar teacher and I were fooling around with it and its awesome. It definitely is better then a vintage tape delay because the thing is basically a boutique delay. It has tube preamps so you can even distort the delay if you want. Really cool device. My guitar teacher bought this on impulse because he knew it would be a long time until he'd have the oppurtunity to get another, even though he was strapped for cash (replacing tranny on jeep, getting himself a protools rig, buying an sg, and recording an album).

The delay is fantastic.

 

[some_dude]

Re: The Care and Feeding of Delay Effects

Here's another graphical representation of the dotted ⅛ note delay trick (I found out my computer can make ⅛th notes)
You play: ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪, etc.
You hear: ♪ ♪ ( ♪ ) ♪ ( ♪ ) ♪ ( ♪ ), etc. Note that if it's set correctly, the delay will not kick in until after you play the second note. It doesn't just repeat the previous note you played, it repeats the second to last note you played. I know it may sound confusing, just try it!

Where the Streets Have No Name.....

 

[Mincer]

Re: The Care and Feeding of Delay Effects

tape delays are ok if you have a few of them, or can swap a tape out quickly. i will stick with my dl4, which does a lot more and has no tape to wear out and break.