26/01/24
Unit 7 - Delay Techniques
Slap-Back Delay:
This technique stretches way back in time! Made popular in the 50s and 60s and used often on vocals and guitars.
Set your delay time to between 70ms and 120ms. Listen to the way it complements your dry sound. Blend the two together until it sounds good and musical.
Doubling Delay:
Pretty much a slap-back delay with a shorter delay time and some processing on the wet signal. Try between 20ms and 50ms.
The idea here is to create an artificial double-track from one take or sound.
Ping-Pong Delay:
Ping-pong delay is a dual delay effect that creates a call-and-response dynamic between the two taps of the delay.
One channel, for example, might have a delay time of 300ms and the other 600ms.
Techniques that use ping-pong delay are great for creating a sense of space and movement in your mixes.
Stereo Widening-Thickening Delay:
Two similar signals, when played back, one from the left speaker and the other from the right, with a very short delay between them, say 11ms-ish, will register as one sound to the listener. The effect is that this "one sound" will appear spread out more in the stereo field. How wide depends on the pan settings you have for each channel.
Now, add a bit of processing, like pitch-shifting the one channel down or up a few cents, and you start to get a subtle chorus-like effect which effectively thickens the overall sound.