(Unit 7) Preparing for my presentation.

 19/01/24

Unit 7 - Presentation

In this Unit I have been tasked with researching one topic from a provided list, creating a presentation on it and presenting my findings to the class and teachers. For my topic I have chosen Delay. Delay is a time-based effect which I first experimented with in Logic. At this moment of starting my research, I don't know too much about delay which is actually why I've chosen it. I think this task could be a great opportunity for me to learn more about this commonly used effect and begin to understand it.

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Research 1: 'How to use delay and echo in music production'

Link: https://blog.native-instruments.com/how-to-use-delay-and-echo/

Published: January 19, 2023

Published by: Native Instruments

Right in the beginning of the article, it informs you that "Delay is a time-based audio effect that creates a repetition of the original sound." It then talks about how delay is, to put it simply, the same sound repeating. It's also mentioned that delay itself has had a big influence on music throughout the ages. 

What is Delay:

• Delay is a time-based audio effect that captures an incoming audio signal and plays it back after an allotted period of time.

• If the signal is delayed for more than about 30ms (milliseconds), the listener will hear it as a distinct "echo" following the original ("dry") sound.

• The delayed signal may repeat multiple times, whilst also reducing in volume.

• It may have a different sonic character to the original sound dependent on what software was used to create it. Research this.

• Delay has been a very important and well-used effect even in the 1950s.

• It's used to add depth to music and creatively such as creating an audio "ping-pong" effect.

• It's a crucial effect in many genres such as dub and ambient music.

Delay VS Echo

The terms delay and echo are often used interchangeably but they ultimately do refer to different things. This article here provides an easy way to understand that. It states that 'echo is an acoustic phenomenon occurring in real life" whilst delay it a digital audio processing effect which can occasionally imitate an echo should it have a delay time of more than 30 ms.

Delay effects

Since their first use in the 50s, delay effects have expanded and varied widely. Every music technology advancement has brought with it delay effects with their own strengths and weaknesses. In the modern-day, digital programs tend to mimic many of these effects so we can still make use of them conveniently today. Throughout the next small paragraphs, I'm going to look into some well-known delay effects.